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Two idiots and two wrongs. Bad form on side swiping a motorcycle.


As a normal, not an idiot motorcyclist, I have to avoid death on a daily basis, just this day I had a car try and force me off the road. Luckily, I'm quicker.

 Peregrine wrote:


The article in the OP says that he said "he was passing in a double yellow" as justification before coming up with the barely-plausible excuse that he was stung at just the exact wrong time. Plus, from the video it's pretty obvious that he times his swerve exactly to hit the motorcycle, and does just enough to hit the guy without losing control of his own car. Could I prove it in court? No, but I don't believe for one moment that this was an accident.

The "article" in the OP is a blog post.

I posted a news article. One which doesn't include that "fact."

Surely, had he said that in the video, it would have been included by the actual news station reporting it.

Of course it does. It's the exact same scenario as the real one, except with a different (attempted) murder weapon.

No, it really doesn't.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
You don't need to prove the lack of a wasp in court. You just need the jury to disbelieve the driver's story.

And of course this is significantly helped by his "I don't care" response. Most people, if they were involved in a crash because a wasp stung them at exactly the wrong time, would be horrified by what happened. The fact that he didn't care pretty strongly suggests that he knew exactly what was happening, swerved deliberately, and only invented the story about the wasp when he realized how much legal trouble he could be in.

That said, I don't think it would be attempted murder. For all we know the car driver just wanted to scare the biker and swerved out farther than he intended.

Somehow I don't think "I didn't mean to shoot him in the head, I just wanted to put some bullets kind of near his head to scare him a bit" would be a very convincing excuse in court. So why should yours be?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 cincydooley wrote:
No, it really doesn't.

Then please, tell me the difference between the two.

 Peregrine wrote:


Then please, tell me the difference between the two.

One involves an at least passingly plausible story ("I was stung by a wasp and swerved unintentionally as a reaction") whereas one injects a firearm for gaks and giggles?

Sometimes I think it'd be fun to have a motorcycle, like one of those old harleys you use to mosey down the road on a nice sunny day.. till stuff like this happens.. I'm kinda surprised it doesn't happen more often, especially with the kinda road rage folks have around here. The biker might have been wrong for going over the lines, but the fella in the car was way wronger. Hope he really gets the book thrown at him.

 welshhoppo wrote:
...just this day I had a car try and force me off the road. Luckily, I'm quicker.

You shouldn't have to be. You should be able to feel safe on the road like anyone else.

 Breotan wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:
...just this day I had a car try and force me off the road. Luckily, I'm quicker.

You shouldn't have to be. You should be able to feel safe on the road like anyone else.

True that.

 Frazzled wrote:

 Breotan wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:
...just this day I had a car try and force me off the road. Luckily, I'm quicker.

You shouldn't have to be. You should be able to feel safe on the road like anyone else.

True that.

Tell that to the BMW driver trying to overtake as we come up to a queue of traffic.


Actually, they should just ban BMW drivers.

 welshhoppo wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

 Breotan wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:
...just this day I had a car try and force me off the road. Luckily, I'm quicker.

You shouldn't have to be. You should be able to feel safe on the road like anyone else.

True that.

Tell that to the BMW driver trying to overtake as we come up to a queue of traffic.


Actually, they should just ban BMW drivers.

Move to a real country where they have real bikes.
Ducati is Italian for "what are brakes?"

 nels1031 wrote:
Short for squirrely rider.

http://www.bikebandit.com/community/articles/how-not-to-be-a-squid

SQUID

Stupidly Quick, Underdressed, Imminently Dead

I hate SQUIDS; growing up we also called them "Law Makers" because they'd do stupid gack that results in more restrictive laws being passed. Usually they're waxers who just ride when the weather's perfect and only then, weekend cowboys...

 Frazzled wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

 Breotan wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:
...just this day I had a car try and force me off the road. Luckily, I'm quicker.

You shouldn't have to be. You should be able to feel safe on the road like anyone else.

True that.

Tell that to the BMW driver trying to overtake as we come up to a queue of traffic.


Actually, they should just ban BMW drivers.

Move to a real country where they have real bikes.
Ducati is Italian for "what are brakes?"

I'll stick to cruising Wales in my Yamaha. Sweet open air and daily car crashes on windy roads. Glorious bliss.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 agnosto wrote:

 nels1031 wrote:
Short for squirrely rider.

http://www.bikebandit.com/community/articles/how-not-to-be-a-squid

SQUID

Stupidly Quick, Underdressed, Imminently Dead

I hate SQUIDS; growing up we also called them "Law Makers" because they'd do stupid gack that results in more restrictive laws being passed. Usually they're waxers who just ride when the weather's perfect and only then, weekend cowboys...

Ah, one of the nearest neighbourhoods is one of the scummiest parts of the U.K. You see them all the time.

Yamaha. Respect.

 agnosto wrote:

 nels1031 wrote:
Short for squirrely rider.

http://www.bikebandit.com/community/articles/how-not-to-be-a-squid

SQUID

Stupidly Quick, Underdressed, Imminently Dead

I hate SQUIDS; growing up we also called them "Law Makers" because they'd do stupid gack that results in more restrictive laws being passed. Usually they're waxers who just ride when the weather's perfect and only then, weekend cowboys...

Meant to put "kid" instead of "rider". Pretty sure thats where the term came from and then the acronym came later. Not that it matters, as both fit.

And yeah, aside from 12 O'clock boys, they are the most annoying customer I have to deal with at my shop.

 nels1031 wrote:

And yeah, aside from 12 O'clock boys, they are the most annoying customer I have to deal with at my shop.

More secret biker talk. Off to Google with me.

Dirt biker gangs.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Which I also hate with a passion.

A lot of them round her dont even have number plates, indicators or even mirrors. I've snuck up on a few of them in my time.

 cincydooley wrote:
One involves an at least passingly plausible story ("I was stung by a wasp and swerved unintentionally as a reaction") whereas one injects a firearm for gaks and giggles?

"I was stung by a wasp and my finger accidentally swerved to the trigger. I don't care that I almost killed him."

Hey, it's at least as plausible as the actual excuse.

It is very scary to have another vehicle on your ass and then suddenly 'gone'. He may have seen the motorcycle in his rear view was 'gone' and he heard a loud sound and assumed he was being passed on the shoulder. I have regularly been passed by crotch rockets both on a virtually zero shoulder and between cars.

If he lost sight of the rider, he might have thought it went to his right so he swerved left. He guessed wrong.

He can 'not be sorry' without it being intentionally done. It is virtually impossible to show it was intentional at this point. And as long as he was not impaired and not speeding, it is going to be tough to get manslaughter.

Edit: I am sure he did it intentionally, but this kind of accident happens unintentionally all the time when riders break traffic laws.

Na he did it intentionally. I've been riding almost 20 years. I can't count how many times people have tried to block when I split lanes in California.

 Frazzled wrote:

 Hulksmash wrote:
While I don't think he should have been hit he also shouldn't have been passing over a double yellow. A car, swerving to avoid something in the road, isn't going to look behind them and to the left on a two lane road with a double yellow.

As for passing because people were 20mph below the speed limit considering there are 3 cars in the shot and they appear to be going the same speed that still isn't an excuse to pass illegally as it's unsafe for everyone.

Dude that was stupid and swerved to hit him should be prosecuted and the dude driving the bike should be also be persecuted to the fullest extent of the law too.

Be stupid, get stupid results.

I can get behind this line of thinking

yellowfever wrote:
Na he did it intentionally. I've been riding almost 20 years. I can't count how many times people have tried to block when I split lanes in California.

And it's legal there....

The bikers that annoy me are the ones riding crotch rockets, making their own lane by blasting between cars.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
And this is why, despite my family being full of motorcycle riders(My dad was a Hells angels) Im scared to death of riding.

1) Seriously?
2) Strange attempt to link..something to...something there.
3) If true, forget about that job with the FBI!

It terms of this event?

Wow.

And here I was thinking all the 'distracted driving' was going to be bad enough - never mind willful stupidity!

Relapse wrote:
The bikers that annoy me are the ones riding crotch rockets, making their own lane by blasting between cars.

I find the most annoying ones are the Harleys with those footrests that take up a lane by themselves. Harley riders usually ride beside each other, with one on the center line (which is fething annoying and dangerous anyway), so when they add them stupid foot things I have to get in the fething shoulder to go past.

And I'm sure if you hit one they'd whine about how nobody respect bikers, they weren't given enough space, blah blah blah.

South Park summed up my feelings about them pretty well.

Wasnt southpark more about the noise they make

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Wasnt southpark more about the noise they make

Mostly. Noisy, egotistic, arrogant donkey-caves who can't understand why people hate them.

 Alex C wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Wasnt southpark more about the noise they make

Mostly. Noisy, egotistic, arrogant donkey-caves who can't understand why people hate them.

I always hated idle revers. Sit at lights and rev or rev when they come to a stop. I'd pull up on my bike and ask them if they wanted me to fix their bike for them. They'd look confused and I'd say something must be wrong since they're revving their engine, it obviously must need some maintenance...

 agnosto wrote:

 Alex C wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Wasnt southpark more about the noise they make

Mostly. Noisy, egotistic, arrogant donkey-caves who can't understand why people hate them.

I always hated idle revers. Sit at lights and rev or rev when they come to a stop. I'd pull up on my bike and ask them if they wanted me to fix their bike for them. They'd look confused and I'd say something must be wrong since they're revving their engine, it obviously must need some maintenance...

See I turn my engine off at lights. Mostly because my bike is air cooled and if I did that I'd probably melt my engine block.

 Alex C wrote:

Aren't bicycles supposed to use roads and not sidewalks?

Legaly, I think so, but it's often disregarded (and almost never enforced, unless you are being a danger to others), for a variety of reasons, safety being on the top of that. There are quite a few places where riding your bike on the road versus the sidewalk in the city near where I live can be a major safety issue.

Yes it is. I didn't "blast" between the lanes but I definitely split lanes. All the time.

 Peregrine wrote:
Attempted murder. The driver should spend a long time in prison for that, and if it's the rest of their life then I'm not going to shed a single tear for them.

Agreed.

Anybody who can knock two people off a bike (not even knowing if they are alive), then step out their car and say "I don't care", is either a sociopath or too stupid to live. Even if it were a complete accident (which is doubtful), the lack of empathy or concern is disgusting. He aught to get 10 years just for being donkey-cave.