Had a car accident today

[Digital Sage]

Last year I was driving back from a job down south in Frankston. I was waiting to turn into a main road. Watching as traffic rolled past. A bus came up from the right, so I waited. Bus indicates and is going to take about 6 seconds to turn and there's no traffic coming the other way, so I pulled out as the bus started to pull into my street.

Bad mistake.

As I pulled into the road, a motorcycle comes out of nowhere from behind the bus at full speed and slams into my car. He comes off and slides on the road forward of his bike.

Lucky there was no traffic coming the other way as he would have been creamed.

I immediately pull over right there and run up to check on him and stop traffic. He's ok but perhaps a broken leg. Lucky enough an ambulance was heading up the road and was on scene as I was calling for an ambulance.

I got charged with failing to give way and insurance took care of the rest. His Harley was a write off apparently at $19000 although it looked ok apparent from a ding to the petrol tank.

Here's the thing : bus was doing 7 kms an hour as it slowed to turn, bike hits me at 50kms. He obvious came up from behind the bus doing full speed and came around the outside to hit me. Neither of us saw each other. Even the cop said it was an unfortunate circumstance.

So $700 excess later and a $240 traffic fine. But the guy on the motorcycle lived and that's what matters.

Lesson learned. Always wait for a bus to turn before you pull out as anything could be behind the bus. **** happens.

 

[frase]

Last year I was driving back from a job down south in Frankston. I was waiting to turn into a main road. Watching as traffic rolled past. A bus came up from the right, so I waited. Bus indicates and is going to take about 6 seconds to turn and there's no traffic coming the other way, so I pulled out as the bus started to pull into my street.

Bad mistake.

As I pulled into the road, a motorcycle comes out of nowhere from behind the bus at full speed and slams into my car. He comes off and slides on the road forward of his bike.

Lucky there was no traffic coming the other way as he would have been creamed.

I immediately pull over right there and run up to check on him and stop traffic. He's ok but perhaps a broken leg. Lucky enough an ambulance was heading up the road and was on scene as I was calling for an ambulance.

I got charged with failing to give way and insurance took care of the rest. His Harley was a write off apparently at $19000 although it looked ok apparent from a ding to the petrol tank.

Here's the thing : bus was doing 7 kms an hour as it slowed to turn, bike hits me at 50kms. He obvious came up from behind the bus doing full speed and came around the outside to hit me. Neither of us saw each other. Even the cop said it was an unfortunate circumstance.

So $700 excess later and a $240 traffic fine. But the guy on the motorcycle lived and that's what matters.

Lesson learned. Always wait for a bus to turn before you pull out as anything could be behind the bus. **** happens.

damn that's unfortunate, that's the thing at least everyone is ok - money does not matter, well yea is a pain in the arse but when it comes to the well-being of one-self and others that's what counts.

 

[Kitten Kong]

Lesson learned. Always wait for a bus to turn before you pull out as anything could be behind the bus. **** happens.

Also, always be on the look out for bikers.

As an aside, do your motorcyclists have their head lights on when they are riding?

The vast majority of them do here in the UK. Makes it a lot easier to see them coming.

@frase, glad you and your children are relatively unscathed. They are what matters the most. Material things can be replaced.

 

[Digital Sage]

Also, always be on the look out for bikers.

As an aside, do your motorcyclists have their head lights on when they are riding?

The vast majority of them do here in the UK. Makes it a lot easier to see them coming.

@frase, glad you and your children are relatively unscathed. They are what matters the most. Material things can be replaced.

Always have watched out for bikers ... Hard when they hide themselves. Yes I believe all bikes must automatically have the lights on with ignition in Australia.

 

[Moltuae]

Without wishing to sound anti-biker, there are a lot of irresponsible bikers on the roads. I think the vast majority of bikers are safety concious, but there are a lot who recklessly seal their own fate. I live on a narrow main road, with parked cars along the entire length, in a semi-rural area, yet frequently bikes pass at 90mph+. The road has a 30mph limit and quite frankly, with all the side roads, parked cars and other obstacles (not to mention pedestrians), I wouldn't want to do much above 30 along here in a car, let alone on a bike. And believe me, I'm not a slow driver; I drive very quickly where its appropriate and safe to do so.

Don't get me wrong, I love motorbikes, and I think that it's absolutely imperative that motorists are constantly reminded to be aware of bikes but, equally, bikers need to be constantly reminded how invisible they can be to motorists; I think there is far too little emphasis on this. In Digital Sage's case, for example, the biker isn't entirely without blame. Whether driving a car or riding a bike, you should slow right down when overtaking something that blocks your view of the road, especially if it's obscuring a side road. And that applies doubly to buses where passengers are alighting and crossing. Had Digital Sage's car been a child stepping out, the consequences could've been much worse.

It irks me too how the motorist is automatically treated like the guilty party after a collision with a bike, no matter what the circumstances. Several years ago, a friend of a friend was turning his minicab around on a road when his car was hit by a motorbike. The motorbike had been seen by witnesses earlier, travelling at over 100mph along a busy built-up road. The bike reportedly came through a set of traffic lights and around a blind bend without slowing. A few hundred yards after the bend, it hit the driver's door of the minicab so hard that it broke the driver's arm and ribs. The biker's body struck the car and his decapitated head was found some distance down the road. The driver, who was not only badly injured and severely traumatised (through no fault of his own) was treated like a murder suspect by the police; even before they could get him to the hospital he was breathalysed and interrogated.

I think much more needs to be done to improve safety awareness for motorbikes, but it's a two-way problem that requires a two-way solution.