Having only just read
Mocha Man's crash thread yesterday about him hitting the back of a vehicle, and then thanking him for the reminder about being careful while doing shoulder checks... I almost suffered the same event myself!
On the way home from London this evening I almost smashed into the back of a stationary van. I looked forward; traffic is rolling; shoulder checked; looked back; van is completely stopped. I was going 20mph and less than 2 metres from hitting it. I had no time to brake so I counter steered as hard as I could. I swerved into the next lane (luckily there were no cars there). I clipped my hand wing-mirror, indicator and brake lever on the back of the van as I skimmed by it. Came out of it ok otherwise though.
Scary.
I'm going to have to spend some time thinking about what I did because that would have been a horrible crash if my lizard brain didn't kick in and cause me to turn hard out of that situation.
Ride safe everyone!