Sorry Mate I Didn't See You!

[krolinked]

So I had my first traffic related crash Yesterday.

Here's what happened.

I was going down the left lane of street, (2-lanes for each Direction.)
Going about 30mph or so. Driver is coming opposite direction (Towards Me) and gets in the left turn lane(Middle of yellow lines in street) and puts blinker.
Cool. (He was going to the gas station to fill up) I saw him and his blinker, He is there for a good 3-4 seconds, and as i come up to him he pulls out and makes his left. Right in front of me. I start braking and turning to the right to get into the right lane to avoid colliding with his right side passenger door.NOPE. Front end tucks and I low-side the bike. Luckily it missed the car and low-sided AROUND the car in a boomerang arc-like fashion. I go sliding across asphalt and slam into the side of his right tire/bumper. End up under front bumper. Get up thinking "Holy s---. That just happened..." Turn around to look at bike and see somebody from the gas station lifting my bike off the floor. Driver gets out scared as hell asking if i'm alright. At that point my legs are shaking like a baby giraffe straight out the womb. This happened around 7pm after it got dark. It all happened incredibly quick. But I think I low-sided due to not separating emergency braking from swerving. Causing my front tire traction to be overloaded. Bike fairings are Scraped on all sides/fairings. Front fork may or may not be bent. What have people in a crash experienced with Insurance totaling your ninja? I need advice so i know what to do for insurance. I would like to keep my bike as its a 2011, though i don't know if it will be too much damage to keep it with a non salvaged title. Thanks in advance for advice

[Panda]

Wow..glad you are ok man.

[krolinked]

Originally Posted by rPanda

Wow..glad you are ok man.

Me too! Thanks. Nothing but a twisted/sprained ankle(I think..) and some worry over what happens now.

[nickjpass]

Yeah...when swerving separate them. Brake then swerve...swerve then brake. Glad you're relatively okay. It sucks when you have to learn the hard way. But now you know Get back on two wheels again!

[Trailerboy531]

Your bike is for sure going to be totaled out. You can ask the adjuster to try to get the expenses (cost of repairs) just under the value required for totaling, but likely wont get your full payout then. They also all wont always work with you like that.

If they do total it you can either get a check for the market value and get a new one or buy your bike back after it is fixed with a much smaller check for lost value and a salvaged title.

[krolinked]

What would "full payout" be? If i let them total it and buy it back, would i be better of as opposed to getting under the total loss amount? I plan on keeping the ninja and not selling it. So I don't think a salvage title would affect me...

[Trailerboy531]

Depends on what you've done to your bike and how many miles etc. I know @havoc had his bike valued at about 4,200.... Which is....beautiful lol. I don't think salvage titles are all bad if you keep it. Just keep in mind that if a salvaged bike is in an accident then its worth far less to an insurance company on the pay out for that accident than a clean titled bike would be.

[krolinked]

Originally Posted by Trailerboy531

Depends on what you've done to your bike and how many miles etc. I know @havoc had his bike valued at about 4,200.... Which is....beautiful lol. I don't think salvage titles are all bad if you keep it. Just keep in mind that if a salvaged bike is in an accident then its worth far less to an insurance company on the pay out for that accident than a clean titled bike would be.

When was this? 4,200 sounds good to me. cause my bike was a new 2011 when i got it. did his get salvaged? or how bad was the damage and what did they pay out?

[psych0hans]

Glad it wasn't worse man... That really sucks

[Trailerboy531]

His forks were raped along with all of his plastics. Some exhaust and bar damage also. Happened at the end of August. He has Progressive.

[dfox]

sounds like a case of poor depth perception/judgement of speed. He saw you for sure, but just couldn't tell how far away you were. were you doing a "smidsy weave"?

[GearMonkey]

That blows dude. Since you're ok, I'll admit that your baby giraffe comment made me lmao, but seriously glad you're good. I'm curious to hear what your insurance says.

[Kevin2109]

Ive come to the conclusion that its always better to hit them, then you can 100% claim its there fault. If you end up hitting no one, its pretty hard to get insurance to be on your side, and will end up just being your fault

[Jiggles]

Originally Posted by Kevin2109

Ive come to the conclusion that its always better to hit them, then you can 100% claim its there fault. If you end up hitting no one, its pretty hard to get insurance to be on your side, and will end up just being your fault

That's what I was thinking haha.

And when you do crash, act like a soccer player

[Trailerboy531]

I think my spleen collided in to my brain and exploded

#soccerplayerbs

[Kevin2109]

Originally Posted by Jiggles

That's what I was thinking haha.

And when you do crash, act like a soccer player

Link to original page on YouTube.

[krolinked]

Originally Posted by Kevin2109

Ive come to the conclusion that its always better to hit them, then you can 100% claim its there fault. If you end up hitting no one, its pretty hard to get insurance to be on your side, and will end up just being your fault

Hitting solid objects at speed is sort of my pet peeve. So noooooo haha

[80MPHdownhill]

Did you not make eye contact with him as you approached?

[nickjpass]

Eye contact doesn't mean they'll yield...

[krolinked]

Originally Posted by 80MPHdownhill

Did you not make eye contact with him as you approached?

It was dark already, lights were obstructing my view of the driver, didn't even think about it.

[Firehorse]

Glad you're okay and I'm stealing your giraffe comment. Was all queasy until you said that!

Good points from everyone
-Weave!! Forget eye contact, it means absolutely nothing. In the evening it appears that they're looking at you but since you're only one wee light, they are probably looking PAST you but in your direction.

- Emergency braking - practice it so you never have to swerve - possibly into traffic.

- Swerving - practice it with SAFE escape routes in mind..if I had to swerve NOW, which way is safe to go?

I had almost the same thing happen on Monday night. The driver was aware of the first bike - I was the second bike and he pulled right out in front of me like nothing. 50kph zone, we had a green, he was so busy watching the first bike, he just pulled out ON A RED after it went by. He went from the right at a stop light across in front of me, going left into the lane in the opposite direction.

I e-braked but made sure I got close enough to be out of his way but that he got a good close-up of me yelling a blue streak at him.

Lesson I learned: weave a bit more, never trust a red light and that people can be careful about the first bike but the second is a target.

Ride safe and glad you\re okay - bike can be replaced or repaired but there's only one of you.

[akima]

Sorry to hear about your crash. It's great that you're ok though.

Originally Posted by GearMonkey

I'll admit that your baby giraffe comment made me lmao

Me too!

Originally Posted by Jiggles

And when you do crash, act like a soccer player

Football.

Originally Posted by nickjpass

Eye contact doesn't mean they'll yield...

So true! I've had people stare me in the eye and then dangerously pull in front of me. Floyd's trick is the best: what their wheels: you can almost instantly spot when the car begins to move.

[n4mwd]

Originally Posted by 80MPHdownhill

Did you not make eye contact with him as you approached?

You shouldn't try to make eye contact. Eyes lie. Look at their wheels. Wheels don't lie. If you see them move, lay on the horn and brakes. Many times they will freeze when they finally see you. Like a deer in a spotlight. So if that happens, swerve in front of them. If not, then try to swerve behind them.

Sometimes people are on their cell phone or texting and will actually get mad at you for honking and interrupting their phone call. In that case, just try to brake hard and hope for the best. Just don't let the bike do a stoppie. That would put you between the car and the bike at the point of impact. Not good. In some states, they will actually give YOU the ticket for doing a stoppie - like that makes it your fault.

Originally Posted by Kevin2109

I've come to the conclusion that its always better to hit them, then you can 100% claim its there fault. If you end up hitting no one, its pretty hard to get insurance to be on your side, and will end up just being your fault

Sad but true. Assuming they don't just keep driving. Anyhow, a camera would be valuable evidence to show what actually happened. We should all have them running automatically whenever the bike is running.

[xSean13]

Originally Posted by Jiggles

That's what I was thinking haha.

And when you do crash, act like a soccer player

Glad I have experience playing soccer. Though, I'm not at the level (of acting) as Barcelona players.

Originally Posted by akima

Football.

Shut up!

[akima]

Originally Posted by xSean13

Shut up!

You shut up!

[xSean13]

Originally Posted by akima

You shut up!

Lol, no you! I get british/european kids on fifa and youtube videos all the time saying it's called football, not soccer :P

[Madman44]

Bumping this old thread because I wanna know how it all played out. Did the insurance find you at fault??

[ai4px]

Glad you not hurt badly. It never ceases to amaze me how fast things can go wrong.

My first bike got backed over in a parking lot... right over the front wheel and didn't damage the triple tree or forks.... so I'd have to guess your bike is probably not totaled.... just a little scratched up.

If it ends up being totaled, ask if you can buy the hull back. Not sure about bikes, but the hull price for a car here in the US used to be like $300. If they total the bike, my biggest worry for you is that the payoff on the loan will be greater than the bluebook value of the bike. That's what gap insurance is for. For example, if the bike is worth $2000 and you still owe $4000, they'll cut you a check for $2000 (minus your deductible) and you'll still have to pay off the note.