First accident

[FlashFlood]

Hey guys, whats up? I thought I'd share my progress as a rider. You may remember me from this terrible thread:
https://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=226842

I'm a serious rider and spent my time to become as 100% safe as possible on the road. But, as the title indicates, I've just been through my first accident.

It was July 6th, a Wednesday... same day as Portugal played Wales for the Eurocup. I was coming home from a long day of work. It was going to rain and actually had already rained. I was debating whether I should wait it out or go. I decided to go.

Boy did I wish I had decided not to go. We'll get to that.

I take my usual route, along city streets, which happens to be commercial areas. Street shops, restaurants, y'know suburban areas. I arrive at a three-lane intersection, the left-most lane is full with cars turning, the middle lane is occupied by a single black Volkswagen Gulf, and the right lane is empty.

As I come to the intersection to go straight, I go down the middle lane. The black VW Gulf's rear lights flicker white. At this point, time slows down

A FLURRY of thoughts go into my head. First, disdain 'Another terrible driver doing a weird maneuver. Come on Montreal!'

Second, DISBELIEF, as he reverses at surprising speed, and does not appear to be stopping, "There's NO way he can't see me right???"

Third, I quickly run through my options. "OH SH!T reverse??? IMPOSSIBLE. Accelerate and go right and possibly get rear ended? TOO LATE."

The car impacts my vehicle. As the bike falls on her left side, the pilot ejects to the right. The motorcycle sickeningly skids backwards as the black Gulf realizes it's hit something. The sound as it makes, of steel and plastic digging into concrete, unifying with the rider's anguished shout. His outrage, heard through the music pumping over my earbuds, probably heard around the world even through his full-face helmet.

FUUU*K! (((((

I throw my hands to my sides the palms aimed at the sky - the universal gesture for 'WTF.' The perpetrator, in disbelief himself over what he'd done, looks at me through the window and starts yammering, "I didnt see you omg."

I just point to the side of the street, "get off the road we have to talk."

The fallout took much longer, but it's just a blur to me now. I suffer his excuses... "I didn't see you." "You were in my blind spot." "I am very sorry." I form an iron grip on my emotions and say the right thing, "The important thing is that nobody was hurt."

I've never been in an accident before, so if neither have you dear reader, know this - You need the guy's full name, license plate, make, model and color of the car, and their insurance information. I managed to get most of that information and the rest was handled by my insurance. Your luck may vary.

The damage to the bike was "minimal." The low speed collision resulted in mostly cosmetic damage. The fairings were done on the left side. The clutch pedal was bent completely out of shape. Scrapes are visible on the mirror and bar end. But, she will ride again.

I ended up riding home on city streets in first gear, unable to shift up to 2nd. The ride was atrocious... Revving the engine to redline just to hit 40kph (25mph)... Just a horrible experience (((((

Flash forward a few weeks. My bike's in rehab. She's waiting in the garage for her new parts, after which she'll be in much better shape. I think about this incident from time to time, what I could've done, how I could've avoided this, if there's a way to take ownership of it and become *better* as a rider...

I think about how I could have played it differently. To leap to the right lane without mirror- or blindspot-checks is suicide. I suppose I might have gone onto the painted line which is a bit safer - but we're talking a complete abandonment of the rules of the road. Am I really going to leap to that spot every time some bad driver decides to perform odd maneuvers???

Sigh.

What if I just immediately got on my horn?

So, take from my story what you will. To anybody, knock on wood, who might get into an accident: take all the information that you can. Take a photo of the damage, to yourself and theirs. Take a photo of the intersection, make a note of where it happened and at what time. If a crime was committed, call the cops immediately.

Remember to get their name, phone number, license plate, and insurance information. If you have the means, invest in a helmet camera and run it constantly.

Thats it. Drive safe out there, and wave to your fellow rider. They're out here in the trenches with you.

[FlashFlood]

oops. Didnt notice a subforums for crash reports... Can a mod move this there? I would delete the thread but I dont see how.

[csmith12]

Good luck!

Originally Posted by FlashFlood

oops. Didnt notice a subforums for crash reports... Can a mod move this there? I would delete the thread but I dont see how.

Np, I am sure Alex will take care of ya.

[CaliGrrl]

Yikes. I'd say laying on the (nearly useless) horn might have been about the best thing you could do. Like you say, you're not smart to change lanes without looking. I guess you could have been keeping track of who's coming up in those lanes as you wait for the light to change.

Glad the damage is minimal and that you are ok.

And it's surprising how quickly people will back up. We had a guy about ram us (luckily we were in a car) and I know he didn't look back before punching it because I could see his rear-view mirror and I never saw his eyes. Damage in that one was nearly nonexistent, but wow. How do you jam it backward without looking?

[Alex]

/moved to crash forum

[cadd]

Glad you're ok!

[akima]

Sorry to hear about your accident. I'm struggling to picture exactly what happened, but I get the gist of it: the driver pulled off a really strange & illegal manoeuvre that you did not expect.

My approach to dealing with situations like you encountered is this:

• Always base your assumptions about what can happen, based on what is physically possible. Don't base your assumptions around what normally happens or around what is legal. Physics is the supreme court in the land of roads! So if it can happen, make sure you know what to do if it does happen.
• When the only choices are to choose a potentially dangerous option or a definitely dangerous option, choose the potentially dangerous option. In your situation: you stay still and you definitely get hit. If you move into another lane without doing the usual mirror and shoulder checks there is a potential for getting hit, but it's only a chance. I'll take that chance. I've only been in this situation once: I almost hit a van. I swerved into an adjacent lane without properly checking if it was clear. I got lucky as the lane was clear. It was really heavy traffic, so there was a high chance of the lane being occupied. The chance was still lower than if I had stayed on course though; staying on course gave me a 100% chance of hitting a solid object.
• When you're in a situation like you found yourself in, you have just moments to react. With that in mind I adopt the following survival policy:
  • focus only on a single strategy. Doing multiple things splits your focus and reduces the chance of any one approach working. For example: I don't attempt to avoid the crash and get the drivers attention so that they stop. I do just one.
  • prefer the strategy where you are in control. If a driver is doing something dangerous or illegal they have already proven themselves to be incompetent. If you do try to make yourself seen or heard (flashing-lights / rev-bomb / shouting / horn), there's a good chance they still wont notice or they will react badly.
  • you should always be doing this anyway on a bike, but in a situation like this it becomes even more important: focus entirely on what you want. If you focus on the car, you want to hit the car. If you focus on shouting or blazing the horn you want to be heard and for the driver to avoid you. If you focus on a street lamp off to the right and you're currently rolling, then you want to hit that street lamp. If you focus on a clear stretch of road which doesn't intersect with the path of the car, then you want to ride that path (and you will avoid getting hit). So: Focus on where to escape, not what you don't want to hit. "target fixation" is a term thrown around in relation to this.
• play around with your bike in safe environments to learn what it can do. Get really comfortable with braking and turning hard so you can instinctively trust it and push the bike hard in a bad situation.
• in the event that you are going to get hit no matter what then there are still preferable ways of getting hit: sliding on the road or bouncing off something travelling in the same direction as you is better than hitting a stationary object which is better than hitting an object coming towards you head on.

^ take what you want from all of that. It's just my approach.

[CC Cowboy]

Originally Posted by FlashFlood

Hey guys, whats up?
It was July 6th, a Wednesday... same day as Portugal played Wales for the Eurocup.

I remember that day!

[kdogg2077]

Originally Posted by akima

Sorry to hear about your accident. I'm struggling to picture exactly what happened, but I get the gist of it: the driver pulled off a really strange & illegal manoeuvre that you did not expect.

My approach to dealing with situations like you encountered is this:

• Always base your assumptions about what can happen, based on what is physically possible. Don't base your assumptions around what normally happens or around what is legal. Physics is the supreme court in the land of roads! So if it can happen, make sure you know what to do if it does happen.
• When the only choices are to choose a potentially dangerous option or a definitely dangerous option, choose the potentially dangerous option. In your situation: you stay still and you definitely get hit. If you move into another lane without doing the usual mirror and shoulder checks there is a potential for getting hit, but it's only a chance. I'll take that chance. I've only been in this situation once: I almost hit a van. I swerved into an adjacent lane without properly checking if it was clear. I got lucky as the lane was clear. It was really heavy traffic, so there was a high chance of the lane being occupied. The chance was still lower than if I had stayed on course though; staying on course gave me a 100% chance of hitting a solid object.
• When you're in a situation like you found yourself in, you have just moments to react. With that in mind I adopt the following survival policy:
  • focus only on a single strategy. Doing multiple things splits your focus and reduces the chance of any one approach working. For example: I don't attempt to avoid the crash and get the drivers attention so that they stop. I do just one.
  • prefer the strategy where you are in control. If a driver is doing something dangerous or illegal they have already proven themselves to be incompetent. If you do try to make yourself seen or heard (flashing-lights / rev-bomb / shouting / horn), there's a good chance they still wont notice or they will react badly.
  • you should always be doing this anyway on a bike, but in a situation like this it becomes even more important: focus entirely on what you want. If you focus on the car, you want to hit the car. If you focus on shouting or blazing the horn you want to be heard and for the driver to avoid you. If you focus on a street lamp off to the right and you're currently rolling, then you want to hit that street lamp. If you focus on a clear stretch of road which doesn't intersect with the path of the car, then you want to ride that path (and you will avoid getting hit). So: Focus on where to escape, not what you don't want to hit. "target fixation" is a term thrown around in relation to this.
• play around with your bike in safe environments to learn what it can do. Get really comfortable with braking and turning hard so you can instinctively trust it and push the bike hard in a bad situation.
• in the event that you are going to get hit no matter what then there are still preferable ways of getting hit: sliding on the road or bouncing off something travelling in the same direction as you is better than hitting a stationary object which is better than hitting an object coming towards you head on.

^ take what you want from all of that. It's just my approach.

I think you make some good points. My only area of disagreement is where you discuss dangerous versus potentially dangerous. While its true he could have changed lanes to avoid a known danger, he would have dramatically increased the risk of a serious/fatal accident by risking being hit by opposing traffic travelling a much greater speed.

[akima]

Originally Posted by kdogg2077

I think you make some good points. My only area of disagreement is where you discuss dangerous versus potentially dangerous. While its true he could have changed lanes to avoid a known danger, he would have dramatically increased the risk of a serious/fatal accident by risking being hit by opposing traffic travelling a much greater speed.

Very true. I thought about that after I wrote it. I think the general principle still stands, you just have to augment it somewhat with some good sense about where it is you apply it. In my case when I dodged the van, the traffic was going relatively slowly in all lanes and there was no oncoming traffic due to there being a centre divide between the north and the southbound traffic. So even though I threw myself out into another lane without doing thorough checks, the worst that could have happened wasn't worse than what was guaranteed to happen if I stayed on course.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by FlashFlood

.......... I think about this incident from time to time, what I could've done, how I could've avoided this, if there's a way to take ownership of it and become *better* as a rider...

I think about how I could have played it differently...........

Glad there was no car/truck stopped behind you.

Keep more distance and angle respect to vehicles stopped in front of you.
That will facilitate any emergency escape (not this case, but always a latent need), without much maneuvering.
The bonus is that one of your mirrors will be at the right angle to spot traffic incoming behind you.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by akima

.........^ take what you want from all of that. It's just my approach.

Excellent post, @akima !!!