First Crash Is the Hardest - SF Bay Bridge Toll Plaza February 6, 2013

[teh]

Link to original page on YouTube.

[csmith12]

Link to original page on YouTube.

Fixed it for you.

Welcome and interesting first post! Hope you have healed up from any injuries.

[teh]

Originally Posted by csmith12

Link to original page on YouTube.

Fixed it for you.

Welcome and interesting first post!

Thank you very much csmith12.

[Driddle]

Edit: Cmsith fixed it. Thanks

Sorry to hear about your crash, and I hope you are recovering well.
As people in the comments posted, you may have a case in that he pulled over into that lane (passing lane) when he is just a limo, or that he did so without signaling and slowed.
However, because you are in California, you may also NOT have a case because, as the law in California states, if you hit someone from behind, it is almost always your fault.

I'm not legal expert. If anyone has any other way of interpreting it.. please do correct me. But that's how I see it.

Good luck getting back on the bike!

[Panda]

Glad you are ok!

You did kinda totally ram the back of that guy though. He stopped in a weird place but....

[slickt0mmy]

Hmmm this is a tough one. Like others have said, you ran into the back of him which almost always makes the accident your fault. Then again, he was doing many things wrong at the time, which may give you a case against him. Personally, I'd meet with a lawyer who specializes in this sort of thing and see what they have to say about it.

I hope you heal from any injuries very quickly. Glad to see you had full gear on.

[Trailerboy531]

Keep in mind that instead of you only having "3 seconds to press the hardest on your brakes" you also have 3 seconds to swerve, of which there was plenty of room. I could feel the target fixation coming through my computer screen.

Not a dig on you, i've target fixated and crashed a few times myself so I've got nothing to say but you should always try to keep your mind searching for options - it might save you one day.

[Dredgshadow]

Good thing nobody was behind you though..

[dfox]

First post is a crash post, and you don't have a 250 now, or then. Just a spammer searching for YouTube comments/likes?

Not the limo drivers fault. He said he was slowing down to pull over because he was having car trouble, at least that's what I heard. You need to maintain a safe following distance, and not change lanes over a solid white to pass people as you approach a merge. You had room to move back into the right lane, and should have. Poor choices by all, and you ended up on the wrong end of it all.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by Trailerboy531

Keep in mind that instead of you only having "3 seconds to press the hardest on your brakes" you also have 3 seconds to swerve, of which there was plenty of room. I could feel the target fixation coming through my computer screen.

Not a dig on you, i've target fixated and crashed a few times myself so I've got nothing to say but you should always try to keep your mind searching for options - it might save you one day.

Welcome to our site, Teh !!!

Sorry to watch that accident happening to you, you could have lost your life there.

I have to agree with the quoted post.
That driver did many wrong things, including his attempt to get a confession of guilt from you at that critical moment, .......I don't like that guy !!!

However, you are the one in greater danger when on two wheels and must be prepared to ride around the many mistakes that the many careless or unskillful drivers around you will present to you each riding day.

It is unfair, but that is just the way it is for all of us.

You could have stopped in time, just to be sandwiched between that moron and the inattentive driver following you.
What I am trying to say is that Justice should be on your side, but that you may not be able to present your next case to it.
You cannot afford to be driven into a dangerous situation while riding in the street, because you will always lose, little or as much as your life.
You need to be expecting the worse, foreseeing the worst, systematically trained to escape the worst, and what is more important: you need to avoid getting into or to escape every dangerous situation, each time.

Don't let your sense of having done the correct things suffice and dull your urge to prepare properly for the next dangerous situation.

I hope that you will learn from this accident, that the moron pays for the damages that he caused and that you recover and are in the saddle soon and wiser.

My best !!!

[rojoracing53]

Why you no steer right

[Havok]

All I could think of s WTF. So much fail on your part. Seriously what were you looking at? Plenty of time to stop, swerve or do both. On top of just blatantly not paying attention. There was traffic in all lanes and traffic in front how do you not expect some kind of a slow down from that. Be more aware of your surroundings. Pay attention you may live through it.

[Jiggles]

Seen you post on BARF, don't know why you are here... Anyway, your as bad at this whole motorcycling thing as I am, worse actually, your lawsuit will be unsuccessful.

[menikmati]

Originally Posted by Havok

All I could think of s WTF. So much fail on your part. Seriously what were you looking at? Plenty of time to stop, swerve or do both. On top of just blatantly not paying attention. There was traffic in all lanes and traffic in front how do you not expect some kind of a slow down from that. Be more aware of your surroundings. Pay attention you may live through it.

Dis.

I would've been scanning wayyyyy ahead and always having an option/escape route. In your case, you may have fared better if you would have swerved. Hell, I would have even considered swerving INTO those pylons to the left rather than eat the rear bumper of the car ahead while trying to panic stop (even then, a panic stop would not have been feasible given your speed and distance allowed combined with rider skill and reaction time).

Rant over, get well soon.

[ChickenRun]

You assumed the limo would speed up. You can't assume things when riding a motorcycle on the street it will get you killed. The limo driver was being an ass though didn't even ask if you were ok.

[80MPHdownhill]

It seems like 99% of the crashes here could be avoided by simply not running into a stationary object.

[Bones85]

Sorry for the crash, but if you run into the back of a car like that then you're not going to win a lawsuit. A car can stop for many reasons (i.e. animal or kid running out into the road, mechanical issues, etc.) and it's YOUR responsibility to slow down in time to avoid a collision.

[greg737]

You can bet that the driver of that limo pulls this maneuver on a regular basis when he's empty of passengers, he zips past other traffic in the carpool lane then dives through the barrier to the regular tollbooths at the last moment.

You can hear the guilt in the limo driver's voice as he loudly proclaims his "innocence" in the first moments after the accident. He's obviously been pre-practicing his story in his head during his many prior violations of this particular traffic law.

Honestly, because of the negligent and intentional nature of the limo driver's actions (regularly using the carpool lane as a traffic bypassing tool before braking hard and diving through a barrier) the resulting accident amounts to vehicular assault against the motorcyclist.

And the saddest part of this whole thing is that it's obvious the limo driver didn't even need to pull his stupid little trick this time because traffic was really light.

[Live2ride]

It seems obvious that you're trying to get more people to get on your side saying that this is the limo drivers fault but you are sadly mistaken. You ran into the back of a car and you expect it to be his fault? You could have swerved to the right and gone on with your day but instead you panicked, target fixated, weren't aware of your surroundings, and you ran into the back of a limo.

The accident is your fault regardless of your attempt to prove otherwise. It doesn't matter what the driver was doing, you hit him; he didn't hit you. It would be different if he was brake checking you or trying to cause you to crash but he wasn't. You jumped the gun by switching lanes so quickly and accelerating towards a car that was braking. Hopefully you heal up quick if you were hurt. That being said; try to find some way to win the lawsuit and good luck.

[DaBlue1]

I probably wouldn't use your video as a defense. You had speed at one point in excess of 60 mph in a clearly marked 50 mph approaching slowing traffic. The car before impact clearly had his front wheels outside the white lines, was braking while getting to the edge and you hit him left of center of the vehicle. You clearly had room to get back in your original lane or move closer the the middle of the road. I would not doubt if you got a ticket for failure to control your vehicle, and he gets a ticket for illegal turning or improper use of the shoulder. Both insurance companies will shake hands, you both get your vehicles fixed, and they'll tell you have a nice day.

[dave42]

You seriously had enough time to slow down and swerve. If you didn't see how fast your space cushion was disappearing after you and that limo were both in the same lane then you need to start paying more attention to spacing.

I don't care if the guy went into reverse, sucking down his 8th can of beer in 15 minutes, texting to his entire contact list, and reading a magazine at the same time, if you don't do what you need to do to avoid potential incidents, you still lose. Sure, you'll win in court, but you'll be out of a bike until it's replaced, possibly injured or dead, and have to wait on investigations and court decisions. Learn how to avoid these things.

In this particular case I doubt you'll win in court. At least you came out of it with all your limbs; hope you learn from it instead of just getting mad at our comments and then shutting everyone out because none of us "gets" it.

[fishdip]

It is your own fault you had more then the need time to slow down and on top of that you can see his brake light longer then the 3sec time you say you had.

[aeroblade]

You know what, at first I felt you guys were right, that he could have just dodged the car, but it just occurred to me its just not that simple.

Let me explain!

Watching the video gives us the distinct impression that there is enough time for him to react and just swing right. But we feel so cause we know what to expect in this video. Our mind is already prepared for what is about to happen and hence we are able to discern the right course of action to take so as to counter it. If any of us were in his shoes at the time, I bet 99% of us would in fact end up the same way. Its not humanly possible to remain 100% vigilant all the time, our minds will eventually decrease its alertness if there aren't any potential threats nearby. Plus an average human reaction time while driving can vary from .15 to 4 seconds. Which comes ONLY after the driver/rider is able to recognize the danger ahead after which the brain has to forward the appropriate signals to the rest of the body. Then comes the response time of the vehicle. Basically his brain realized that he was f**kd and let his instincts take over.


On the flip side, @teh - This situation could have been avoided if you had maintained the proper braking distance.

[fishdip]

Originally Posted by aeroblade

You know what, at first I felt you guys were right, that he could have just dodged the car, but it just occurred to me its just not that simple.

Let me explain!

Watching the video gives us the distinct impression that there is enough time for him to react and just swing right. But we feel so cause we know what to expect in this video. Our mind is already prepared for what is about to happen and hence we are able to discern the right course of action to take so as to counter it. If any of us were in his shoes at the time, I bet 99% of us would in fact end up the same way. Its not humanly possible to remain 100% vigilant all the time, our minds will eventually decrease its alertness if there aren't any potential threats nearby. Plus an average human reaction time while driving can vary from .15 to 4 seconds. Which comes ONLY after the driver/rider is able to recognize the danger ahead after which the brain has to forward the appropriate signals to the rest of the body.

On the flip side, @teh - This situation could have been avoided if you had maintained the proper braking distance.

Id say 99.99% of the riders on this site are able to not hit the limo the .1 is jiggle. I noticed the limo acting funny as soon as it hit 2 lanes. and "no potential threats nearby" really the big metal objects moving around him is not a threat?

[aeroblade]

Originally Posted by fishdip

Id say 99.99% of the riders on this site are able to not hit the limo the .1 is jiggle. I noticed the limo acting funny as soon as it hit 2 lanes. and "no potential threats nearby" really the big metal objects moving around him is not a threat?

Hahah :P

Well I'm only referring to the short time line around the point of impact. He obviously wasn't paying enough attention to the "big metal" thingies all around him. True people here are more careful. This dude's new here hence, I left out all the other mistakes since the rest of you already filled in for that part. lol

[dave42]

Honestly if I were in his shoes at the time I would've, you know, slowed down and swerved to the right of that limo. 3 seconds is a LONG time to fixate on something.

[fishdip]

Originally Posted by aeroblade

Hahah :P

Well I'm only referring to the short time line around the point of impact. He obviously wasn't paying enough attention to the "big metal" thingies all around him. True people here are more careful. This dude's new here hence, I left out all the other mistakes since the rest of you already filled in for that part. lol

Also this is why I have the sig I do even if he wanted to stop in time he was going to fast for his ability to apply his brakes.

[Jiggles]

Originally Posted by fishdip

Id say 99.99% of the riders on this site are able to not hit the limo the .1 is jiggle. I noticed the limo acting funny as soon as it hit 2 lanes. and "no potential threats nearby" really the big metal objects moving around him is not a threat?

The only way this would happen to me is if I was riding tired which I don't do anymore. I learned that lesson

[fishdip]

Originally Posted by Jiggles

The only way this would happen to me is if I was riding tired which I don't do anymore. I learned that lesson

[aeroblade]

[Aggrotech]

lol wut do you do if u have car problems? you slow down extremely fast without skidding in the middle of ur highway lane.

The limo driver is a piece of ****. If he had car problems he SHOULD have stayed in the right lane and parked to the right of the road..

[subxero]

your fault, JMO

[MegaManX]

You're an idiot, and lucky you didn't end up much worse off. You need to pay attention to your surroundings and vehicle behavior. Plenty of - PLENTY OF - time to brake, move, or anything but ride into the back of a limo.

100% your fault.

Also, you trolling for youtube views?

[JELY1990]

Originally Posted by ChickenRun

You assumed the limo would speed up. You can't assume things when riding a motorcycle on the street it will get you killed. The limo driver was being an ass though didn't even ask if you were ok.

The first thing the limo driver asks is, "Are you okay?"

I agree with everything else you said though.

[Trailerboy531]

Originally Posted by MegaManX

You're an idiot, and lucky you didn't end up much worse off. You need to pay attention to your surroundings and vehicle behavior. Plenty of - PLENTY OF - time to brake, move, or anything but ride into the back of a limo.

100% your fault.

Also, you trolling for youtube views?

You need to work on your ability to constructively criticize bro.

[Jiggles]

The op hasn't been online since a half hour after his first post

[teh]

Originally Posted by Trailerboy531

You need to work on your ability to constructively criticize bro.

Thank you, Trailerboy531. Sorry for not responding to anyone, I was out of the country visiting my aging mother and families.

[teh]

Originally Posted by JELY1990

The first thing the limo driver asks is, "Are you okay?"

I agree with everything else you said though.

Thank you Jely1990 for your comments. Sorry for not responding to anyone, I was out of the country visiting my aging mother and families.

[teh]

Originally Posted by MegaManX

You're an idiot, and lucky you didn't end up much worse off. You need to pay attention to your surroundings and vehicle behavior. Plenty of - PLENTY OF - time to brake, move, or anything but ride into the back of a limo.

100% your fault.

Also, you trolling for youtube views?

Thank you MegaManX for your comments. Sorry for not responding to anyone, I was out of the country visiting my aging mother and families. I hope you will never run into similar situation like this on the road.

[teh]

Originally Posted by subxero

your fault, JMO

Thank you subxero for your comment. Sorry for not responding to you sooner, I was out of the country visiting my aging mother and families.