David's Story

rank_amateur
rank_amateur Posts: 117
edited September 2014 in The cake stop
Yeah, it was on the BBC news app this morning and really freaked me out. It's awful but very powerful and goes to show how a split second might not just change your life, but end it. The sound of his shout 'no' is what haunts me.

Comments

  • Jon_1976
    Jon_1976 Posts: 690
    Jesus..that was toe curlingly horrific :cry:
  • redvee
    redvee Posts: 11,922
    Made the News At Ten and the reporter covering the story said the motorbike was going too fast to see the car turning, claimed speed of 90mph.
    I've added a signature to prove it is still possible.
  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    The needle on his speedo was around 90-100 before the impact. Clearly there were mistakes on both sides, but excessive speed was the major cause of the accident - in which case, I have to say I'm suprised that the car driver was punished in the way that he was...
  • verylonglegs
    verylonglegs Posts: 4,023
    The car driver was prosecuted because they said they didn't see the motorbike at all or in fact the last car he'd just overtaken which is essentially the mothers message, she doesn't deny the fact her son was travelling too fast and asks bikers to slow down and car drivers to take more care too. Personally I find her dignity and stoicism very admirable.

    http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/video_mothe ... _1_3757629
  • verylonglegs
    verylonglegs Posts: 4,023
    The car driver was prosecuted because they said they didn't see the motorbike at all or in fact the last car he'd just overtaken which is essentially the mothers message, she doesn't deny the fact her son was travelling too fast and asks bikers to slow down and car drivers to take more care too. Personally I find her dignity and stoicism very admirable.

    http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/video_mothe ... _1_3757629
  • mamba80
    mamba80 Posts: 5,032
    Imposter wrote:
    The needle on his speedo was around 90-100 before the impact. Clearly there were mistakes on both sides, but excessive speed was the major cause of the accident - in which case, I have to say I'm suprised that the car driver was punished in the way that he was...

    the major cause of the accident was the driver pulling across the road, he would have done this regardless of the speed of the m/c and unless the m/c was travelling at walking pace, there would have been a collision, the tragic out come was down to the speed of the bike.

    Until the courts start handing down, deterrent sentences (and an 18month ban is nothing) then this type of SMIDSY will happen to all vulnerable road users, car and lorry drivers need to realise they are in charge of potentially deadly vehicles, judging by the number of cyclists pedestrians killed every year, this message isn't getting through.

    I found the mothers words very moving, also the pics of the her son and his various m/c's, she is one brave lady to be able to film this.
    I rode a m/c from 14 til my early 40s when I sold my last road bike, an R1, if people had any idea how fast these things are, they d be banned, unlike a car, the performance is very accessible and very cheap.
  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    mamba80 wrote:
    Imposter wrote:
    The needle on his speedo was around 90-100 before the impact. Clearly there were mistakes on both sides, but excessive speed was the major cause of the accident - in which case, I have to say I'm suprised that the car driver was punished in the way that he was...

    the major cause of the accident was the driver pulling across the road, he would have done this regardless of the speed of the m/c and unless the m/c was travelling at walking pace, there would have been a collision, the tragic out come was down to the speed of the bike.

    Until the courts start handing down, deterrent sentences (and an 18month ban is nothing) then this type of SMIDSY will happen to all vulnerable road users, car and lorry drivers need to realise they are in charge of potentially deadly vehicles, judging by the number of cyclists pedestrians killed every year, this message isn't getting through.

    I found the mothers words very moving, also the pics of the her son and his various m/c's, she is one brave lady to be able to film this.
    I rode a m/c from 14 til my early 40s when I sold my last road bike, an R1, if people had any idea how fast these things are, they d be banned, unlike a car, the performance is very accessible and very cheap.

    It's quite possible that had the rider been travelling at 60, the car would have made the turn off the main road without issue and the motorcycle would have just ridden on by shortly after. I get the point that the car pulled into the rider's path - I'm just suprised at the amount of blame (by definition of the guy's sentence) which appears to have been loaded onto the driver.
  • mamba80
    mamba80 Posts: 5,032
    I think we can both agree that this is an awful tragedy for the rider & family but also, I suspect, the car driver, who never sought to deny his blame in this.
  • rolf_f
    rolf_f Posts: 16,015
    That's a really horrible thing to watch - I've had the same accident on a bicycle and it made the video rather too vivid for me.
    Faster than a tent.......
  • dilatory
    dilatory Posts: 565
    It's so difficult to judge the speed of an object coming towards you. Especially when you don't expect it to be doing 100mph. That said, it's something a lot of car drivers do; think they can make the turn before you even get close, it happens all the time on a bicycle so no idea how frequent it must be to motorcycles.

    The counter point to this is that if he were perhaps going at a sensible speed, he might have had time to react / slow down to a point where it was only injury, or even come to a stop.
  • bompington
    bompington Posts: 7,674
    They do this sort of debate better in NZ...
  • davegore2005
    davegore2005 Posts: 87
    that made me seriously jump away from the screen when the impact happened, shocking
  • DIESELDOG
    DIESELDOG Posts: 2,087
    I posted the same link on my FB page. I know he was canning it but open country clear road is a temptation. I have first hand experience of a friend being killed in similar circumstances. Well not really similar because he managed it in town, the week after he overshot a major A road because was riding too fast. Told him then, slow down or your dead.

    Thing is though, after watching the video a couple of times, (no I'm not that sick), did the car not see him???

    DD
    Eagles may soar but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

    www.onemanandhisbike.co.uk
  • pesky_jones
    pesky_jones Posts: 2,890
    DD it's hard to tell but it looks like the car doesn't even stop, suggesting that he really didn't see him. I've had this same accident but on 50cc scooter so I was able to swerve round the back of the car. They really don't see you. I've had it happen a couple of times, literally made eye contact and they still pull out. Once it happens to you, you never take assume they've seen you again however
  • norvernrob
    norvernrob Posts: 1,448
    Imposter wrote:
    I'm just suprised at the amount of blame (by definition of the guy's sentence) which appears to have been loaded onto the driver.

    I'm surprised at how many people on various phone-ins, forums etc are blaming the motorcyclist. Yes he was speeding, and yes if he'd been going slower or had anticipated this sort of thing happening at junctions he may still be alive.

    The bottom line is though the car turned across the road into the path of oncoming traffic, and that makes it the drivers fault. There is no argument there.

    A high percentage of the public don't think like that though, they think it's all the motorcyclists fault because he was going to fast and the driver was innocent. We all know what many motorists are like at judging speed (terrible) or just not seeing you at all, and as a vulnerable road user you have to expect this kind of thing to happen regularly. I drive a car everyday too and am constantly horrified at the poor standard of driving from many road users.

    It's a horrendous video and I hope it affects people enough to think twice and drive/ride a little more safely.
  • mr_goo
    mr_goo Posts: 3,770
    Shan't be watching that thanks.

    I too have first hand experience of attending a crash scene, one that killed my mother in law. A head on. On a bend where the oncoming vehicle was on wrong side of road. The driver was reaching down into the passenger footwell to get their handbag. My mother in law had been taken off to hospital dead and I watched my father in law being cut out of the wreck. The offending female driver on had a nose bleed! Seriously.
    Always be yourself, unless you can be Aaron Rodgers....Then always be Aaron Rodgers.
  • oldhairylegs
    oldhairylegs Posts: 220
    Truly shocking video; I hope that it goes some way towards making all road users think about what they are doing.

    As a regular biker, I know that there are times - particularly at junctions - when you need to allow for motorists making a simple mistake, doing something unexpected, or just plain stupid. This usually means scrubbing off some speed and having a potential escape route planned. Sadly, David did not do this and the consequences were fatal.
  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    NorvernRob wrote:
    The bottom line is though the car turned across the road into the path of oncoming traffic, and that makes it the drivers fault. There is no argument there.

    Sorry, I'm not trying to perpetuate an argument here, because I don't disagree in principle. However, I turn across roads into the path of oncoming traffic almost every day. The difference is I try to do it before the other traffic arrives, in the anticipation that they are not doing nearly twice the speed limit in a vehicle with a tiny frontal profile.

    Like I say, the driver was technically at fault, but I'm suprised that the speed the rider was travelling at did not do more to mitigate the driver's sentence.
  • Philly8mt
    Philly8mt Posts: 552
    Horrible to watch. My son and I just sat there in silence at the end ... Very sobering.
    Still thinking of something clever to say!

Categories