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Mark Hinchliffe·
Tips/trainingRiding/safety tips
··8 Comments·2 min read

Video calls for drivers to look for bikes

A rider who hit the back of a car that cut in front of him without looking has posted the crash video to call for motorists to look for bikes before changing lanes.

We’ve probably all experienced drivers moving across on us on multi-lane roads without indicating or checking for motorcycles.

This video was posted on YouTube by HD2 as a warning to “raise motorcycle awareness”.

It begins with the message: “It only takes one second to look before changing lanes … please us that one second, you could save someone’s life.”

“There were a lot of things wrong in this situation, this whole event could have been diverted if the driver had simply looked before illegally crossing the double yellow into the Carpool (HOV) lane,” the rider says on the YouTube post.

“The driver that cut me off was in a rental and had bypassed the insurance paperwork. Always have proper coverage.”Crash - look for bikes

While we sympathise with the rider of the Harley-Davidson Dyna and join him in his call for motorists to watch for riders, he is not totally blameless.

He is legally riding in the carpool lane of an LA freeway, however his speed is substantially above that of the traffic in the other lanes.

It is a recipe for disaster with impatient drivers likely to suddenly – and illegally – cut across the double yellow lines as happens in this case.

The rider is lucky he was not badly injured, miraculously landing on the boot of the Toyota Camry sedan where he shouts “stop, stop, stop” and pounding on the back window as the motorist continues to driver down the freeway.Crash - look for bikes

“I can’t believe you right now dude,” he says.

When the car stops, the rider then confronts the driver: “Are you joking me?

“Bro are you kidding me? I almost just died. I was on top of your car.”

After the driver seems to utter an apology, the rider replies: “You are not sorry. You almost killed me. My leg is f***ed right now dude.

“What are you thinking there is a yellow line for a reason. Pull the f*** over. I don’t even know if my bike can move right now. What are you doing?”

Fatality Free Friday

With the road safety initiative of Fatality Free Friday this Friday, riders should remember that their safety starts with self-preservation.

Fatality Free Friday is about pledging to stay safe and not relying on others to do the right thing.

Riders should remember they are almost invisible among multiple lanes of traffic.

Try not to ride in the blind spots of cars and don’t ride substantially faster or slower than the prevailing traffic.

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Mark Hinchliffe
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8 Comments

  1. Guy is a goose. See his other videos – chasing down motorists and abusing them.

    Self preservation is key, while the motorists did cross a double line, and the motorcycle was going the speed limit. He could see the bank up of traffic coming and you should slow down. Even if the traffic is not in your lane.

    We’re susceptible to serious accents while cageless.. be careful out there.

  2. There was a similar thing posted on Dash Cams Australia last week.

    I’ll make the same comment here as what I did there. “Defensive riding isn’t something you do for the other vehicle, you do it for yourself.”

  3. In this video the rider was technically speeding even if he was not exceeding the speed limit. This is why such stupid one size fits all campaigns like Speed Kills don’t and never will work because speeding has very little to do with speed limits and speed cameras just reinforce this misconception.
    The rider should have been more prepared for this bozo’s stupidity but as it was supposedly a protected lane that sometimes even have medians and bollards to separate them he can be forgiven for his misplaced trust.
    Did anyone notice the mobile in the drivers lap? it’s probably why he stuffed up in the first place.

  4. I think that this accident could actually have been avoided by the rider. He failed to react when the cars he was rapidly approaching bunched up. In situations like that it is almost inevitable that one of them is going to change lanes. Then, when one car moved in front of the motorbike, the rider did not react again, when he had time to.

  5. A little local perspective to those who say he was speeding or anything to that effect, he was not. The California HOV/Carpool lane is intended for those carpooling or riding a bike to bypass the oftentimes standstill traffic in all the lanes to the right, so you will be zooming by traffic while everyone is just sitting there. Sometimes, we have silly tourist from out of state like the guy with the Illinois plates who drive our roads and break our laws which is what happened here. The only thing the Harley rider is guilty of here is lack of riding skills as the whole thing could have been avoided.

  6. The rider had plenty of time to react. If you watch carefully, he never applies the front brakes or moves in the lane. It looks like a classic example of target fixation along with poor riding skills.

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