I Didn’t See the Motorcycle
The most common words spoken by drivers who hit motorcyclists are, “I didn’t see him.” For a lot of riders, those words are unacceptable.
I’m sorry to say, however, they are often true. So like it or not, we who ride have to adjust to that fact in order to ensure our own safety.
My friend John is one of those who argue that any driver who hits a motorcyclist and claims “I didn’t see him” needs to go to jail. I agree that if the failure to see has to do with the driver paying attention to their cell phone or anything else other than driving, serious consequences are in order.
But that’s not always the case. I’ve told here previously of the time, many years ago, when I was in a car waiting to make a left turn off a main street. As I started to turn my passenger yelled at me to stop, and I did just in time not to hit a motorcyclist coming the other way. I didn’t see him. And I wasn’t doing anything other than driving. I just didn’t see him.
Well, it happened again now, just a week ago. It would take too many words to explain the streets so just look at the map. A guy on my block rides a Ducati. I left the house in my car and was at the end of the block intending to take a left turn to get out of the neighborhood. I looked left and right and started to pull out.
As I pulled out I saw–only then–that the guy on the Ducati was coming up the street. Now, he wasn’t going fast because he had just turned onto that street, and he was going to turn right anyway, so no harm was done. But the fact is, that Ducati has such a narrow profile when you look at it head on, that it’s a lot easier not to see than some big bagger with all the gear.
Studies have shown that motorcyclists and family members of motorcyclists are far more attuned to the presence of motorcycles on the streets, and thus are far less likely to get in crashes with them than the general populace. And yet here I am, a rider with many years on the bike, and I still did not see this guy. Needless to say, I found this very disturbing. I just did not see him. How could that be?
The bottom line on how it could be, however, is that it is. And that’s why we have to be responsible for our own safety. We have to ride as if we are invisible, always anticipating the stupid moves that those idiot cagers might pull–even if on some occasions the idiot cagers are also riders themselves.
I’m not making excuses, but every single one of us makes a mistake now and then. And it doesn’t matter to your shattered skull that your crash was due to some other guy’s mistake. We are responsible for our own safety. Accept that fact and act upon it and you’ll greatly enhance your chances of riding safely for many years to come.
Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Top Motorcycle Examiner stories of 2010
Biker Quote for Today
Anticipate!-most “accidents” are predictable, and avoidable.
Tags: motorcycle safety
December 30th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
As riders, it is our duty to protect our skin as best as possible. Watch the front tire of the car at intersections and expect them to pull out. The front tire movement will tell you when they start moving and what direction they are going to go. Trying to make eye contact with a driver is not as reliable.
Anticipate and have options, escape route, enough room to slow or accelerate.
-Peace
April 6th, 2012 at 10:36 am
Re-reading Ken’s story reminds me of an experience I had shortly after it was written. I think I’d been working on his website, and had read the article, and also read about a national campaign to increase drivers’ awareness of motorcycles which featured billboards. So I was driving with my family up to Michigan and at one point came up behind 4 motorcyles. At the same time we passed one of the billboards. After a bit I passed the bikes and continued driving, passing another of the awarness billboards. Needless to say, I was at that time extremely aware of being aware of the motorcycles, so when I needed to pass another car, I looked carefully in my rear view mirror for the bikes I’d passed, then looked in the right mirror and the left mirror, and saw nothing, so proceeded to pull into the left lane, at which time there was a loud honk… in spite of it all I had managed to pull out in front of one of the motorcycles. All gave me the finger as they went by, but it showed me that even the most careful driver in a car MAY NOT see the bikers.