Quote:The vast majority of those riding bikes aren't lane splitting, or doubling the speed limit, or hot dogging in traffic. Those idiots are the reason some cagers don't really care about motorcyclists or their safety. I've probably got 1/4 million miles behind me on various bikes, and my greatest fear is the inattentive driver. Over the years I've had to avoid cell phone talkers and dining drivers. People putting on makeup, texting, changing outfits, and doing a host of other things while driving.


I've had someone so distracted by the conversation they were having that they were oblivious that they were drifting halfway into my lane. When we came to a stop, I said "why don't you put the phone down before you kill someone." Her two word response probably should have infuriated me, but karma has a way of catching up with people. There was a cop 3 cars behind us who had seen her drifting. Light turned green, and JSO lights went blue. I gladly got out of the way to have a front row seat for that one.


If you ride a bike, and you log enough miles, you learn that the more visible you are, the safer you are. You learn that you can never invest too much in a good helmet. You can never have too much training. When you ride, you have to assume everyone around you is oblivious to your presence. I've been riding most of my life, and I've learned to anticipate stupidity from every car around me. It's paid off many times over the years.


People in cars, SUVs, and trucks have no idea what their vehicles do to the aerodynamics of a motorcycle when they tailgate us or when they cut us off on the interstate. They don't realize how difficult it is to bring a 700-800 lb motorcycle to a controlled stop from speed when they cut in front of us and stomp on the brakes. Like CJ said above, older riders have perspective. I've had many a sphincter tightening moment, white knuckling it on my bike because of something some idiot in a car did.


I've had to put my bike down, all because someone decided they wanted to jump in front of me and then slam on the brakes. Naturally, when they saw a bike sliding by them in the median, they took off. All I was thinking was A.) put it down, but try to control the fall to avoid hitting anything substantial, and no matter what, B.) don't hit an old SUV with an "I love Obamacare!" Bumper sticker. Odd what you remember. That incident caused me to sell that bike after I got everything cleaned up, and I stayed off motorcycles for about a year. I was fortunate to walk away without any serious injuries.


The first motorcycle fatality at Bike Week this year was an older guy sitting on his Harley at a stoplight who was rear-ended by a distracted driver. All he was doing was sitting at a dead stop. He ended up going home in a box.


This incident was tragic, but completely avoidable. He chose to ignore the rules of the road, and it cost him his life. It's a shame. But, he was 23 and invincible. At least he thought so.

 

I know exactly where you are coming from.  I rode for several years, but gave it up once I went into the military.  My oldest son decided that he wanted to buy a bike to save on gasoline (this was back when gas prices were really spiking).  He took the classes, got his license and I remember following him home when he picked up his new bike.  I remember him wandering about his lane and being very unsteady.  I took him to a safer area, and made him practice and gave him some of my best advice.  Today a couple of bikes later, he can ride better than I ever did, and he survived an incident not much different from yours.  Luckily his bike suffered more damage than he did as he walked away with a couple of scrapes/bruises.

 

His wife wasn't as fortunate though (she too bought a bike and learned to ride).  She encountered someone not paying attention that ran a red light.  Fortunately she survived, but had to have her knee rebuilt.

 

Proper safety goes both ways.  Yes people in cars, trucks or SUV's need to be aware of motorcyclists, but at the same time the riders need to take precautions of their own.

 

In this case, it looks like it was poor judgment and poor choices on Mr. Walker's part.  It's unfortunate that a young life is lost, especially someone that could have gone on to have a great career.

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