HIT BY A CAR!

My friend was mauled by an SUV on my eBike this weekend. Some lady hit him at an intersection while he was going 35mph and ran from the scene. Two dozen something people stopped to help, not a one saw her plate.

He was coming toward the light on a two laner and she was in the LEFT turn lane STOPPED at a red light perpendicular to his lane of travel. He claims to have been making eye contact with the driver the entire time but at the exact moment he passes in front of her she whips a RIGHT turn and smackes him off the bike into oncoming traffic, absolutely unbelievable! Even after he got back to my place people were coming up to him to ask if he was okay!

Please ride careful and wear your helmet and any pads you feel are necessary and remember absolutly NO ONE sees you.

So was he OK?
Ride like you're invisible is good advice. I've had my share of close calls.

Drivers? will look right thru you.
They are looking for another car.
Bikes are invisible.
Hope your friend is not busted up too bad.

Best wishes to all my ebiker friends! Watch out for them, because they aren't for you.

Praying that your friend heals quickly and completely, and that the hit and run driver turns themselves in or gets caught to face the consequences.

My buddy is fine, somehow despite contacting 3 cars at high speed he emerged with only some cuts and bruises. He's a bit rattled but he's been through worse collisions so he's not stressing over it.

Anyway thank you for the concern guys! Keep spreading the word, we really are ghosts out on the road way.

Wow, that one was really unpredictable.

I've lasted this long by being able to predict that right turning car into the parking lot, or the car turning left in front of you at the light. Or, that car turning right from the cross street into your lane is predictable. (right turn on the red light, legal in my state) But the right turn from the LEFT lane?. who'd see that one coming?

You really do have to ride like you are invisible, and figure they will pull that left turn on you because to them, the lane is empty. But when they do something that weird, hard to be ready for it for sure.

He was traveling much faster than anybody expects a bike to be going, so that does not help. Where he was positioned in the lane could have mattered too. If you are on the far right side of the lane, you lose a few feet of dodging room. Particularly in the left cross situation, you must match that left turning car with your own left, then a right to avoid the cars still going straight. This Z shape turn is easier to do if you are already on the left side of the lane.

dogman dan said:

But the right turn from the LEFT lane?. who'd see that one coming?

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I might--it happens with fair frequency here.

Also left turn from the right lane. Both happen with or against the light, and with other cars coming that have to swerve out of the way or slam on their brakes to try to avoid collision (which doesn't always work).


I don't assume that I've got the clear when going thru an intersection, because I've seen too many cars t-boned by idiots that had no idea there was a red light there.

fechter said:

Ride like you're invisible is good advice.

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No it's not... It's only good 9 times out of 10. The advice I got when learning to ride a motorcycle was "Ride like every driver is looking to kill you if they can get away with it." And it's been good advice a couple of times as well. I had one driver make eye contact, then start merging into my lane to push me into the kerb. He then laughed and flipped the bird at me.

Maybe it's better in America, but recently, truck driver was charged after posting a video of himself menacing a peloton of cyclists. Like he said "“So we hate pushbikes, we are not allowed to run them over but we can f*** with them, so let’s have a crack,”" is the common mentality. The shocking bit wasn't that he filmed it and posted it. There's always a nutter given a large enough population. The shocking bit was the hundreds of thousands of likes and comments supporting him that he got.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/pushbikehating-truckie-deliberately-drenching-cyclists-with-water-sparks-a-social-media-storm/news-story/28ebe34bdf6a0f353ebe813a14701dde

In Australia, you literally do have to ride like people are trying to kill you - because probably 1 in 1000 would, if they could get away with it.

Bogus said:

My friend was mauled by an SUV on my eBike this weekend. Some lady hit him at an intersection while he was going 35mph and ran from the scene. Two dozen something people stopped to help, not a one saw her plate.

He was coming toward the light on a two laner and she was in the LEFT turn lane STOPPED at a red light perpendicular to his lane of travel. He claims to have been making eye contact with the driver the entire time but at the exact moment he passes in front of her she whips a RIGHT turn and smackes him off the bike into oncoming traffic, absolutely unbelievable! Even after he got back to my place people were coming up to him to ask if he was okay!

Please ride careful and wear your helmet and any pads you feel are necessary and remember absolutly NO ONE sees you.

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My friend driving a car almost hit a motorcycle at an stop-sign intersection.

The cycle was coming from the sunset and was hidden by the sun. It had straight pipes.

Observation: The loud exhaust pipe sends its noise towards the rear, and does not make the motorcycle more visible at all.

To be more visible, some front-firing daylight-visible strobe light is necessary.

One solution is the Air Zounds air horn.

You really want to try to predict where the guy would go? Coming home I had a guy turn left out of the parking lot and head wrongway straddling both lanes going my direction. Me in #2 means I can't swerve to the left because he's half in that lane and theoretically SHOULD be going more that way towards the opposite side anyway. But I'm against the curb and can't swerve to the right, he's still half in my lane. Then he swerves into the entrance of the gas station he could easily have gotten into from the parking lot, this as I've barely gotten to the brake and at last can at least swerve to the left.

As Sunder says, drive like they're trying to kill you. Except there's no opportunity to kill them first, as in doing justice to the situation.

Dauntless said:

You really want to try to predict where the guy would go? Coming home I had a guy turn left out of the parking lot and head wrongway straddling both lanes going my direction. Me in #2 means I can't swerve to the left because he's half in that lane and theoretically SHOULD be going more that way towards the opposite side anyway. But I'm against the curb and can't swerve to the right, he's still half in my lane. Then he swerves into the entrance of the gas station he could easily have gotten into from the parking lot, this as I've barely gotten to the brake and at last can at least swerve to the left.

As Sunder says, drive like they're trying to kill you. Except there's no opportunity to kill them first, as in doing justice to the situation.

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Saw an ebiker, riding on sidewalk, with a day-glo-lime-green FULL-FACE helmet.

That's a smart e-biker!

4LivesPerGallon said:

Saw an ebiker, riding on sidewalk, with a day-glo-lime-green FULL-FACE helmet.

That's a smart e-biker!

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HAHAHA THAT WAS ME!! THAT WAS TODAY! HAHA!! Seriously i think that was me where are you?

Some old guy hit me in his truck coming out of a gas station, I think knocked me off my bike but stopped before running me over(this was back in 2001). He was nice about it and apologized. Another stupid b$%ch turned onto a road right after I got off the sidewalk and onto the road, I slammed into the side of her van and left a big mark on it, lol. She didn't even know she hit me. I found the van by going thru the neighbor hood the next day, lied about having to replace my rim and got $80 from her, hehe. They were also nice about it.
People just don't think to look for bikes, only watch for cars so they can get driving again as fast as possible. I always just wait at intersections now for a walk light or to make sure it is clear.
Another time some shit head actually did see me about to cross thru a street coming off the sidewalk and sped up to make the turn getting in front of me so I had to slam my breaks to a dead stop. I yelled F#$K YOU, he stopped and tried to tell me it was his right of way(which actually is the law but still). The guy was just in some kind of mood and just wanted to take pleasure in it.
SOME ADVICE!!! Get a cell phone mount for your bike handlebars. Get an old apple phone and just mount it so people can see it. Smart phones (I assume they will think Apple is the most intimidating) to brain dead ornery old jerks who are always pissy when driving means "UH OH THEY COULD BE RECORDING ME" to them. People act so much differently when they see me riding now, always stopping to give me the right of way... IT IS GREAT! And to top it off I have had my justice once! I am on a road with construction work and no sidewalk, going with the wind flying down a hill. Some POS truck with a fu$%er looking guy starts to take off flooring his truck coming out another street, would not left me any option but to slam on my breaks, then slams on his breaks. There was no one behind me, he only waited 5 more seconds for me. Felt so good flying by that jerk! 8)
I have had this idea making some kind of lights to get the attention of people looking to the left for cars in order to turn right, but not blind them when they would glance over at it. Any idea's?

silviasol said:

I have had this idea making some kind of lights to get the attention of people looking to the left for cars in order to turn right, but not blind them when they would glance over at it. Any idea's?

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Look thru the last several pages of my CrazyBike2 and SB Cruiser threads at the nighttime pics of the bike and trike; if you light them up like that people will see you.

Whether they *care* after they see you might be another story, but they will see you.