No harm no foul?
 

I was almost a Memorial day statistic.
Yesterday, while stopping at a light on a suburban street, I avoided getting rammed from behind by a pickup going over 60mph, by swerving right. It was a split second, a foot of space, my little Nissan. I saw him barreling towards me in the rearview mirror. The truck missed me, skidding into an intersection, lost part of the wood loaded on its roof, which would have skewered me like a spear chucked through my rear window. The road was posted 45mph. I guess he didnt see the huge intersection,massive red traffic lights, and, obviously, all the other vehicles on the road. Let's everyone just slow down please.

Sorry to hear about that Warch, but glad that you're okay.

Was it raining? For some reason, many folks seem to think that speed should increase with the rate of rain.

Re: No harm no foul?
 

says warch as she flips through Guns and Ammo magazine thinking somebodies got to start enforcing these laws

Seriously though nothing says Memorial Day greetings like a fatal traffic accident. I hate driving on holidays, its like its everyones first time behind the wheel.

Well why don't you people speed up and get out of the way?
Oh yeah, and quit stopping in the middle of the damn road everytime the light turns red.:rolleyes:

Heh... I once got honked for stopping at a green light... silly me... just because there were two fire trucks blasting through the intersection from the other direction, I guess I should have just gone on thru since I had the green light.

No harm, no fear
 

I had one accident when I was 14 years old. Until now I sill fear car and don't dare to close it.

Your bad Steve. How was that person that was eating their Crispy Creme, drinking coffee, adjusting the stereo, answering the phone, checking the OnStar map, combing their hair and entertaining the kidlet in the back seat, supposed to know you were going to be in the way? Silly you.:rolleyes:
Billy. More details. Someone hit you? On a bike or walking? How old do you have to be to drive? Do you have to get a licence? If so, how do you get one? Do drivers have insurance?

For the record: Sunny, beautiful, 70 degrees.

Sorry but you'll have to explain that term to us on the east coast. It's a historical reference of some kind, isn't it?:D
My buddy got nailed Sunday. Right lane of a 4 lane road. Starts up from a light and the car to his left suddenly stops so he looks to the left just in time to see a girl in an Escort slide into him. No serious injuries, thankfully. She was going fast on a wet road and didn't see the light until the last second. Bang.:(

Had a friend do an endo over a mini-van a couple of years back. Ugh. He was southbound, the other driver (northbound) turned left into McDonald's (to warch: the one on 15th, north of campus). Only problem, the drive-through was full, and there was no room to pull out of oncoming traffic, so he just stopped perpendicularly. My friend didn't have time to stop, though the bike was able to, and he somersaulted, landed on his face (ruined the full helmet he got THAT DAY), and hit the curb.
I actually drove by shortly after it happened and remember thinking, damn. Whoever was on the losing end of that must be in bad shape. Sure enough, he was.
So remember, always assume the other guy will do something stupid. It's saved my life once or twice.

Ack. I know the spot well. 15th's my daily bike commute. I'm glad your friend had a helmet and hope hes ok- maybe just a lingering uneasiness near the golden arches?

"I didn't see him!" Why? Fundamental science. We all have a big blank spot in our eyes. We do not see anything directly in front - where the optic nerve leaves the eyeball. In order to see something - well watch a TV drama where two people are up close. To see the other person, eyes flash left and right as if looking into the right eyeball, then left eyeball. That to compensate for a big hole in human vision.

Human must either watch long enough for the eyeball to take two different snapshots of a road, OR human must look down road twice. Either way for the brain to build a complete picture.

"I didn't see him" is what happens when the driver does not practice basic human safety. Again a classic example that there is no such thing as an accident. All are crashes directly traceable to, in this cases, bad human driving practices. It is why cell phone - even hands free type - cause crashes.

Problem: too many humans will even deny this blank spot exists. But that center hole is why a human cannot glance and see everything. That hole is why the human must practice looking twice before acting on what he sees. That hole is why too many humans call it an accident rather than first confront their own bad habits - which include but are not limited to cell phone useage.

My motorcycle riding uncle and I have an additional theory as to this "I didn't see him" excuse.

People in cars are binary. Something approaching them is either car or not_car. The processing algorithm is:

if (thing = car) then call additional_processing_power
else call go_now

Since not_car can also be defined as "not_a_threat" then there's no issue with calling the go_now subroutine/struct/method.

"additional_processing_power" does things like double checks for velocity and integrates to get distance, reapplies the brake pedal pressure, stuff like that.

I think you're right arz. That would explain why when we see something, the hands and feet go into action before we completely focus on the threat.
I quit riding because it's just too dangerous trying to compete with cars. It cracks me up when I see these B movies with a hoodlum on a motorcycle terrorizing someone in a car. He might as well be trying to derail a train on horseback. :eek:

I think your uncle has something there. I've had cars pull out in front of me many times when I was sure they took their time and looked right at me. Pete and I have taken to waving at these cars which seems to break them out of their fog. In my experience the aged have been the worst offenders either from years of applying the algorithm or poor eyesight.

A nice loud slap on the trunk acts as a nice wake the blank up next time idiot.