I've heard or read three stories in the last few days about accidents caused by cars running a bike off the road.
First this one I read last Friday.
But police say Arlene McNellis did not see him out there that afternoon, when they both stopped by this three-way intersection two weeks ago. Arlene was turning right to head back home to Wendell. Lee, who came from behind to make a right, says he did not see Arlene turn on her blinker. To protect himself, Lee was forced to put down his motorcycle.
"If I hadn't laid it down, she'd would have hit me or run me over," Lee says.
Then my friend Bam was run off the road last Saturday during the Jim Adams Memorial Ride. A group of riders had to chase down the offending driver and escort him back to the scene. Bam has a fractured collar bone, two broken ribs and a separated shoulder. From what I've been told by other friends who ride, a broken collar bone is no joke and could take you down for a season. On top of that, Bam is a hard working guy who puts a lot of hours into his company. Who knows how that's going to play out.
This morning there's this article from Oregon.
Turner said the vehicle drove into the middle of the group of motorcyclists and ran one of those motorcyclists off the road.
"Forced him out of his lane, he hit gravel, and then he lost control," said Turner. "I just can't believe that somebody would do that. These guys were riding safe...they were riding at a safe speed and this guy went right into the middle of them."
And to add insult to injury, guys who gave chase to the offending driver are in jail.
When I got my first street bike for my 18th birthday, my dad said "If you ride like everyone is out to kill you, you might survive". It didn't take long to understand that this was not an overstatement. In those early days I heard nice little tips like "carry ball bearing in your pocket" or "throw some porcelain at their window". The point here being that bikers for years have had to defend themselves on the road. It doesnt matter whether you wear a helmet, a high viz vest, ride a crotch rocket or a vespa. It doesnt matter whether you ride alone, in a staggered pack or a two abreast pack. Sooner or latter this is going to happen to you. Not being seen by drivers does goes with the territory but most of the time when it happens, I glare at them, they throw and apologetic wave and that's that. In most cases a quick brake or acceleration diffuses the situation. Once in a while it's closer than that and I have no problem getting in front of them and slow down to a crawl, I've walked up on them at a stop light loudly alerting them to what they did, I've even followed people to where they were going. The more egregious the offense, the greater the response.
It seems like lately it's gotten worse. Not in the frequency as it's still nearly a daily thing but most people will acknowledge that something just happened. What's different now is how people are involved an accident and leave the rider for dead. They have to be forced to take responsibility for what they did and when confronted (as in Bam's case) they act like they didn't do anything wrong or somehow it's the biker's fault. Granted, if I was an ignorant cager who watched too much Gangland and Sons of Anarchy, I'd be pissing down my leg and saying whatever if chased down by a bunch of pissed off bikers. If the driver had simply acknowledged that a human being was laying on the side of the road, there would be no need for a chase in the fucking first place. In all three cases above, the offending driver had to be chased down and quite frankly I don't think the reaction from the bikers was entirely out of line. I would have done exactly the same thing.
