First ever accident with car.

[bullerboarder]

Hi all,

well i'd almost forgot wondering when my my first incident on a bike would be. Not now.


On the way home from work today and was following a newish mitsubishi. This one had pink personalised plates and was driven by a young blonde. That was the first warning sign I overlooked.

Approaching the roundabout in Belliar Rd near the train line and new Coles development, she was going in for the left lane and I thought, no probs, I'll take the right lane and will get by her easy. So im in the roundabout now (maybe 40kmh ,not sure) and she crosses straight into my lane and starts to close the door on me.

I hit the brakes and went to the right as much as i could but had no where to go as the curb was coming up quickly on my right. The back end of her car was in contact with the front of my bike for a good second or so (seemed a hell of a lot longer) as I continued braking and hit the horn. Luckily I was far enough back that i just missed the roundabout curb as she pulled in front. If id hit that curb i was going down hard.

So i expect her to pull over but , no, she keeps going, even as i'm waving her over and honking behind her. She turns right and up the road with me following and pulls into a driveway which is seems to be her house. Not knowing what to expect as I pull in behind her, she gets out and apologises profusely straight away. My anger subsides a bit as she seems more shocked than me what happened. She said she was scared and didnt know what to do. I look at my bike and, amazingly, it looks fine and I tell her to be more careful and pay attention. She seems to genuinely acknowledge this so I see no point in going completely off at her and leave telling her again to be more aware.

Hopefully she learns a valuable lesson. The 2 decent scratches across her back quarter panel ( from my handle bar ends or clutch lever i'd say) will hopefully remind her!

And don't forget my valuable lesson,

I must remember that they are all trying to kill me and not get complacent which is what I did. I've had my license since June and ride this stretch of road every day.

I know i could have easily avoided the situation in the first place by trusting my instincts to not trust her and not trying to pass thru on the roundabout, even though there were 2 lanes and she was in the wrong.

Wake up call for both.

[Mickwoo]

Well she could have offered some form of stress release.

[ReCon]

….D'ja get her number for, you know , compensation.

[bullerboarder]

Haha Mickoo, yeah that would have definitely made things better!

Hang on , there might be a few scratches on my bike and there's no need to go thru her insurance which will be very expensive when other compensation will suffice. I know where she lives.

[bennings]

thanks for a heads up ......sometimes i get complacent going the same way to work day in day out ( road riding since june also )
glad to know that damage was minimal to you n yours
cheers c

[thro]

Sorry to hear.

Approaching the roundabout in Belliar Rd near the train line and new Coles development, she was going in for the left lane and I thought, no probs, I'll take the right lane and will get by her easy. So im in the roundabout now (maybe 40kmh ,not sure) and she crosses straight into my lane and starts to close the door on me. .

As per my how not to die thread (roadcraft thread or something, ill try find it and link, there's a heap of good shit in there from the PSB collective) - one thing I've picked up on roundabouts:

- If going straight through, always use the left lane.

For this exact reason. Perth drivers are cunts. They WILL turn right from the left lane as you have discovered. It's even more fun in the rain (as it was when I narrowly escaped a similar fate first time).

Glad to hear you're still OK and not too banged up to be here posting about it.

edit:
here: http://www.perthstreetbikes.com/foru...t-tips-148925/

[wheresmybadger]

So i'm guessing she's missed its motorcycle awareness week on those big signs everywhere

glad you kept it up.

[thro]

So i'm guessing she's missed its motorcycle awareness week on those big signs everywhere

hahahaha


oh wait were you serious?

Unless it was posted on facebook or twitter then yeah, she probably missed it.

[bullerboarder]

cheers [MENTION=7023]thro[/MENTION]

I remember reading that thread and others when I first found PSB. Good time to re-read it!

I posted this to hopefully remind other new riders that it is easy to get complacent and put yourself in a bad position, like I did.

Was lucky this time.

[thro]

Yup, could have been a lot worse.

Review it, figure out how to prevent it, and hopefully avoid it in the future

[Johnno]

Great outcome really,no damage to you but a real wake up call to how quickly a good ride can go bad when complacency kicks in.

[Huggy]

I must remember that they are all trying to kill me and not get complacent which is what I did.

Nah, they aren't trying to kill you, they are just ignorant. Most car drivers don't think to look for motorcycle sized objects.

In my first few months of riding I'd always be going on about how dangerous riding is, and how people were always trying to kill me.

With a little bit more experience under my belt, these days it's rare for me to have a 'near hit'. Sure, sometimes things happen that are the fault of other drivers, but the more you learn about where to position yourself to avoid these things the less often you're put in shitty situations like yours.

Glad you've learnt a bit from it and aren't injured. Hopefully she's learnt too!

Cheers for sharing

[Hewzie]

Good result, dude! You are dead right about the 'warning signs'. I give a massive wide berth to any skanky pink number-plated car. I'm thinking mob phone and little road experience. It might be wrong to generalise but that's just what I do to stay upright.
We could all take 30 secs to reflect on what happened to you and learn from it. Stay sharp of mind, troops!

[Archie]

If going straight through, always use the left lane.

Only avoids one type of accident; most common thing that happens to me is someone in the right lane cutting over into the left either mid-way or when they're exiting the roundabout. You just straight up can't stop people being fuckwits, you've got to either stay the hell away from them or be quick enough to get the fuck away from them when they come too close.

[thro]

Only avoids one type of accident; most common thing that happens to me is someone in the right lane cutting over into the left either mid-way or when they're exiting the roundabout. You just straight up can't stop people being fuckwits, you've got to either stay the hell away from them or be quick enough to get the fuck away from them when they come too close.

Never said it prevents all accidents, however getting forced into a t-bone by being in the right with NOWHERE to go is one thing you can mitigate. If someone tries to drive over you on the left hand lane, you have escape options - you can go off the side of the road over the kerb with the bike reasonably upright (not ideal, but less painful than being run over), brake/straighten up and wash off speed, etc. going up over the curb on the INSIDE whilst leaned over (and you'd need to add a lot more lean to do it) is a lot less likely to end well.

If you're trying to deal with a fuckwit turning right across your path in front of you whilst leant over negotiating the roundabout (typically it will happen just as you're changing lean from right to left) you don't have a lot of options - basically the only option is brake and hope you slow down enough and don't straighten up and run into them, or possibly into the path of the car behind them. In my case I was just lucky enough to have enough room to slow down enough (in the rain, real lucky i half expected it to happen) enough for them to pass through in front of me.


Staying left through roundabouts when going straight is about maximizing your options. Which is a lot of what road riding is about - analyzing your situation, thinking ahead and setting yourself up to maximize your available options, give yourself the best vision you can so you get as much advance warning of stuff as possible, slow in/fast out/late apex, etc.

Nah, they aren't trying to kill you, they are just ignorant. Most car drivers don't think to look for motorcycle sized objects.

If you ASSUME they are trying to kill you, you're a lot more pro-active about positioning yourself out of their ability to do so. The whole "they're out to kill you" thing is just to put you in the proper frame of mind to keep safe. Don't trust a car to do the right/legal thing. Ever.

Expect them to run that red light. Expect them to turn right from the left lane. Expect them to not check their blind spot. Expect them to cross 2-3 lanes of traffic to make the exit they should have been in the left lane for 500m ago, etc.

You'll live longer.