Modern Vespa

Hi guys lots of posts on here about keeping safe wearing the right gear
mate sent me this video "gobsmacked"

Jesus..

stupid move by the motorcyclist, I can't really see what he was trying to achieve?

lucky for him the truck managed to take evasive action to miss him

I agree, it would have been a lot safer for him to just join the traffic and then slow down safely to a stop and then get off.

Stupid or not, it looks like it's a police bike with siren and flashing lights on. No idea what the driver of yellow seat was doing there but one thing is certain, they weren't looking ahead. erm.. block the lane for the ambulance? kind of obvious

exactly..............policeman with siren and flashing lights
what chance do the rest of us have
george

well in that case, he achieved what he set out to do

you know what I meant

my money's on the chap who hit him being on a mobile phone at the time. or maybe watching tv on his ipad or something.

as a motorcyclist, I don't expect cagers to be doing anything else


my point was that plonking yourself in the middle of the motorway endangers not only your own life but all the cars approaching in the blocked motorway, and it didn't look like the carriageway was overly busy (and there's always the hard shoulder)

maybe the car driver did see the motorcyclist, maybe he was distracted by a swerving lorry, braking car, ambulance and escort merging from the right, it looks like it all happened pretty quick, maybe he thought the police bike was trying to move into the outside lane, who knows?

100% but come on mate its a police bike ,hi viz flashing lights sirens
everybody knows "slow down and stop" where were they looking
george

Just because the motorbike has flashy lights and sirens means nowt.

If people aint looking, You won't be seen.

I suspect most of those flashy lights will be facing forward - Useless in this case.

Position, position, position.

police bikes have flashing lights front and back Maybe.
The car's not slowing down at all and swerves right last second. Doesn't look like they're paying attention to the road at all to me.

The car was mostly at fault for the accident. He should have been able to stop or change lanes. The blame goes to the cop. He was insanely stupid to stand in the middle of a busy road like that.

Question: Can we ever be safe on a motorcycle hi viz lights

Answer: Yes! As long as WE know that we are invisible, no matter what flashy colors and lights we may be wearing.

If you want to be safe you have to see and avoid all other traffic on the road. If you wear "hi-viz" you will expect others to avoid you, and you will be watching less. And not watching less is when you will be hurt.

The officer had the legal authority to pull into the lane, stop, and block traffic.....and not get T-boned. One of the harder things to teach some rookies is that just because society has empowered them with the "presumption of regularity/authority," doing something that is obviously unwise will often have catastrophic results.

this...

You can educate the ignorant, but you can't cure stupid.

If it is like every US police bike I've seen they have bight blue & red rlashers on the rear as well. Lights and sirens are pretty damned hard to ignore even if you are looking at a phone. Every vehicle in front of the yellow car moved over without any problems and there was nothing stopping the yellow car from doing so which puts the yellow car squarely at fault but with big truck blocking his view the officer would have been prudent to have gotten off the bike and moved out of traffic. I've seen that happen here on occasion when we've had a President in town and they are blocking road access.

OMG. I really do think there's a real hate for us 2 wheeled people. Cop or not. Halloween nite i was coming back from my friends parents house down the coast. Just came by the school on our beach road. It was dark and there's a intersection. Saw a car way down that road and he had to of seen me. I had my high beams on and we were the only 2 people on the road. Since he was far back i kept my speed. Suddenly i do a second check and he was in my lane already. Must of sped up and blew the stop sign. Now i was right in front of him and he had most of my lane. Not safe to go off on the side of the road there because of a drop. If you don't do it right your over. I squeaked by him (laid on the horn as i was doing it). I think the only reason he stopped was because HE was going to go off the road too. I was going to follow him but my sane side said no. Really who does that?

Are you saying hi-viz is a risk?

B i think he's saying it doesn't always make a difference and just because you wear Hi-Viz you shouldn't assume you'll be seen any better.

The driver of the yellow car was 100% to blame for the accident. When a cop is doing what he is trained to do to clear the way for the ambulance, that is not stupidity. Not being aware of and prepared for whatever is ahead of you is. The drivers that preceded the yellow car had no problem seeing and avoiding the cop in their lane.

You are making quite an assumption about everyone else's state of mind, Paladin.

I wear hi-viz, but never assume that drivers see me. If they aren't paying attention they're not seeing anything. I know that, and I ride accordingly. The hi-viz just provides an extra layer of safety, particularly in limited visibility situations.

agree 100%

Sorry, but no.
The thing about hi viz...it's high viz.

Yes, it's not sensible to think that it forms a forcefield around you, BUT it does make you more visible than if you're not wearing it.
Yes, if someone's driving blindfolded, they won't see your hi viz, but people who are driving competently WILL see you more clearly, and from further away, than if you weren't wearing it.

Considering the ambulance wasn't going any faster than the other traffic then there wasn't much point in the escorting rider being so far ahead and putting himself at risk by blocking the traffic. It just causes confusion for everyone. He'd of done better staying with the ambulance.

Obviously the drivers at fault for hitting him but you can easily picture it happening. The driver is in a steady moving queue of traffic headed by a large lorry. He looks down for 2 seconds to check his map as there's a junction coming up. He looks up. WTF!!!!

It could be as simple as the motorist loosing his or her ability to process the information before them. I know several people when faced with an immediate stressful situations behave irrationally. Irrationally may not be the right word, but I think you know what I mean.

That car driver wouldn't have seen a police car blocking the lane instead of the poor Cop on the Bike , Cops on bikes and cars block lanes for many reasons , if you don't see flashing lights , reflective clothing and everyone diverting from being aware , you shouldn't be driving or doing whatever distracted you to not see something in your lane with 100's of yards notice ...
I used to be a recovery driver for Notts and Derbyshire Police and the amount of muppets who hit coned off areas / temporary road/collision signs when we're dealing with bad R.T.A's is unbelievable ...

Shocking footage ...

Steve Looking down to check maps for a few seconds while driving at high speeds ... Your JOKING right ... jesus

And imho the copper was taking a wild risk to assume he'd be seen.

Absolutely this. A wild risk. I'm sorry, but I just cannot agree with that. Most accidents are avoidable, including this one. What was the bike officer thinking? That it was safe to stop in a lane on a Motorway type road, with all lanes potentially travelling at up to 130 kph plus?

I just don't think that would happen in the UK. I have seen British traffic police stop motorway traffic and they do it as a rolling block until the traffic has been brought to a standstill.

I think i,m almost as shocked by some of the responses as the incident
george

Based on sitting on a uk cop bike. His position sucked whilst sitting in that lane. Even if he had lights on his rear, his rear wasn't even facing oncoming traffic as he stopped at an angle.

Goes to show that all the safety gear in the world can't offset simple stupidity!

Seems to be a lot of aggro towards the cop. What's next, call firemen stupid for getting too close to fire?

While I lived in Abilene, Tx, a cop was hit and killed while riding on a main road with siren and lights flashing and a car pulled out I front of him from a side street...

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, Doug. It's not uncommon around here to encounter a police vehicle stopped in a lane on a freeway (our equivalent of your motorway). An alert, undistracted driver traveling at a reasonable speed has plenty of time to stop.

Really though, why would the bike make that manoeuvre?

He's so far ahead of the ambulance, and there's plenty of room to merge normally - I'm struggling to see the need to block that lane.

Over here, I just don't believe an officer would try to use that strategy. The guy is basically trusting his life that he'll be seen in time. He has no exit strategy. His life is entirely in someone else's hands. I'm sure he's got nothing but good intentions, and hope he recovers quickly, but I don't think it's a good tactic to try to bring motorway traffic to a stop.