Modern Vespa

I was on my way to the gym last night. Was waiting at the stop sign to make a left turn at a T-intersection. I saw a truck backing out of his drive way on my left hand side. Naturally, I assumed that any cars coming toward the truck would need to yield so I proceed making the left turn. As it turned out, another car coming toward the truck did not have the patient and swirled around on my side of the lane in order to make a quick pass. By this time, I was already half way through making my left turn and had to put on an abrupt stop. Needless to say, I loss my balance and dropped the scoot. There was minor scratches to the left front fender but the real injury was to the area slightly above my heel, since I was wearing tennis shoes rather than my usual riding boots. Somehow that part got pressed against the scoot during the drop. I just wish there had been a cop parking somewhere nearby who could have witnessed the whole event and gave the idiot a ticket for illegal lane crossing. The whole incident happened so fast I did not have time to gather my thoughts. The first thing I did was picked up my scoot and heard the driver of the car asked if I was okay. Without thinking, I nodded my head to signal to him that I was not seriously hurt. He took that as a good sign and immediately took off. Thought I share this incident with you folks so that you all remember to be more careful riding. Lots of crazy drivers out there.

Sooo, I take it you're going to wear your full gear from now on....
Naturally, I'm glad you're not seriously injured.

It seems there is some weird Murphy's Law clause that addresses the circumstance that if you are not prepared, things will go wrong. I mean, since you didn't wear your boots, that's when it goes wrong....

I'm superstitious. I think the one time I'm not fully prepared is when the bad things happen.....

Thanks for sharing...Take care....Ride Safely.... Have Fun....Jacq

Thanks for sharing that Dan. Helps to keep us thinking. Here is what I gathered from your post: 1. Never assume that cars will do anything. 2. Practice "panic" stops at all speeds and especially when turning.

Are you sure the car was 100% at fault and you were blameless? I am not.
If I remember the rules of the road correctly any time you enter a road it is your responsibility to make sure it is safe to do so. I would say all 3 vehicles are at fault. That truck should not have been backing out if it forced someone to slow down or stop. The car should probably been more careful going around the truck and as I mentioned, you should not have entered the road when it was not safe to do so. Actually of all three I think the car was least at fault.

Regardless of legalities of the situation, you could have ended up a hood ornament. Perhaps waiting a few seconds before making your turn is worth it to give you a clear field of view and the knowledge that it is safe to proceed.

Glad to hear it was just a minor incident though and that you are relatively okay.

I'm delighted it wasn't any worse - but I'm afraid I have to agree with Alba.

If you can't see around an obstacle, someone the other side can't see you, and in this case may not have been able to see the turning either. So they would only be checking that the road ahead was clear for the overtake. Only if there was a solid (white in the UK) centre line that they shouldn't have crossed would they have taken a share of the blame.

However, the actual circumstances and visibility issues are unknown to me, so I'm only suggesting!

Alba - The thing with mishaps or accidents, there are tons of "what if" after they happened. In my case, what if the driver of the truck was more cautious in backing out of his drive way? What if I had waited for the driver of the truck to complete backing out of his drive way and let him passes me by before making my left turn? What if the coming car did not illegally swirled over to the opposite lane to pass the truck? That said, your points are well taken. Next time, I will wait for a few seconds longer before making my turn to avoid all of the "what if". You would probably make a good attorney.

Anytime I have an "incident" (and I have plenty) I analyze the "what ifs" that I had control over to see what I could have done better. I have had a few close calls where I have had the right of way but that is little consolation if I fall off. By adopting a more defensive riding strategy I keep these situations to a minimum now.

I was concerned by your post as you seemed to blame it on a crazy driver and imply there was nothing you could have done to avoid it. Look at it from his point of view. He's driving along and some idiot backs out onto the road in front of him. There is no oncoming traffic so he makes a legal pass (assuming no solid lines on the road) only to find some motorcyclist pulling out from an intersection into his path. Does that sound so crazy? And questions of blame aside, there will only ever be one loser in a car/bike collision.

I try to learn from my mistakes and given that we learn most from our mistakes, I am well on my way to becoming an expert

Consider it a lesson learned