Originally Posted By: The_Eric
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It just occurred to me that you were placing sole blame on the driver of the pickup and from what I could glean from Jason's post, the motorcycle rider was rapidly accelerating into the intersection.
I suppose the simple truth is this: Neither you nor I know 100% what happened in that intersection. You appear to be a motorcycle rider who sees people in cars and trucks doing stupid things all the time and may be a bit biased, and I am going off of Jason's account, which places some of the responsibility on the rider too. It may be that neither of us are "right".
I am a motorcycle rider, but I don't need to be to see stupidity on the road, I see stupid things from car truck and motorcycles on the road on at least a daily basis.
My point, two of them actually, is simply this:
- Whatever anyone else did wrong that day, motorcyclist, other motorist waving across, the state - If the driver had not made a decison to cross the travel lane without a clear line of sight and verification that it was safe to cross the motorcyclist would not have been killed.
- The motorcyclist was a person, with a name and a future, and a Warrior in the service of the United States, no one should forget that.
By his own admission Jason has a bias in this case, I also find for whatever reason his account of 2 gears wound out - doubtful, the bike would have been well in excess of 90MPH if that were truly the case. Also Jason did not report hearing the impact which I find strange. It could be that the silence was simply the end of the acceleration (vs the point of impact) and the cyclist was coasting or braking.
Conjecture yes, but no more than some of the other postings.
Non-riders seem to identify heavily with someone like Gordon, probably because it is easy to see how most anyone could find themselves in this sort of situation on most any given day with the right set of circumstances. Even Jason (whom I have a great deal of respect for, and makes many thoughtful post) stopped short of saying he felt sorry for Holden, while feeling sorry for Gordon.
My position is that Gordon should feel pretty bad since he was involved in a fatal accident. But I wish him no ill will, perhaps he can use his experience in some way that can save other drivers and riders from the same experience.
Originally Posted By: The_Eric
...I'd like to add that while the LEOs and the investigators are usually pretty good at what they do, they are not infallible. There many accounts- both here on BITOG and out on the interwebs of investigators making blatant mistakes. After all, everybody is human...
No doubt this is true, in fact I have personal knowledge of a case where a driver was charged with vehicular homicide, yet further investigation revealed the charge was unwarranted and the charges were dropped.
Still, as a general rule drivers are often not charged in car vs bike incidents. You can read countless accounts on ADV or most any other motorcycle forum you choose of drivers not being charged.
To the original question, much of it has been answered much more eloquently than I could, but one thing covered in an MSF course is that motorcycles frequently have more escape routes than a car if the threat is recognized.
