If you die on a motorcycle it's always your fault

[jackfaire]

Let me paint you a scene. Your walking you press the button wait for the walk sign and it says walk you start to cross the road someone that came to the intersection decides even though they have a red light light and you have the right of way to make a left turn anyway and they kill you.

People will rightfully blame the driver of the car who was taking illegal and negligent actions that resulted in your death.

A friend of mine lost her Uncle but he wasn't in a crosswalk he was on a motorcycle and apparently that shifts the blame to him because according to some of the comments on the article I will link in a moment it was his responsibility of whether or not he got hit. Thoughts?

http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/j...dies-in-crash/

[Jack]

All I can figure is that people who do idiotic things on motorcycles paint a bad stereotype of all motorcyclists, and then when one gets killed by someone else's actions, people assume it was the crazy rebel biker doing something stupid or that getting killed or mangled is to be expected and not complained about. Obviously the bike isn't as safe as a cage in a collision, but to blame the biker for being a biker is ridiculous.

[ExRetailDrone]

I can't believe that people are blaming the biker, or trying to say that he was going too fast and that's what caused the accident. That's bullshit! My husband was in a crash similar to this, although he was in a car and the other driver in an SUV and no one was seriously injured, thankfully. My husband was going straight through a green light, and the other person was coming from the other direction turning left. She decided to make her turn right as my husband was under the traffic light. Obviously, she smashed into him, but her father had the audacity to try to tell the cops that my husband was at fault because he was speeding. Even if he was, that has no bearing on the fact that she turned into him when he had the right of way.

My heart goes out to this man's friends and family. What a horrible tragedy. Bikers have every right to be as safe on the road as possible just like those in an enclosed vehicle.

[BlaqueKatt]

A friend of mine lost her Uncle but he wasn't in a crosswalk he was on a motorcycle and apparently that shifts the blame to him because according to some of the comments on the article I will link in a moment it was his responsibility of whether or not he got hit. Thoughts?

Happens to any vehicle that isn't a car-I see it in stories about bicycle vs. car crashes all the time in the comments-including one where there was video of the car in question speeding through a red light....(that driver didn't even get any kind of citation as he was a city official)

[Exaspera]

Actually, the commentary I read was all good. There was maybe two criticisms about the bike rider, but the rest were on the rider's side!

[Wingates_Hellsing]

The whole idea of choosing something less totally secure = all blame on you has and always will be a stupid idea. Most people know this, some don't, but that always happens.

It's a scale really, starting with segways and bicycles up through motorcycles of various types, cars, vans, SUVs and trucks, armored cars 18wheelers and the like and ending with APCs, IFVs and tanks (which, I saw an enthusiast drving an M60(?) with police escort presumably to transport it from one place to the other.)

IF you collide with anything significantly heavier than you, you're gonna be hurt more, but only an abject moron would follow that through to it's logical conclusion: Strykers for everyone!

[Jack]

Any traffic accident you get into is all your fault because you don't drive a Bagger 288.

[Red Panda]

Bikers are expexted to be extra vigelant on the road because they are not in a safe vehicle.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I ride a motorbike, and I am incredibly vigilant. I always look before turning, I drive at a reasonable speed and I don't take stupid risks.

However, despite my care, I still had a car driver knock me off my bike about seven years ago while attempting to overtake me. He was entirely at fault; I was driving at 40 mph, ie the speed limit, and he was not looking where he was going. He swerved to avoid a traffic island and smashed into me, sending me flying backwards on to the road, where I whacked my head and at the impact, slid several feet up the road with the bike on top of me.

However, I don't bear him any ill will cuz firstly he admitted he was at fault, rather than trying to blame me; and second, as I was told by the paramedics afterwards, they had to calm him down as well as working on me cuz he was hysterically shouting that he'd killed me.

A good friend of mine died in a motorbike accident a couple of years ago, and no-one was to blame. It was just a tragic accident, and we've all accepted that. If anyone had dared to say that he was to blame, then they would have gotten a rocket from everyone mourning him. He was not to blame; neither was the driver. It was an ACCIDENT.

Having said that, I have seen several cretins on crotch rockets careering down the road at breakneck speed, while wearing shorts and t-shirts; idiots wearing fucking flip flops on bikes; and people, even wearing jackets and boots, who think that they can forego wearing gloves. While it's not against the law to wear beach clothes on a motorbike, it's incredibly stupid; kind of akin to driving your car without a seatbelt and all the doors wide open.

You might not think you'll have an accident, but there's always the chance that someone else may not be driving so carefully as you, and will hit you. All you can do is minimise the chances of being seriously hurt. My friend was leathered up to the hilt and was driving at the speed limit; it was just bad luck his accident turned out to be fatal. I was leathered up to the hilt when I had my accident; all my injuries (broken hand, two broken ribs) were due to the bike falling on me. Had I not been leathered up, they would have been much more serious.

[jackfaire]

My friend's Uncle they found did everything right the only thing more he could have done was to be psychic.

I know not everyone was blaming him what irritated me was that anyone was at all. One of the things that is just an extra kick to the gut is that it was his son's birthday.

[crashhelmet]

As a rider, i worry about drivers like this all the time. Hell, I worry about these people when I'm in my truck. Some people either think that they own the road or other people will see them and slow down or whatever. Pisses me off.

Then I get the jack ass on the rice rocket today. I'm driving down the road in my Silverado 1500 at 45 mph when this jack ass on a motorcycle darts out from a parking lot across my lane. I slammed on my brakes, left a trail of rubber behind me, and almost wrecked myself swerving out of the way. Fuckin idiot!

CH