Giving us a bad image.

[anglachel]

@ 51 seconds is what haunts me. After the bump and everyone is stopped, that SUV runs over several bikes and bikers.... I saw one guy off his bike about 30 yards in front of the SUV, but almost no movement at all close to the SUV.... I'm sorry, but totally blaming the guys riding seems wrong to me. The driver of that SUV scares me...

The accident was clearly on the bikers... what happened after that is hard to say we don't see that part... but given that there are motorcycles on all sides of the SUV... reason was not the order of the day, likely on one side first (probably the ones that were driving in the same lane as a 4000 lb suv) and then on the other side when reason didn't make sense as an option for dealing with the unreasonable...

Most of us who ride on two wheels know that a car can be just as deadly of a weapon as a bullet (heck a SUV moving at 60 mph carries more energy than just about any bullet)
There comes a point where self defense might be the same as vehicular manslaughter...

I've little doubt watching the start of the video that the guy in the SUV wanted to hit any of the bikers... though one of them really didn't give him that options when he put his rear tire under the SUV's front bumper...

 

[anglachel]

Just a note on the two photos above,,and the first one hardly any are wearing helmets (lids) the second they all are...what does that tell us,, "I do,nt know"" but there must be a morel in it somewhere!!!

The second photo every one has a full face helmet...
I'd guess it's either because:
1) when you do stupid shit, your more likely to get into an accident.
or
2) a full face helmet does a fair job of hiding your identity... anonymity often has a different set of behaviors (cause or effect, who knows.)

 

[Old Can Ride]

Peer group pressure in both pictures.

 

[SergeantChuck]

As soon as the rider made the decision to harass the SUV driver things were going to go bad. No two ways about it. Regarless of who did what. Something bad was going to happen.

 

[Harald]

Here are my thoughts, in pictures!

Group of bikers:

Not sure about other states, but here in Washington it is required that vehicles keep right except to pass on multi lane roads. On rural 2 lane roads, it is illegal to hold up more than 5 vehicles without pulling over and allowing them to pass. Those huge packs of pirates on obnoxiously loud bikes, as shown in the picture, are breaking the law and annoying the general public by blocking traffic. They may not be pulling wheelies, but are still giving motorcycles a bad name. And there's much more of that left lane blocking, noise belching activity going on than the rare pack of stunters. I'm not convinced that one group is worse than the other......

 

[bonnielover]

@ 51 seconds is what haunts me. After the bump and everyone is stopped, that SUV runs over several bikes and bikers.... I saw one guy off his bike about 30 yards in front of the SUV, but almost no movement at all close to the SUV.... I'm sorry, but totally blaming the guys riding seems wrong to me. The driver of that SUV scares me...

This made the CBS evening national news last night. Regarding running over the bike… a) The guy was surrounded my hooligan bikers and had a right to make a fast exit b) the bike/guy that got run over was probably intentionally trying to block the SUV's exit c) in the SUV, even though high, may have not clearly seen the bike he hit d) if he swerved to avoid the one that got run over, he might of run into others.
I agree with others here that his only option was to leave the scene.

 

[Big Thump]

The second photo every one has a full face helmet...
I'd guess it's either because:
1) when you do stupid shit, your more likely to get into an accident.
or
2) a full face helmet does a fair job of hiding your identity... anonymity often has a different set of behaviors (cause or effect, who knows.)

GoPro video of license tags will not hide anything from the authorities. Those videos will be used in court for sure, and some of those bikes are very identifiable.

 

[OldJeff]

OK, so the new legal precedent is you will get off scott-free when you use your vehicle as a weapon and flee the scene of a accident as long as it's against "hooligan" bikers and/or you panicked and/or you feared for the safety of you and your family.

Example scene:

There's OldJeff and his bike crumpled, crushed and bloody lying on the pavement with a Police Officer and small family standing nearby.

Officer: What happened and why did you run over that biker?

Husband: He looked like a hooligan biker and I feared for the safety of my family, then I panicked.

Officer: Oh? well, that's all right then. Move along, nothing to see here.

End scene.

Why do I feel even less safe on two wheels now?

 

[n30r3l0ad3d]

I thought I would chime in, as this was all over fox news at work last night.

EVERYONE INVOLVED was at fault, and they should ALL be held responsible for their actions. It doesn't matter who started what, EVERYONE involved made bad decisions.

 

[SlowSteve]

This is why, whether I'm on 2 wheels or 4 wheels, I always always always stay out of the way of large groups of bikes.

Whether it's the Harleys in the image above - note that theres about 15 of them within the Two Second Rule, let alone that they look like scary guys, the hooners attacking an SUV or just bad riders pushing themselves too hard to keep up with faster riders, there just never seems to be a circumstance where it's a good plan to be around a large group if bikes.

Like someone else said, I just pull over and let them get well ahead of me.

A question that one of my amercian friends asked was "If the SUV was under attack, does it count as a Stand Your Ground rule?"

 

[turbodieseli4i6]

OK, so the new legal precedent is you will get off scott-free when you use your vehicle as a weapon and flee the scene of a accident as long as it's against "hooligan" bikers and/or you panicked and/or you feared for the safety of you and your family.

Example scene:

There's OldJeff and his bike crumpled, crushed and bloody lying on the pavement with a Police Officer and small family standing nearby.

Officer: What happened and why did you run over that biker?

Husband: He looked like a hooligan biker and I feared for the safety of my family, then I panicked.

Officer: Oh? well, that's all right then. Move along, nothing to see here.

End scene.

Why do I feel even less safe on two wheels now?

When you block all of the escape routes you leave the cage no other option but to run over you..(Fight or flight) Block a 4000# cage with a 400# bike will work huh. Duh! Natural selection has a way with weeding these kind of guys out.
My choice would be to get my family away from danger at all cost. If a group of thugs blocked all of my escape routes, I would probably do the same thing.
If you act like a thug, you get what you deserve in my books. If something like this happened in my state. I'm betting the thugs that pulled the SUV driver out of the car would have probably been shot. I would also bet that most of those tough thugs would scatter like mice when a few of them got shot.
These thugs are no different than terrorist in my books. They pack up like idiots and ride like the law does not apply to them.

 

[Naked_Duc]

I complete agree with you, turbodieseli4i6. Those guys are thugs. Their initial intent was malice and to disrupt order by blocking the entire hwy traffic for a stunt. This is also the same group that blocked off Times Square with another stunt. It's nothing but mob mentality and social terrorism. I won't say the down riders deserve what had happened to them. But when you play with fire, don't cry foul when you get burned.

I hope this event doesn't escalate into a social class war, a race war, the Haves vs. the Have-Nots. I am pretty sure the SUV driver will eventually get sued in the civil court but I hope for the best for the driver. IMHO, he did nothing wrong; he did everything that any other husband/father would do to protect his family.

 

[Naked_Duc]

If you act like a thug, you get what you deserve in my books. If something like this happened in my state. I'm betting the thugs that pulled the SUV driver out of the car would have probably been shot. I would also bet that most of those tough thugs would scatter like mice when a few of them got shot.

Those thugs prey on the weak and defenseless. You wouldn't have to fire the gun. Simply drawing the weapon would level the playing field and they would disperse. They are cowards to begin with. That's why they travel in pack to intimidate.

 

[SergeantChuck]

We could hijack the thread just on that topic but all I will say is if you draw a weapon you better be willing to use it. You never know what the other guys does or does not have. And I am a gun packing advocate.

 

[Naked_Duc]

To keep in perspective of this event, the husband/father should do whatever is necessary to protect his family. It's either fight or flight. He chose "flight" which had certain consequences. Some might choose to "fight", which would have other consequences, and a CCW would be perfectly appropriate. I would leave it at that.

 

[SergeantChuck]

I agree with that 100% and to be honest I would most likely done exactly what this guy did given the circumstances.

 

[davidc83]

So OldJeff, you didn't read the part where the bikers were slashing his tires, car, windows before he panicked huh? You tell me, you have your baby in the car, a gang starts slashing your tires, car, and windows with knives, you going to just sit there or are you going to flee, running over the bikers if necessary? Tell us OldJeff, a gang is attacking you with knives, what are you going to do?
The reason the SUV got off the interstate and got stopped at the traffic light because of the slashed tires-he was trying to fine safety.

 

[johnakay]

OK, so the new legal precedent is you will get off scott-free when you use your vehicle as a weapon and flee the scene of a accident as long as it's against "hooligan" bikers and/or you panicked and/or you feared for the safety of you and your family.

Example scene:

There's OldJeff and his bike crumpled, crushed and bloody lying on the pavement with a Police Officer and small family standing nearby.

Officer: What happened and why did you run over that biker?

Husband: He looked like a hooligan biker and I feared for the safety of my family, then I panicked.

Officer: Oh? well, that's all right then. Move along, nothing to see here.

End scene.

Why do I feel even less safe on two wheels now?

sorry oldjeff ya talking a load of tosh.
what they did was thuggery and cowardly.
would you feel less safe in your car if that happened to you??

 

[davidc83]

When you block all of the escape routes you leave the cage no other option but to run over you..(Fight or flight) Block a 4000# cage with a 400# bike will work huh. Duh! Natural selection has a way with weeding these kind of guys out.
My choice would be to get my family away from danger at all cost. If a group of thugs blocked all of my escape routes, I would probably do the same thing.
If you act like a thug, you get what you deserve in my books. If something like this happened in my state. I'm betting the thugs that pulled the SUV driver out of the car would have probably been shot. I would also bet that most of those tough thugs would scatter like mice when a few of them got shot.
These thugs are no different than terrorist in my books. They pack up like idiots and ride like the law does not apply to them.

New York City, up until recently, illegal to own a hand gun, you could not get a carry permit in NYC, and they are still slow in issuing carry permits.

 

[davidc83]

We could hijack the thread just on that topic but all I will say is if you draw a weapon you better be willing to use it. You never know what the other guys does or does not have. And I am a gun packing advocate.

Agree, if you pull, shoot. Don't pull and wave or threaten.