Stay Alert -- Never Know What Is Coming Over The Hill

[Fuzzy]

Scary video meeting a car passing on a hill.

Stay alert.

[video=youtube;bhwSTpAhbl4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhwSTpAhbl4[/video]

 

[Chestnut]

And the worst part is that if they had collided, the driver would probably have just gotten a ticket for "unsafe passing" or some bs like that.

 

[670cc]

How do you prepare for or avoid something like that? Quit riding altogether, I guess.

 

[L.B.S.]

Zounds!

 

[yearroundrider]

Yep, stay alert out there! On a recent trip I had to due a double take as a double trailer semi was passing another semi on an outside curve( my lane) and was neck and neck at the apex. I slammed on the brakes and went as close to the outside of the lane as possible. He swerved back into his lane with about 100 ft away from me. Luckily my sight line was good enough to see into the curve. I can't stress enough how you need to keep your eyes constantly moving and be ready for anything. But having a car pass like that on your right side.... It's crazy how irresponsible some people are when in their vehicles.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Banjoferg]

I think people have forgotten what double yellow lines mean. I've noticed this more and more. I was getting ready to turn left into my driveway (I live on a State Hwy that is double yellow) and an idiot in a car passed me on the left just as I was starting my turn.

 

[turbodieseli4i6]

I bet his Guardian Angel had a few cold ones after that! Well deserved too.

 

[Therapy]

The biker didn't react it seems. No time though. They did move toward the oncoming car a little bit though. Target fixation?

I had that passing thing happen once. It was a dump truck. I went off the road to the right and was lucky the shoulder could be handled. The dump truck took my whole lane and honked as it went by.

Not exactly sure why I am now back on a bike after 20 years.

 

[dduelin]

Sometimes you are prepared and sometimes you are just lucky.

 

[pismocycleguy]

So was that black vehicle in the ditch at the end of the video the vehicle that passed the biker on his right side?
Hopefully it was the vehicle, and I would have stuck around as a witness to share the facts with the law enforcer.

 

[Therapy]

So was that black vehicle in the ditch at the end of the video the vehicle that passed the biker on his right side?
Hopefully it was the vehicle, and I would have stuck around as a witness to share the facts with the law enforcer.

I had to go back. I guess I did not look at the very end. Good to see that last second or two.

 

[Beemerphile]

How do you prepare for or avoid something like that? Quit riding altogether, I guess.

I have been in a couple of situations similar to this where if I had been in a car I would have been killed because a car would not fit where I had to put the motorcycle to avoid a collision. In both cases I was thinking "thread the needle and put the motorcycle where it has to go. Look where you want to go and not at the "emergency". One was extremely similar to this - topping a hill - and it was a driver with a deputy sheriff hot after him. I went for the very narrow shoulder and he went by in my lane. There was a steep drop-off at the shoulder and a car would have tumbled down the embankment. Funny that as I continued on a few minutes later the guy passed me again (this time in the other lane) still followed by the deputy. I was glad this rider didn't head for the shoulder like I did and meet the car there. He had the presence of mind to stay in the lane. The other instance was a car merging into my lane on a mountain road at the end of a passing lane. I was wrongly passing on the right as she was left lane cruising. She started into my lane (left lane ends) and this time there was NO shoulder. My horn chose this day to quit working so I gave her car door a little tap with the exposed cylinder head of my BMW. Her husband in the right seat had eyes like saucers. When she realized the situation, she over-corrected left and did a 180 turn in the road.

These kinds of situations are why I think one should always be riding in a responsive posture and ready to actively control the motorcycle. You just don't know when you are going to have to react decisively to save your life. Not related to running out of room, but I have also had a vulture fly into me and an exploding truck tire toss a large gatorback at me. If you are sprawled backwards with your feet on highway bars, the game is likely over. I was thinking about the Michigan State Trooper that died this week on his way to work and wonder how he might have avoided the car and trailer taking his lane while trying to catch an exit. Sometimes you might have to demote yourself to dirt biker to have an out. That is why I wouldn't own a "forward controls" bike and why I sold my Yamaha TMax scooter. Some day - and you don't know when - it is going to take everything you and the motorcycle have to put it where it needs to go.

Not saying I've got all the answers and I could get mine tomorrow, but these things play in my mind and I try to have a pre-plan of what I would do. My general plan is to keep driving the motorcycle and get scared when it's over.

 

[pahondafan]

I had to go back. I guess I did not look at the very end. Good to see that last second or two.

Me too, I skipped the second half because I thought it was the same as the first in slo mo. I didn't realize there was a happy ending. I just hope there only was a driver in that car and no passengers or kids.

 

[Old Can Ride]

Some times it is a lot better to be lucky than to be good.

 

[Jguarfn28]

In the slo-mo you can see a passenger in the front seat. I would have shat my pants though..... I've bailed off the road when on my bicycle in a situation like that, don't even want to consider how the rider stayed straight. This driver was amazingly STUPID, but thankfully not homicidal.

 

[wildeone]

drivers like this should be shot down on spot.

 

[johnakay]

not had that with a car but bikes.
some ride beyond their limits.
if I had been in a car they would have been a goner that's for sure.

 

[itlives]

That's just plain scary. It looks like whoever was in the car probably got hurt. Watching it in slow mo, you can see the rider initially went right but quickly corrected. Good reflexes saved his life, and probably the person behind him.

I like happy endings!

 

[MZ5]

EXACTLY that thing happened to me!!
Guy pulled out from behind another car to pass it right in front of me. Obviously didn't see me coming. I was starting to veer to my right to head off into the adjacent park (thankfully a perfectly flat transition onto dirt, then grass) when he went on that same direction and off into the park. It was ...attention-getting....

Guy drove out of the park, back onto the road, and went on his way. I did, too. Not something I'd prefer to repeat much.

Also had something kind of like Beemer's tire retread story, but in my case it was the whole wheel and tire. It had come completely off a pickup, IIRC, going the other way down the freeway. As happens under such circumstances, the tire bounced high into the air as it continued forward and my direction at high speed. I was able to get by just before it came down on my side of the freeway. It bounced that one last time, behind me, before it slammed into a car. Apparently that driver had not been paying as much attention as I had? Or maybe they just didn't have experience maneuvering around oncoming targets? IDK, I just know

IT PAYS TO BE ALERT ALL THE TIME.

 

[anglachel]

In the slo-mo you can see a passenger in the front seat. I would have shat my pants though..... I've bailed off the road when on my bicycle in a situation like that, don't even want to consider how the rider stayed straight. This driver was amazingly STUPID, but thankfully not homicidal.

There is another passenger in the back too, you can see a shoulder and seat belt in slo-mo...

They all looked young to me (a statement that gets easier and easier to make as I get older).

Also appears that they were on the brakes as they went off the road, wonder if they went into the ditch right after the original traveling off road, or if it was a result of trying to get back onto the road going to fast....