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Crash!

Posted: 26 Jan 2017, 21:59
by Kwacky
No, not me, but right in front of me.

Riding home on a dual carriageway with a central reservation. I'm in lane 2 of 2 but I'm to the left. Traffic is heavy but moving at about 50mph. There's an HGV to my left and just in front of me, so I'm close to it's rear offside.

I can see the traffic slowing in my lane but not in lane one so I'm preparing to brake whilst planning my move to the left behind the HGV.

All of a sudden the car 2 ahead of me switches lanes in front of the HGV, causing the HGV to brake hard enough for me to hear the load inside it shifting

The car directly in front of me is distracted by the car switching lanes.

At this point the HGV has released his brakes and carries on, I had started braking. There's a gap to my left so I swing across. As I do so the car in front of me ploughs into the now stationary car he's not seen. I shoot past the crashing car, seeing the air bag go off in his car as me and my bike are showered with debris. It was an almighty bang.

Unfortunately I didn't stop. Because of the way it played out I had to stop braking then accelerate to get up to speed with the HGV and the traffic in that lane. I also wanted to make sure II shot past the car in front of me in case it tried to avoid the car in front by switching lanes.


Enough excitement for one night? Nah. Almost home and I filter to the front of some traffic lights. I'm there for about a minute when the lights change. Matey in a small white van opposite me decides to chance his luck and turns right across me. I start to lock the front but steered round the front of him. Those tyres are excellent.

Re: Crash!

Posted: 26 Jan 2017, 22:26
by duke63
I guess in some ways you could call it a good night as neither incident caused you to fall off.

The standard of driving on UK roads is quite appalling now though. I know i bang on about this a lot these days but its some of the worst in Europe from what i have seen.

There doesn't seem to be a single journey where i dont see some idiot do something stupid, so many don't appear to be concentrating on the road ahead.

Re: Crash!

Posted: 26 Jan 2017, 22:28
by Kwacky
This accident happened because the car in front of me was too close to the cars in front and he or she was only looking at the car in front.

Re: Crash!

Posted: 26 Jan 2017, 23:03
by StMarks
:S 3rd time lucky.?

Re: Crash!

Posted: 27 Jan 2017, 00:43
by kiwikrasher
glad you got home unscathed.

Multi lane motorways are never a comfortable ride for me, I feel like a fly with hundreds of fly swats trying to get me. Sydney driving, and generally the closer you get to the city sounds like it's similar to the UK standards.

Re: Crash!

Posted: 27 Jan 2017, 08:28
by D6Nutz
Flipping heck mate, sounds like a "fun " ride home. Glad you had your wits about you and made it back in one piece (y)

Re: Crash!

Posted: 27 Jan 2017, 09:04
by Frankie
^^Ditto :)
That's all I have seen this week, bloody tailgaters crashing :(

Re: Crash!

Posted: 27 Jan 2017, 12:13
by C00kiemonster
Blimey. Glad you ok.

i guess your abs helped too?

As has been said, people too bothered about what they want and also not concentrating. The roads do show off a countries true nature sadly.

Re: Crash!

Posted: 27 Jan 2017, 12:21
by Kwacky
No ABS on the SX.

Re: Crash!

Posted: 27 Jan 2017, 14:10
by C00kiemonster
Kwacky wrote:No ABS on the SX.
Good skills then :)

Re: Crash!

Posted: 27 Jan 2017, 18:01
by Cav
2 things...

1) That sounds f*****g terrifying!

2) Go and thrash one out on the missus to take out some of that pent up rage ;)

Re: Crash!

Posted: 27 Jan 2017, 18:30
by D6
The last few days have been bad on the bike. Not only is it almost impossible to see out of the visor cause of all the road shit, but yes people seem a bit dopey lately. glad you are ok.

The tyres are great in crap weather aren't they

Re: Crash!

Posted: 27 Jan 2017, 19:06
by StMarks
:^ Shouldn't he be back home by now, on a Friday.??

Re: Crash!

Posted: 27 Jan 2017, 19:50
by Kwacky
I'm alive, despite the weather

Re: Crash!

Posted: 27 Jan 2017, 20:39
by StMarks
Kwacky wrote:I'm alive, despite the weather
:) Yeah.!!

Re: Crash!

Posted: 27 Jan 2017, 20:45
by rocket
sounds like a close call. Take my hat off to you being that alert in the cold dark weather takes some concentration.

Re: Crash!

Posted: 27 Jan 2017, 21:56
by Kwacky
It's amazing how much information you process when you're commuting.

Re: Crash!

Posted: 28 Jan 2017, 19:03
by D41
Ain't that the truth.

Too many people think that 'work' only begins when they get there, instead of when they leave the house.

Re: Crash!

Posted: 29 Jan 2017, 07:49
by Rossgo
That's bloody close. What is wrong with people. Lucky you have a lot of experience and you are thinking one step ahead. Must of given you a bit of a shock when it happened!!

Re: Crash!

Posted: 29 Jan 2017, 09:34
by Kwacky
Do you what? Neither did. I'm getting used to seeing really poor driving and as a result in constantly expecting the worst from people.

Both incidents happened pretty quickly so by the time I had gathered my thoughts I was down the road and well out of harms way.