So who’s in the wrong – the bike or car?
OK so this video has been all over social media in the past few days, stirring up all kinds of righteous indignation from apparently horrified bike riders. But is this situation as simple as just the car driver being out of order and the motorcyclist being a saint? We think not.
Our man Julian is also a CBT instructor, teaching new riders what to do and what not to do on a motorcycle, and watching the film it’s clear the rider did little to help himself in this situation.
“First off, the rider is sitting in the outside of two lanes despite not actually planning to overtake. Generally the default position should be the inside lane on a dual carriageway. Maybe that’s being picky, but he’s going a lot slower than the truck ahead.
“As the road is heading towards a merging point that the rider clearly knows about, a simple ‘lifesaver’ check to his inside would have alerted him to the presence of the car. This check is drummed into new riders as it can genuinely save their life, but the rider clearly has long since forgotten this …
“Aside the obvious point that there is no driving manual in the world that would encourage this, would he have done the same to a car load of tattooed construction workers? Did he know the woman wouldn’t panic, causing her to knock him off? Did he know that she wouldn’t just swing the car into him to teach him a lesson, just as he thought he was doing to her? The answer is no to every question.
“Even when the rider goes to involve the police, he fails to do the basic checks behind him to keep himself safe or ride sensibly. He turns without checking behind, heads back onto the road without checking and then pursues the police car, clearly breaking the speed limit. Nothing in what is shown here indicates a good bike rider.”
Bad driving is bad driving, and both the car driver and the bike rider are guilty here. The difference is that proper motorcycle riding teaches riders to drive defensively, anticipate problems and avoid confrontations. If you ignore these basic rules, don’t be surprised if you have a bad day…..
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