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My Only Collision

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Gawernator

Gawernator

Watchdog Armory
Joined
Sep 29, 2015
Location
Hayward
Moto(s)
2015 ZX-6R 636; 2009 250R;

1999 KX125
Name
Andrew
BARF perks
AMA #: 3223595
I dropped this 300 twice, once early on in a parking lot, and once near the Bay Bridge because I slipped on a lot of gravel.. no big deal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_51gPASHioI

Enjoy! :afm199

Found not at fault. My insurance said I'm at 0% fault, theirs is claiming 20%.
 
At fault legally, or practically speaking?

Your speed differential was too much for that density and pace of traffic. You failed to notice signaled the lane change. You didn't seem to react appropriately to a gap in traffic.

Frankly, I wonder if the insurance company has seen that video.
 
Yeah, too fast for conditions. Delta was too high. Slow the F down.

We don't want to see a RIP thread on ya.
 
Signaled? You must be seeing things man. Both insurance companies and CHP saw the video. I was listed at fault for excessive speed (I was doing 20 over about, now I keep it to 10 on the side of caution even though the limits call for up to 15)
Other driver was nailed for unsafe lane change, no signal or head check. No tickets issued. If I was going slower or faster it would have been avoided. I was also a little drowsy which is not good. I had been splitting daily for months and started to get too comfortable with traffic. Now with my new ride I just take BART since it's not worth the hassle.
 
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I am seeing things. I'm seeing the damn turn signal. And you would have too if you had been riding a bit more carefully.

Screen Shot 2015-09-29 at 6.33.08 PM.png
 
Listen... On a motorcycle you can't be too concerned with who's at fault. You need to be thinking about what you can do to avoid a collision, even when you aren't the one at fault. No compensation check can fix a limp or return a severed limb.

Gaps like the one in your video scare the shit out of me when I split. They are inviting a lane change. When you see one, approach slowly, observe the drivers, and be extremely cautious. The best avoidance maneuver in this kind of situation is to follow the lane change into the gap. Keep ahead of the car, and plan to escape one lane over.

At your speed, you couldn't have safely slowed in that gap. You didn't have enough reaction time to safely swerve. You would have had a hard time safely moving into the gap a lane over.
 
I personally split at high speed. My major concerns are my speed delta against traffic, and the difference in speed between lanes.

One lane moving at 20 and another at 40 creates a meat grinder. There's no way to split without carrying an unsafe speed differential, and the faster lane will encourage people to merge (aggressively.) That obviously wasn't an issue in your case, but I should mention it.

The other concern is the difference in speed between myself and traffic. Personally, I try to keep the speed differential to 10mph or so. It's enough to easily move through the slow packs into faster moving traffic. It also cuts down commute time when traffic is moving very slowly. But it's also slow enough to observe and react to traffic.
 
Regardless of signalling, you failed to recognize the traffic gap. I don't want to dogpile too much on what has been said.

The circumstances surrounding your crash is familiar to many of us who split regularly. As you mentioned in the OP, you had been splitting a few months and got a bit comfortable. Take this crash as a lesson. Nearly all of us had to learn from such lessons or close calls.

On another note (perhaps mention in sticky?), please don't dub over the audio. You might not think there is any information there, but there is. We can't tell if you applied brakes, locked them up, or even rolled off throttle. I don't think it matters much here, since you were going fast enough to not have reaction.

I'm really surprised the other insurance company says 20%. They always place half blame whenever they can. Kudos to you if you and your agent talked it down.
 
Nope they decided it solely from the video surprisingly. I was engine braking as he started to pull over
 
At the beginning, you were doing at least 50mph, going by the time on the clock and the distance measured in Google Earth. A glimpse of your speedo confirms.

That wasn't totally unreasonable delta at first. But as you pass under the SR-13 ramp before it merges into EB 580, traffic slows considerably and appears to be down to 10mph before the crash. Your average speed from when you emerge from the overpass until impact is about 40mph.

In addition to keeping delta down, you need to stay mentally well ahead of your current position so you can slow as traffic slows.
 
Watched video several times, not a glare, but happy for you CHP and insurance decided it is. Slow your roll man, Motorcycle vs Car isn't always about who is right, but who is left...alive.
 
BOOM!...That's what that was all about (as Madden would say.)

Sounds like you already know what you could have done differently but you don't want to play anymore. Which is just as well. But, man, you were really scooting there, with a hope and without a prayer!
 
Burning1 said:
Your speed differential was too much for that density and pace of traffic. You failed to notice signaled the lane change. You didn't seem to react appropriately to a gap in traffic.
Click to expand...

I agree with you on all points except one blink is not ever considered signaling. One blink in the same notion as changing lanes also is not signaling.

OP. Why were you "drowsy"?
 
Too fast for conditions.

I saw that coming, you should have.

Slow down and live.

You were lucky to not get ticketed.
 
splat said:
I agree with you on all points except one blink is not ever considered signaling. One blink in the same notion as changing lanes also is not signaling.

OP. Why were you "drowsy"?
Click to expand...

Didn't sleep well then a long day at work. Not hopped up on NyQuil or anything
 
OP, thanks for having the cajones to post the video. I'm glad your still breathing and I can learn from your experience.
Question for everyone: I keep seeing the word delta used in here and I'm trying to guess what it means? Delta in the hard sciences/math typically means difference between the values of a variable. I'm guess that by keeping a delta to 10mph would mean if the traffic is going 10mph, the motorcycle operator should limit their speed to 20mph while splitting?
 
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