Crash on 101SB 04/21/15

[FLYART0]

Hello Everyone.

Thought I would share my story and get some answers about my bike and costs of repair and maybe some ideas about the damages.

The other day I was riding home from work at about 5pm in the #2 carpool lane of 101sb. I was doing about 65-70 MPH about to pass a lady in her Hybrid when she decides she needs to be in my lane. Without hesitation she merged in front of me doing 50-55mph (I'd say more like 50) with less then 10'. I tried to swerve a bit and brake but she still hit me. I went down on 101 slid under shoreline right before 85sb. To top it off the lady didn't stop for another 2.5 miles. I feel like this is a hit and run but the officer feels differently... :confused
Anyways thankfully I am alive and thankfully I didn't get ran over.

Issues I am having now. Well if you ask me she hit me cut me off by making an unsafe lane change. Her story I rear ended her. The police report came back and id riddled with errors. I now have to rebuttal the report and hope it gets changed. They said I was doing 75MPH I have no idea where that number came from. So now I'm out a bike and had to hire an attorney to try and resolve this. I hate to admit this part to but I only have Liability, uninsured motorist and Comprehensive, no collision. I know, I know...STUPID & my own fault. Still I am trying to stay optimistic and be thankful I am alive.

The Bike:
Its a 2007 R6, the side farings are jacked the front headlight Is knocked out and broken, snapped handle bar and foot peg other misc damage. The part I'm curious about and will have to get people more info is that when I fired it up the other day it started fine and sounded fine, however it was smoking what I initially thought was white smoke; could be blue. Blue is oil and white is coolant? Seemed to be comping from the front right of the bike. I found that odd too. Any suggestions would be appreciated and any thing in particular to look for after a 70 mph crash if I decide to fix it myself?

My injuries:
The bike slid on my left leg so the added weigh shredded my leathers and i got minimal road rash on my calf. Hip is bruised and sore still limping a bit. My leg goes to sleep from the knee down when I sit for to long. Whiplash and other aches. All in all very lucky and thankful I was wearing full leathers.

Witnesses:
I have none so if you happened to see it please let me know (ya never know lol)

 

[danate]

Sorry to hear that happened to you and I'm glad you didn't get more seriously injured. Going down on the freeway is always extremely hazardous.

You say you were in the #2 carpool lane. The carpool lane is only the #1 lane typically, unless you were in a section where the commuter ramp has a carpool lane (if I'm understanding this right, that could be the case at the 101/85 junction).

So if that is the case, were you in the commuter lane to go straight on 101 and you had the other carpool ramp to 85 to your left? Was the other car to the left of you or the right of you? Had you just changed lanes to make this pass, or had you been traveling in your lane for a while?

Since this is crash analysis, all we want to look at here is why this accident occurred and how you may have prevented it.

Cars will often pull in front of motorcycles because they are difficult to see. From your description it sounds like you had a 15-20mph delta on the car that changed into your lane. While not looking at whose fault it may be, what do you think could have prevented this?

 

[FLYART0]

Sorry to hear that happened to you and I'm glad you didn't get more seriously injured. Going down on the freeway is always extremely hazardous.

You say you were in the #2 carpool lane. The carpool lane is only the #1 lane typically, unless you were in a section where the commuter ramp has a carpool lane (if I'm understanding this right, that could be the case at the 101/85 junction).

So if that is the case, were you in the commuter lane to go straight on 101 and you had the other carpool ramp to 85 to your left? Was the other car to the left of you or the right of you? Had you just changed lanes to make this pass, or had you been traveling in your lane for a while?

Since this is crash analysis, all we want to look at here is why this accident occurred and how you may have prevented it.

Cars will often pull in front of motorcycles because they are difficult to see. From your description it sounds like you had a 15-20mph delta on the car that changed into your lane. While not looking at whose fault it may be, what do you think could have prevented this?

So on 101 there are two carpool lanes for quite some time leading up to the exit of 85 on the left of the freeway. I was established in the #2 carpool lane for at least a mile prior to the accident. As I came up to the lady who was driving slow and in lane #1 to exit 85 she started merging to the right into my lane #2. She did the good ole start turning then turn your blinker on move. So once I saw her blinker I was already attempting to stop because I had noticed her merging over. However due to her excessively slower speed and my what I would call freeway speeds I wasn't able to get the bike stopped. I was doing about 15 - 20 mph faster than her yes.

The only thing I feel I could have done more better to avoid her was turn harder and run the risk of hitting someone else. It was all so close together that in my personal opinion would be nearly impossible to avoid. I should have been more aware of the open space that was in my lane. For more detail I was traveling on the left of the #2 lane also so if i were more centered or on the right that could have helped. However that runs the risk of people merging from the right into the carpool lane. All in all there are definitely things to consider like where you ride in a lane and to be cautious when approaching a vehicle when you have a lot of space in front of you.

I ended up hitting the rear right of her car with the left and front of my bike.

The good things I did:
Suite up
Chose a lane that had minimal traffic behind me.
and attempt to get slowed as much as possible before crashing.

 

[GeorgeT]

Did here car sustained any damage as a result of this collision? If yes, where: side or rear end?

 

[danate]

Interesting. As for skills on the bike, the "swerve, then brake" or "brake, then swerve" options are both debatable. If you knew nobody was close behind you, simply doing harder braking could be an option, however that is also dangerous on the freeway is it may cause you to be rear ended. Swerving is possible, but there is not much of a place to go unless you can make it in between the cars. This is a tough choice and as you found out, there is not much time to think about it once it happens.

Rather than look at those options, I'd like to focus on the events leading up to the situation you were in and how that can be prevented. This comes down to vision and judgement.

While there are two commuter lanes side by side for a moment, I'd prefer not to think of them that way. You were in the commuter lane, and the lane next to you was actually an "exit only" lane that led to an off-ramp. What happens in freeway exit lanes? People often swerve into and out of them rapidly when they realize they either want that exit or don't want that exit. This is something you can predict will happen and is a good reason to reduce your speed delta and be prepared for each car you approach to cut in front of you. If you predict hazards like this before they happen, you will be more mentally prepared to deal with them. Riding in the carpool lane in general poses a risk because it often will have a pretty high speed delta compared to other lanes. I try to reduce that delta whenever I see traffic in the other lanes slowing or any kind of exit or toll plaza ahead (meaning cars will be wanting to change lanes). I also adjust my lane position to give me the biggest buffer to react to a car that does encroach on my lane.

The fact is, you DID rear end her, even though her move was a bonehead one. It can certainly be determined her fault if her lane change was unsafe, but that will be harder to prove than the fact that you were going faster than the traffic around you and didn't have enough time to react, especially if the officer on scene didn't seem to be on your side.

More importantly, it doesn't matter who is at fault. You being on the motorcycle will always lose in an accident and you're lucky this one didn't turn out so bad. If you did not see this incident coming at all, you need to work on your scanning for potential hazards while riding. If you did recognize it early and it still happened, you need to work on your prediction and reactions to hazards.

 

[sanjuro]

Besides the other very good tips of expecting dangerous merges into a car pool lane and being prepared, I did think of the dangers of the new double car pool lane on SB101/85.

Imagine a four lane highway, no car pool lane, and you are riding in lane 3 going 70mph. Lane 2 traffic is going 55-60mph and lane 4 is 45-55mph because of exiting traffic.

If you going to ride in lane 3 going 10mph+ faster than the other lanes, you are in a high risk situation. When I do it, I expect merges from other lanes, and my strategy is to have escape routes. Or I slow down. Or get out of lane 3.

The second HOV lane is especially dangerous since lane 3 could be doing 15-30mph and absentminded drivers in lane 1 now have to navigate a new and unfamiliar traffic pattern.

If you are not comfortable in my hypothetical situation, speeding in lane 3, that second HOV can be more dangerous.

 

[FLYART0]

Did here car sustained any damage as a result of this collision? If yes, where: side or rear end?

Unfortunately her car sustained damage to right rear of her bumper.

 

[FLYART0]

I agree with everyone that traveling at a higher rate of speed when traffic around you is going slower can be dangerous. I would just like to put this out there also. The rest of traffic was not going slower than me just this lady. Shes one of those people that drives 50 mph or so to get the best gas mileage. The #3 lane to my right was easily doing 60 to 70 with periods of slowing down; this was not one of those spots though. The traffic kind of lightens up in this area because of the traffic exiting to 85.

I agree that I should have reacted better to the fact that she was driving so slow and that is a good suggestion, I will be keeping in mind when I get back on the bike. Even if the traffic is traveling at a rate of speed around you that is equivalent to the speed you are doing a car going significantly slower should be noticed and taken into account that it could be a potential hazard. Good advice and hopefully will be taken into account by other readers as well.

 

[sanjuro]

I agree with everyone that traveling at a higher rate of speed when traffic around you is going slower can be dangerous. I would just like to put this out there also. The rest of traffic was not going slower than me just this lady. Shes one of those people that drives 50 mph or so to get the best gas mileage. The #3 lane to my right was easily doing 60 to 70 with periods of slowing down; this was not one of those spots though. The traffic kind of lightens up in this area because of the traffic exiting to 85.

I agree that I should have reacted better to the fact that she was driving so slow and that is a good suggestion, I will be keeping in mind when I get back on the bike. Even if the traffic is traveling at a rate of speed around you that is equivalent to the speed you are doing a car going significantly slower should be noticed and taken into account that it could be a potential hazard. Good advice and hopefully will be taken into account by other readers as well.

She was the aberration but you have to plan to meet that bad driver on every ride.

Reading into your original post, you might have been in a relaxed mood when you were commuting home. I try to be always anxious when I ride. I assume that there is massive danger at all times and react to every car I pass like I must escape before they get me.

It is not really fun but I feel it is necessary to be safe.

 

[danate]

I agree with everyone that traveling at a higher rate of speed when traffic around you is going slower can be dangerous. I would just like to put this out there also. The rest of traffic was not going slower than me just this lady. Shes one of those people that drives 50 mph or so to get the best gas mileage. The #3 lane to my right was easily doing 60 to 70 with periods of slowing down; this was not one of those spots though. The traffic kind of lightens up in this area because of the traffic exiting to 85.

I agree that I should have reacted better to the fact that she was driving so slow and that is a good suggestion, I will be keeping in mind when I get back on the bike. Even if the traffic is traveling at a rate of speed around you that is equivalent to the speed you are doing a car going significantly slower should be noticed and taken into account that it could be a potential hazard. Good advice and hopefully will be taken into account by other readers as well.

I also think it's important to note that the lane the other driver was in is unusual in that it's an exit lane from the freeway on the far left side. You'd expect her move more often from a person merging onto the freeway or about to get off on the far right hand side. What she did was the same thing, only the lane was to your left and that was unexpected considering you are in what should be the fastest moving lane on the road.

 

[GeorgeT]

Unfortunately her car sustained damage to right rear of her bumper.

Kinda like you rear ended her, hence the police report. With no witnesses, that report and the collision evidence, your lawyer better be good.

 

[Enchanter]

I also think it's important to note that the lane the other driver was in is unusual in that it's an exit lane from the freeway on the far left side. You'd expect her move more often from a person merging onto the freeway or about to get off on the far right hand side. What she did was the same thing, only the lane was to your left and that was unexpected considering you are in what should be the fastest moving lane on the road.

Are you familiar with the area the OP is referencing? The reason that I ask is that while it could be referred to as an exit lane, it is not as simple as that. It is a connector from one freeway to another. No speed adjustment is required. Also, this 'exit lane' is MILES long.

Now, that area was a part of my commute for over 7 years, and if one does not anticipate this from cars in that specific area, then you aren't paying attention.

 

[danate]

Are you familiar with the area the OP is referencing? The reason that I ask is that while it could be referred to as an exit lane, it is not as simple as that. It is a connector from one freeway to another. No speed adjustment is required. Also, this 'exit lane' is MILES long.

Now, that area was a part of my commute for over 7 years, and if one does not anticipate this from cars in that specific area, then you aren't paying attention.

That "connector" was also a part of my commute for many years and I am very familiar. Semantics being what they are, that lane does only one thing: it "exits" from 101, meaning that there will be cars that realize they don't want to be in it. Whatever you decide to call it, in my book it is an exit lane because it is exiting 101. Just because it exits onto another freeway doesn't make the way it works any different. I also rarely would seen any vehicle not slow down before the connector ramp on that particular one and there was almost always a disparity in speed between that lane and the continuing commuter lane when there was any level of traffic.

 

[Enchanter]

That "connector" was also a part of my commute for many years and I am very familiar. Semantics being what they are, that lane does only one thing: it "exits" from 101, meaning that there will be cars that realize they don't want to be in it. Whatever you decide to call it, in my book it is an exit lane because it is exiting 101. Just because it exits onto another freeway doesn't make the way it works any different. I also rarely would seen any vehicle not slow down before the connector ramp on that particular one and there was almost always a disparity in speed between that lane and the continuing commuter lane when there was any level of traffic.

I was nit-picking to be sure, but since I was typing I figured that I may as well address all of it.

In any case, this crash like most others, comes down to an error in judgment, not a lack of physical skills.

 

[DataDan]

The only thing I feel I could have done more better to avoid her was turn harder and run the risk of hitting someone else. It was all so close together that in my personal opinion would be nearly impossible to avoid. I should have been more aware of the open space that was in my lane. For more detail I was traveling on the left of the #2 lane also so if i were more centered or on the right that could have helped. However that runs the risk of people merging from the right into the carpool lane. All in all there are definitely things to consider like where you ride in a lane and to be cautious when approaching a vehicle when you have a lot of space in front of you.

As I see it, the crucial lesson is in that statement: By increasing lateral space cushion when parallelling slower traffic, you improve your chances of avoiding a careless lane change.

Because of the time it takes for a car to change lanes, you have more time, more space, and more options when positioned on the opposite side of your lane. In the right third of the lane, you would have had an additional 1-2 seconds before the lane-changer entered your path of travel. Depending on your distance behind the incipient swerve, you could:

• brake, slowing to the car's speed
• gas it and continue straight, overtaking before the car completes the lane change
• quickly change lanes to your right