Rider responsibility and risk mitigation

JakesKTM

Well-known member
Trigger warning: This post is about motorcycle safety, ATGATT, and a perspective from a rider, a father, and a motor vehicle operator. It is also a graphic description of an actual event.



The Accident

A young man (23), and new rider, was riding his 1979 GS550 on a two lane country road, approaching a blind partially controlled T intersection. The posted speed limit was 55. As he closed in on the intersection, a vehicle (SUV) pulled out in front of him and the rider was unable to avoid impact with the SUV. The rider hit the side of the SUV at full speed, colliding center mass with the SUV's cripple post between the front and rear driver's side door. The rider's left femur penetrated the front door completely severing the bone and femoral artery from his body. The young man effectively died on impact. :(

The SUV Driver

The SUV driver was 23. He stopped at the intersection and looked both ways according to witness testimony. He proceeded when he did not see any traffic in either direction. He did not see the motorcycle until it impacted the vehicle. The driver and his passenger both called 911 and tended to the rider who was unresponsive. They both made statements to the CHP who responded and took the report. The driver was cited for failure to yield right of way.

The Court Case

The DA waivered for nearly a year waiting on a kinesthetic report from the CHP to ascertain the speed on impact (which never came). The driver of the SUV and his passenger provided credible testimony to stopping and looking both ways and not seeing the rider. There was a series of photos from the accident scene that indicated the rider did not have his headlight on, was not wearing adequate protective gear (jeans, tennis shoes, non riding jacket, no gloves - but he had a helmet). There were no skid marks. No speed was ever ascertained. The case seemed to be driven by aggrieved parents who demanded the DA prosecute the driver for vehicular manslaughter, and force a face to face apology before the family, which the driver did (I was there and I thought it was shameful and wrong).

The driver was sentenced to community service and fined. His misdemeanor conviction forced him to resign from his public job due to his inability to operate within the insurance policy of the agency. He is now unemployed.


My Takeaway

I really got to see this case from the driver's perspective. He genuinely did not see the rider. How could he be faulted for that? I always thought there had to be negligence and/or intent to prosecute. He did what he was supposed to do. He stopped, he looked in both directions. He did his due diligence. At what point do we riders present a risk to drivers?

I watched the driver go through a year of depression over possibly losing his job, fearing jail time, not knowing what the outcome was going to be. The family of the rider sued him in court but dropped the case after the criminal case resolved. I genuinely felt bad for the driver.

The family was emotionally devastated (understandably) over their loss. They badgered the DA endlessly (understandably) and when they finally met with the driver after he was sentenced, they shamed him in a way that should have been stopped by the professionals in the room. The mother of the deceased rider was driving the meeting and the father of the deceased rider looked particularly remorseful as he was being shamed by mother about giving his son the bike in the first place. They took absolutely NO accountability for their son's failure to go to an MSF course, obtain his license, wear all the gear, ride a bike that had modern safety features, etc.. Where was the personal accountability? I'm a rider safety advocate (perhaps to a fault) and all I was hearing is how it was all the driver's fault.

To this I say: We (riders) assume all the risk. We ride exposed and we take more risk by being much less visible. Therefore why continue to blame others when we don't do everything to mitigate our own decision to ride? I'm kind of done with the rants about other drivers.

I think it is time we advocate more mandatory safety requirements, especially for new riders, and bring more awareness to our community that our finger pointing at driver's only deflects from our own shortcomings as riders mitigating risk.

Disclosure I was involved as the father of one of the passengers in the SUV.

Lastly, my prayers are still with the rider :rose and his family, and with the driver who I hope can recover and move on in a peaceful direction.
 
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GAJ

Well-known member
Horrible story for all.

If I was driving the SUV, how far down the road to the left could I see as I pulled out onto a road with a 55mph speed limit.

I assume a long long way, no?
 

JakesKTM

Well-known member
Horrible story for all.

If I was driving the SUV, how far down the road to the left could I see as I pulled out onto a road with a 55mph speed limit.

I assume a long long way, no?

It's a partially blind intersection from the direction the rider was approaching. There is a rice check across from the stop sign where the SUV driver was stopped. At this particular time of day, at that particular time of year, the sun reflects off the water in the rice check causing a bad glare if you are trying to look down the road.

I think if the rider had his headlight on the SUV may have seen him.
 

chickenfried

Super Noob
Without knowing motorcyclist's speed difficult to say who ;bore more responsibility. But just because the driver said he looked doesn't mean he really looked.

Other day I was going home from work at night reflective vest, reflective stickers on helmet, well lit street, clear night. Some driver didn't yield making their right turn into my path. It was a nothing burger. I was aware of them and the possibility. But still WTH annoying...
 

Enchanter

Ghost in The Machine
Staff member
A few quick thoughts:


I completely disagree that motorcyclists assume all the risk. In the past this thought process has allowed drivers to escape from responsibility because "the victim chose to ride, they knew what they were getting into".

There are many threads on BARF where the motorcyclist was (in my opinion) completely at fault for their crash (multi and single vehicle). There are others where the car driver shared responsibility, and others where the car driver had 100% responsibility.

If you're trying to say that we (riders) should take full responsibility for our actions that contributed to the crash, then I agree.

If you're trying to say that we should not ride expecting other road users to do the right thing, then I agree with that too. But once a crash takes place, the percentage of responsibility needs to be determined.

What was the specific evidence that the motorcycle headlight was 'off'?

By your own description of the crash, proper gear and a bike with "modern safety features" would have not changed the outcome of the crash.
 

JakesKTM

Well-known member
Without knowing motorcyclist's speed difficult to say who ;bore more responsibility. But just because the driver said he looked doesn't mean he really looked.

Other day I was going home from work at night reflective vest, reflective stickers on helmet, well lit street, clear night. Some driver didn't yield making their right turn into my path. It was a nothing burger. I was aware of them and the possibility. But still WTH annoying...

I think the driver in this situation bears more responsibility, at least by law. I'm just not convinced prosecuting him was necessary. And at some level there should be an acknowledgement of rider failing to mitigate risk (not that he would have survived the impact right?).

I think more riders should take a page from your book and there should be a review of how much mitigation the rider deployed in the situation. Glad it was a nothing burger :thumbup
 

GAJ

Well-known member
It's a partially blind intersection from the direction the rider was approaching. There is a rice check across from the stop sign where the SUV driver was stopped. At this particular time of day, at that particular time of year, the sun reflects off the water in the rice check causing a bad glare if you are trying to look down the road.

I think if the rider had his headlight on the SUV may have seen him.

Recipe for disaster unless you punch it from a standstill which most drivers do not.

55mph is 27 yards per second or a football field in 4 seconds so if the SUV driver just looked left, then right, and not back left again, before pulling out bad things can happen.
 

dravnx

Well-known member
We should stay in our homes and never leave our rocking chairs if we had to assume all risk.
There has to be a place where fault is shared. You can't make a blanket statement that covers all situations. That is why we have the court system.
 

JakesKTM

Well-known member
A few quick thoughts:


I completely disagree that motorcyclists assume all the risk. In the past this thought process has allowed drivers to escape from responsibility because "the victim chose to ride, they knew what they were getting into".

There are many threads on BARF where the motorcyclist was (in my opinion) completely at fault for their crash (multi and single vehicle). There are others where the car driver shared responsibility, and others where the car driver had 100% responsibility.

If you're trying to say that we (riders) should take full responsibility for our actions that contributed to the crash, then I agree.

If you're trying to say that we should not ride expecting other road users to do the right thing, then I agree with that too. But once a crash takes place, the percentage of responsibility needs to be determined.

What was the specific evidence that the motorcycle headlight was 'off'?

By your own description of the crash, proper gear and a bike with "modern safety features" would have not changed the outcome of the crash.

And conversely by assuming less than all the risk, we as riders can escape a certain level of responsibility, of which we (as opposed to drivers) cannot afford to do. So when I say: We assume all the risk. I mean it quite literally. It is our lives that are exposed.

But I get what you are saying as well. Drivers use it as a crutch to ignore us. Certainly there has to be accountability.

Accidents happen. Had this been a two car accident I think my daughter would not be alive. If she had died, I suppose I would look at this much differently as well. It has caused me to reflect on how much safety is enough.

-pictures taken by the CHP show the bike not having the turn signal/headlight combo switch on the handlebars. I don't think the bike had turn signals either I'd have to go back and look. The bike looked to me like a semi customized home spun bobber.
 

motomania2007

TC/MSF/CMSP/ Instructor
Rider is 100% responsible for their safety WHILE RIDING.

In a motorcycle v. car crash, LEGAL responsibility is apportioned by % of fault.

As Enchanter said, all the training, gear, headlight, ABS, etc. on the bike would not have done much to reduce the carnage of a 55mph impact.

Ultimately, a 23 year old rider is an ADULT and he made a lot of poor ADULT decisions that, as an ADULT, he is allowed to make.

Ultimately, a 23 year old SUV DRIVER is also an ADULT and he suffered the consequences of his ADULT mistakes. I don't agree what he did was criminal, but definitely he is due some civil liabilities.

I agree with the OP that better awareness and training would likely have better prepared the rider and hopefully would have avoided the impact.

While I want riders to have more rider training, I am also realistic that I can't imaging making it legally required.

I also believe getting a driver's license to drive a car is far too easy and far too hard to take away. There should be lots more training required and periodic driving evaluations.

In America, most voters equate their access to a driver's license as part of their Constitutional right to travel. This 100% incorrect, but this is how most American voters believe or feel.

Thus, no politician would have a chance of getting elected if they stood for LOTS more driver training. As a result, there is no political willpower to require more rider or driver training.
 

budman

General Menace
Staff member
Wow ... that sucks Jake. Sorry your kid had to go through that. Enchanter laid it out pretty clearly.

A couple of points that are not really a big deal, but still worthy of consideration.

Headlight are required by law and could have helped for sure.

No skid marks means the rider was not in the game to me.... and yes that probably added to the situation. Maybe he just froze.

His gear was not a factor but tells a story

Mom lost her boy.... I get her angst and feel for her.
Dad feels the guilt but the kid was a man I feel for him.

So many variables mean all points regarding the rider and the driver are pure supposition and the courts seemed to me made the right call from what I can tell. Nobody involved decided to have this take place. Unfortunate accident.

Tragic happens.

Ultimately we need to do all we can to stay safe.
Ultimately drivers need to be aware and do what they can to keep all other road users safe.

A lot of heartache to go around on this one. :rose
 

ThinkFast

Live Long
Hard story to read. Sorry for all concerned - everyone loses.
Thoughts:
1. If the bike had ABS would there be any skid marks, even with hard braking?
2. “The sun was in my eyes” is not an excuse for proceeding when you’re unsure if it’s ok to do so. Driving with a dirty windshield can also obstruct vision enough to cause the driver to miss visual information. It is also not a valid reason for causing a crash.
3. And it was a crash. Lot’s of variables missing in the write up, particularly regarding sight lines, posted speed limits, and the bike’s speed. I’ve got a friend who t-boned an SUV while riding at a similar sort of intersection. Only it was on the brow of a hill, the posted speed was 40, the SUV driver looked both ways and proceeded, and my buddy ran into the side of her because he was doing 70 - she had no chance of seeing him. So there are a lot of ways these types of crashes can happen; and without knowing some of the missing data points, it’s really not fair to try to assign blame.
 

SVJ

That Looks About Right
I understand what you are saying and of course it sucks that both young people made a life altering decision that day, but pulling out in front of another moving vehicle is never acceptable. Driving is a privilege (or used to be) partially because the consequences for being bad at it are deadly. This applies equally to the rider and driver, but we have clear rules establishing right of way and therefore fault.

I ended up on the hood of a car after the driver looked me in the eye. I had the right of way, but it didn't matter. Had it been a serious enough situation for me, I'm sure her story would have been that she looked both ways. Because she did. She literally looked at me, was unable to process the situation and followed her muscle memory to step on the gas pedal. Cyclist approaching or not. I got really lucky and learned a painful but valuable lesson- assume everyone is out to kill you and hope that you land softly when they try.
 

Wolf

Experienced, not Skilled
Ride like you're invisible.

If you're coming up on an intersection and you see a car sitting at the intersection, you should assume that he WILL pull out in front of you and you need to be making preparations to respond.

If you're relying on the other drivers to keep you safe while you're riding, you're going to have a bad time.
 
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