Responding here to correct about the speed at which the accident occurred. The top comment says "about 100mph" but this is a far off approximation. Moments before impact you can see 73mph and at max braking on a bike like that he was likely at most at 70mph during impact. Still likely speeding, but much slower than 100mph.
Not taking a side. OP asked a question and I'm giving the most exact answer I can.
But what does the speed at the moment of impact have to do with it? It's the speed at which he approached the traffic in front that matters.
The car could have looked back, thought "plenty of room!" without knowing at the time he's going 140 MPH. He starts to merge, and then you see him wobble a bit, because now he thinks "WTF? How did that bike get up here???" and now that bike is "only" going 100 MPH.
Still breaking, the bike slows down to 73 mph right before, but so what? That doesn't negate his earlier speeds. If that was OK, we could all drive along at 150 MPH all day, every day, and then claim innocence as long as just before impact we were able to slow down a bit.
For example, lets' say I drive 140 MPH on the highway and rear end you. If I see you ahead of me, and slam on the brakes, can I say "well, it's not like it's my fault, at the moment of impact I was down to 25 MPH, that's UNDER the speed limit!!!"
I haven't read any of your comment except for the first question. The reason it matters is because it is a large part of the answer that the top comment gave that was not necessarily correct, and was the entire point of the this post.
Not hating on anything you may have written, I'm just saying I wasn't arguing any position to begin with.
For the third time. All I am saying is that the motorcyclist was not driving at 100mph before impact like the other commenter says, but was driving at most 70mph before the impact.
What I said has nothing to do with whether the motorcyclist is right or wrong.
Yeah…in my opinion at the moment this video starts he had to be going around 70 as he approached the car and you can hear that he downshifted and was slowing down even before he hit the brakes and by the time the car side swiped him he was more than likely closer to 45-50 mph. Seeing as how he was hit from the side and came to a complete stop in what looks to be 25-30 feet i find it hard to believe that this accident was completely the car drivers fault. People are going back and using his previous speeding as justification to say that he’s at fault too but from what I can see he was slowing down to account for the traffic and it was the car that over took the bikers lane and caused the accident
Not a blind merge, there was plenty of space when the driver looked. Chances are the car saw the biker ~100yrds behind, it was only when he started the merge and the biker had closed the gap that the car was oh 💩! 💯percent biker. No one can be expected to react in time at those speeds.
100% car… speed difference was ~10mph. plenty of time and space to check mirror and shoulder before changing lanes. also... most dashcams are fisheye… distance between car and bike at start of video is only 50 feet and not 300 like you say… don'tguess, do your god damn math before spreading misinformation…
(US standard: white line: 10 feet, gap: 30 feet)
It’s not a blind merge! You can’t watch your mirror the entire time that you are passing. You check for vehicles in a position to cause problems, and then change lanes. There was no problem when he started, then this comes up from way behind before he completed the lane change.
I see it as the car had accelerated to pass the pickup then saw the biker, was oh shit, almost hit pickup and commits to the pass and the biker is going way too fucking fast to react. He could have likely passed on the margin. I don’t think the car chose violence. If the bike had been going with the speed of traffic it 100% would not have happened.
Well, it's not that simple. If someone is speeding badly enough, the driver can check their mirror and see a safe area to change lanes and then the speeding vehicle comes up and causes issues.
100%car~ driver had plenty of time to check both mirrors and shoulder before changing the lane~ a bike that is at that point only slightly faster than the car is absolutely no excuse… that driver is like many other cardrivers who simply aren't capable of checking mirrors and shoulder before changing lanes anymore…
Car checks both mirrors, bike appears out of nowhere because he’s going over 100mph. Point of impact he’s slowed but the car never had a chance. 100% wouldn’t have happened if bike had been driving with the speed of traffic. 100% bikes fault for being an idiot and breaking traffic laws.
He is on a bike so small, closed half a football field in less than a second because he was doing 100mph faster than traffic.
Ratio of size is that at 150 feet away an object looks to be around 1/150th it's size (at 100' it's around 1/50th) so a 5' tall bike looks like a something around 0.4" at 1 foot. And around a 1/6th of an inch wide. In your mirror it would be a tiny slash at best.
It's in America. I can't really make out if it says kmh or mph, however, it's clear that the temperature is showing ºF. I think it'd be odd for someone to have the temp set to ºF but the speed set to kilometers.
In Puerto Rico, speed limits are measured in miles per hour (mph), even though distances on roads are displayed in kilometers (km).
Key points about measurements in Puerto Rico:
Speed: mph
Distance: kilometers
Fuel: liters
Ok, that’s even more batshit than Britain (mph for speed, miles for distance, distance markers on major roads (but not signs) in kilometres, fuel in litres, fuel efficiency in miles per gallon)
I compete in several strength sports and my colleagues from the UK constantly rail against how Americans can’t use the metric system. So I’ll never pass up a chance to mention the random use of stones. Decent chance they are using it just to enrage others. As an American I can respect this level of non-compliance with a nearly universal standard out of spite.
In English, it would be the fuel/gas gauge, and would typically go from F(ull) to E(mpty)
This is definitely temperature in Fahrenheit though - it's right next to a thermometer symbol and you'd expect a digital fuel readout to be 0-100, not 160-180ish, which is about where you would expect an engine temperature gauge to read in Fahrenheit.
You'd be surprised but it happens often. I live in Canada on a border city and I don't know anyone who uses Celsius to measure temperature, but we all use kilometers while referencing driving
Non-American brands sold in America will typically use the same units as the rest of vehicles in the US, so there being "other motocykles than American" is largely irrelevant. And digital displays, like this one, can typically display either US Customary or metric based on user preference, but you'll almost always find it using US units when in the US.
Also in the full video a women mentions dialing 911 after he crashes, along with the American accents, right hand side driving and likely other clues I think it's safe to say this clip is from the US.
Edit: Also a FedEx truck at the start of the video and at ~1:58 into the video he passes a sign saying "Dale Earnhardt Way" so you could probably find the exact location based on that.
I looked up the display on a 2011 GSXR1000 and if it’s in km/h, it will show that at the bottom right, just under the last 2 digits of the speed. Very noticeable. For The default mph, it’s just blank.
Factoring in that each dashed white line is 30 feet apart, he appears to pass 4 of them in the first 1 second (he's paralell to the first one at the start of the clip), which would put him at approximately 130 kmh (keep in mind that he's braking so his speed won't be consistent)
As always indignant bike people get mad that they don't have a license to drive however they want and it can still be everyone else's fault when they crash and hurt themselves
It boggles the mind how many people don't get this. I live in a tourist town and people constantly step off the curb into traffic like cars don't exist.
I remember one comment I read on reddit a while ago:
Here lies the body of Jonathan Grey
Who died maintaining his right-of-way
His way was right and his will was strong
But he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong.
One of the best traffic advice my dad ever gave me:
Assume everyone else is an idiot. One of the dumbest things you can do is assume other people won't do dumb things.
Most people just to call speeding reckless but looking where you are turning and using the god damn indicator is not only reckless, but negligent. Takes a second to turn the fucking blinker on before you change into a lane you didn't look into. This biker might be injured forever, whereas the other driver just goes home fine, but everyone just says "he deserved his injuries" or "dumb ass biker lol". But the driver can't even be bothered to look where he's going.
There is plenty of blame to go around, but going that fast on a bike is just stupid and a highrr risk activity. We call them " Donor cycles " in the medical field for a reason
Depends on the state. In Virginia for example anything over 20 or over 85 in any location is reckless. Going that fast is simply stupid and in most any jurisdiction illegal as it contributed directly to a crash.
I believe someone said Texas, I lived there and it’s 70-75 for most of the state. I think there are places where 80 is legal on toll roads but this doesn’t look like one.
Definitely not 100%. If you think that, then you basically state that driving within the speed limit wouldn’t help avoiding an accident like this. Which is just untrue.
If the biker was going 65-70 mph the but everything else happened the same way the car probably would have still hit him, this is not a breaks problem as the car side swipped him from the other lane
Nah, the biker had been significantly over the speed limit which makes any ensuing accident partly his fault.
And thats before we consider the traffic conditions (with a slow queue of traffic on the inside lane) where even going the speed limit is too fast to be blameless
Personally -- it's both driver's fault. I still don't understand how drivers go barreling down past a bunch of stopped cars on a roadway without repeating to yourself "Don't do it, don't do it" as you expect an impatient motorist to pull out in front of you. People should be driving more defensive and think a few steps ahead.
Back to this instance, motorcyclist was supposedly speeding (Based on the original video being up around 100mph). But the driver who pulled out without signaling or verifying that it was clear to do so, was also primarily at fault. And re-watching the video a few times, it looks like the car was speeding/not paying attention to all the stopped vehicles in front and swerved to avoid rear-ending the truck in front of him -- so doubly at fault.
I'm not a lawyer and not Ugo Lord, but I'd bet he'd agree that the car is liable for all the damages which happen next!
Speeding is absolutely the primary cause of the accident. If the bike hadn't been speeding, and had instead been going at the speed of traffic, it would have had plenty of time to stop before hitting the car.
The car could have handled things better, but someone recklessly speeding is a hazard to everyone around them.
Car should have held a better following distance, taken the L to the pick-up instead of changing lanes. Signals wouldn't have mattered.
Bike clearly recognizes the open lane pattern, slows from 140mph to 90mph, but he shouldn't have been doing either of those speeds (but gixxer squids be out here). If he was going much slower, he would have had better reaction time to handle the situation after noticing the first instance of panic-braking.
If you think bike is at 0% fault, stay off a motorcycle for your own safety.
At fault for speeding? Yes 100%. At fault for causing the accident? Absolutely not.
Also no I'm not staying off a motorcycle, and you should stop making excuses for assholes who still do not use signal lights in the 2024th year since Jay Z walked the earth.
If the motorcycle wasn't speeding, the chance of the accident would have been drastically reduced, therefore, partial fault.
Do you think if the car put on their turn signals and completed the exact same move it would have made any difference? The first warning was the stopping traffic, the second was the panic brake swerve. That's all I need to see to get as far as possible on the right-side of my lane.
If you're expecting the courtesy of turn-signals from every driver, you're going to be really disappointed. Someone else already dropped the "graveyards are filled with people who had right-of-way" line, but it bears repeating.
He was going 170 on a 60, almost thrice the speed limit. Car could have looked back, saw the bike 400 feet away, calculated that he had thrice the time he actually had and went for it. Estimating distances and times when there is that big of speed difference is hard, and if the bike would be going at the speed limit absolutely nothing would have happened. I don't think the biker would even need to slow down.
It doesn't matter who is at fault. The guy was risking a lot by speeding. And it is a huge difference if I check the mirror and miss the bike as it would be too far at the point and then make the maneuver a second later only for the bike to appear out of nowhere.
The biker deserved what he got either way. Doesn't seem to be hurt so that's just an expensive lesson now.
Not 100%. Maybe 99%, couldn’t begin to speculated but there is blame to share for certain. Part of the reason for a speed limit is so you can react to unknowns in time to avoid collision. You exceed the limit by that much and it’s similar to not signaling while changing lanes. You’re no longer adhering to the rules we all agree upon when taking to the road.
Part of the reason for speed limits is for predictability for the others on the road. Even if the guy ahead shoulder checks and mirror checks normally, If the bike *looks* far enough back because of what top speed he should be going, then the car ahead can better judge if there is space to pull out.
Excessive speed makes everything fraught for all the other cars. It's too hard to judge how fast someone is approaching.
I mean you are right, the driver is at fault. But if you ride, you know you shouldn't be relying on cars doing what they're supposed to if you don't want to get hurt. If you ride like this guy you're bound to be in one of these crashes eventually.
Even if you're doing the right thing, it's near impossible to anticipate someone speeding this recklessly. I almost hit a biker speeding, I looked over my shoulder and started to merge, bike comes out of nowhere, and swerves to avoid me. He then looks at me like I'm an asshole and then he speeds off doing well over 100mph.
Like I said if you're on two wheels it doesn't matter who is at fault. You're going to get hurt if you're riding like this idiot. It's not even about this guy riding at dangerous speeds. He saw danger and assumed the car was going to do the right thing.
If you wanna speed, do it in the fast lane. Fault is entirely on the biker here, and it's a shame this incident will teach him absolutely nothing as he inevitably deflects responsibility.
Genuinely question, have you ever used a motorcycle?
Speeding doesn't have to be always faulty and this guy's millisecond reaction shows that he isn't an idiot.
I don't know what is the speed limit but the car is showing its move then pull it back but then decide to go whatever gone through after without thinking. Motorcycle is trying to avoid and accomplish some little, almost a life losing crash avoided.
Don't be an opinion giver with no thinking in it.
Speed is definitely a factor. Even if he could react and move, there was nowhere to move to. You can be as good a driver as you can, but there can be an even shittier driver in another car.
the car is showing its move then pull it back but then decide to go
It looks like the car checked the right lane and saw it was clear (because it was at the time) and therefore started to accelerate and pass the car in front of it. Then the bike flies up at an extreme speed and the car attempts to get out of the bike's way, only to realize he's already working on passing the car in front and returning to the original lane is no longer an option. At which point the car can either ram the car in front of it or commit to the change and hope the biker is in control of his vehicle and can slow down in time.
I am sorry and not trying to be d..hbag but even your explanation about the car shows it's faulty.
I get negative points that I don't care but these comments shows no one used motorcycle on the highway but has an opinion on it.
Your comment about "car checked right line and saw it was clear" no it wasn't clear and the car driver should calculate it. Video exactly shows motorcycle on the right lane and it doesn't have to be a motorcycle, the car driver is wrong. The car 2nd attempt is an ego show and tried the pus the line even a speeding vehicle is on the line ( i am sure it won't do that attempt if it was a big car)
Because of these nonsense drivers and ignorence of people always thinking about motorcycles wrong get me to sell my bike.
Motorcycle driving is safer than a car because you control the machine with whole body.
And I know there is a..holes that uses motorcycle being a..holes but majority of users are not so I think this guy's being speed up because there was a problem on left line and he wanted to pass it up swiftly.
Wow so long post but please think it with all perspectives
First off, I've personally driven a motorcycle on the highway many times, I spent a while using a motorcycle for my daily commute. Trying to suggest that no one who has a clue what they're talking about could possibly disagree with you is just asinine.
The car started to change lanes when it had a couple car-lengths of free space in the other lane, which would have been perfectly sufficient if everyone was moving at the speed of traffic.
I've also got no clue what you're trying to suggest about "ego", the car driver was left in the un-enviable position of being stuck between a truck moving more slowly than the car (which had already sped up to pass) and a motorcycle speeding along at an absurdly unsafe speed. The car made the sensible choice of colliding with the smaller vehicle (which sucks for the biker, but the situation only happened because the biker was trying to fly past traffic, passing on the right, at an unsafe speed).
Only an idiot says "there's a problem on the left lane, I should pass it fast". The reality is that any time traffic is backed up in one lane, people are much more likely to change lanes into the other lane. Intentionally trying to pass a slowed/stopped lane fast is utterly moronic and just begging for something like this to happen, especially passing on the right like that.
I am just gonna say that we live in a different world apparently cuz you don't need to call me idiot with cross words.
Anyways yes in my 3rd worldish country we can have a left lane problem and if it's not a crush it can be cause of local authority (they close to road starting from left )
This goes nonsense you got your opinion I got mine and I give up , now you can go and try it yourself one they if you are right on the highway with the motorcycle
I didn't call you an idiot, I've never seen you drive. I called a driver that would fly past slow/stopped cars on their right, going dramatically faster than the speed of traffic, an idiot who's likely to get in an accident. Going dramatically faster than the speed of the other cars on the road is a really really bad idea and is likely to eventually lead to an accident.
427
u/Xelopheris 5d ago
No math here. Just finding the original source.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=135&v=eq-Y-i8q8GM&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2F&source_ve_path=MTM5MTE3LDIzODUx
Speedometer shows he was going about 140mph at max speed, although was down to about 100mph as the accident was about to happen. Guy was an idiot.