The non-crash that could have been | GTAMotorcycle.com

The non-crash that could have been

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Brian P

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Me: Southbound on a rural road, 80 km/h speed limit, approaching an intersection that had a stop sign for the other direction with none in my direction.

Something about the black Hyundai Santa Fe approaching from the east towards that stop sign tripped my spidey sense. The car stopped at the stop sign, but something I can't describe told me that the driver wasn't paying attention despite having stopped.

I was already on the front brake, gently, when the car started moving, even though I was very much within visual range approaching the intersection. All I had to do was brake harder, perhaps harder than a "normal" casual stop but not quite a panic stop. I came to a stop, horn blaring, as the car crossed the intersection in front of me. I saw the driver turn his head towards me as I came to a stop. I know he saw me at that point. He never stopped.

A couple of minutes earlier, that car would have passed through an intersection that the municipality had recently converted to a 4 way stop. Maybe he thought this one was also a 4 way stop. It isn't.

I know the driver of the car behind the Hyundai saw the whole thing ...
 
Did you think we were kidding when we said motorcycles are invisible, their eyes might see you but the brain simply does not compute.
You have to out ride them all.
 
Brian P said:
The car stopped at the stop sign, but something I can't describe told me that the driver wasn't paying attention despite having stopped.
Click to expand...

You, sir, have what is called situational awareness. Nicely done.
 
Had a very similar situation earlier this summer. Heading north just crossing the 401 on Guelph line, there is an exit ramp with a stop sign specific for westbound 401 travelers to turn left (south) onto guelph line. North and south bound traffic on Guelph line (Me northbound) have no stop sign, so I am just cruising along, and as I travel over the 401 I see a little mazda 3 approach and stop at the sign...

I had that same sense... that feeling where you know they just are about to do something stupid but the girl driving stayed put... or so I thought... All of a sudden at the very last moment she decides to hammer the gas and peel out crossing my path (no cars behind me and none traveling south either so I'm not sure what the urgency was) So I hit the brakes and veered hard right locking my rear brake in the process. I missed her rear bumper by about a foot. I thought I was going down for sure. Had to pull over and collect myself after that one. Very lucky that day.
 
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Nice catch. Did you have time to do a SMIDSY weave or only cover the brakes?
 
Brian P said:
Me: Southbound on a rural road, 80 km/h speed limit, approaching an intersection that had a stop sign for the other direction with none in my direction.

Something about the black Hyundai Santa Fe approaching from the east towards that stop sign tripped my spidey sense. The car stopped at the stop sign, but something I can't describe told me that the driver wasn't paying attention despite having stopped.

I was already on the front brake, gently, when the car started moving, even though I was very much within visual range approaching the intersection. All I had to do was brake harder, perhaps harder than a "normal" casual stop but not quite a panic stop. I came to a stop, horn blaring, as the car crossed the intersection in front of me. I saw the driver turn his head towards me as I came to a stop. I know he saw me at that point. He never stopped.

A couple of minutes earlier, that car would have passed through an intersection that the municipality had recently converted to a 4 way stop. Maybe he thought this one was also a 4 way stop. It isn't.

I know the driver of the car behind the Hyundai saw the whole thing ...
Click to expand...
I was on 48 south, going against northbound weekend cottager traffic. Truck pulled out to pass multiple cars; I had to take the shoulder to avoid a head-on...

They don't even register that we are there... or they don't care.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk
 
... who would ride through an intersection without covering the brakes?
& only problem with stoping real good is getting rear ended hurts real bad.
 
The weave would have been irrelevant. I'm pretty sure that I was subconscously watching the driver's head, and subconsciously noted that the driver's head never turned far enough in my direction to look far enough down the road to see anyone coming. If I'd been in a dump truck, the Hyundai would have been smushed.

I had another entertaining one today, in my car. 403 westbound at Ancaster. Damp pavement with partially dry wheel tracks. There was cop activity in the eastbound direction with lots of flashing lights. Some rubbernecker up ahead slowed down. I tapped the brakes just enough to knock off 20 or 30 km/h and glanced in the rear view mirror, just because. Driver behind jerked the steering wheel instead of slowing down. The rear swung out. The car went completely sideways, then the rear caught grip and the car went completely sideways the other way, and went all wibblywobbly until it stopped. Fortunately, the driver of a cube van next in line had things much more in control, and no one hit anything, although the car driver probably had brown underwear afterwards ...

The car was a late model VW Jetta, new enough to have ABS and ESP, but there's only so much ESP can do when some wheels have grip (dry) and others don't (damp/cold) and the driver does something stupid enough.
 
Brian P said:
I tapped the brakes just enough to knock off 20 or 30 km/h and glanced in the rear view mirror, just because.
Click to expand...

Rear mirror always gets checked while braking, you never know.
 
Dizzer said:
Had a very similar situation earlier this summer. Heading north just crossing the 401 on Guelph line, there is an exit ramp with a stop sign specific for westbound 401 travelers to turn left (south) onto guelph line. North and south bound traffic on Guelph line (Me northbound) have no stop sign, so I am just cruising along, and as I travel over the 401 I see a little mazda 3 approach and stop at the sign...

I had that same sense... that feeling where you know they just are about to do something stupid but the girl driving stayed put... or so I thought... All of a sudden at the very last moment she decides to hammer the gas and peel out crossing my path (no cars behind me and none traveling south either so I'm not sure what the urgency was) So I hit the brakes and veered hard right locking my rear brake in the process. I missed her rear bumper by about a foot. I thought I was going down for sure. Had to pull over and collect myself after that one. Very lucky that day.
Click to expand...

Years back I had a crash with a car doing a similar thing. Fortunately I was also in a cage. The other driver thought they could hammer it from the stop and get through the intersection ahead of me. I had no stop sign.

I figure what happened is she didn't take into consideration her wheels were on loose gravel and spun so she wasn't as fast as she thought.

I have recurring flashbacks over another similar situation where the other driver was on snow. I lost control in trying to stop and nearly hit a couple of pedestrians. That was before cell phones and ear buds so they were aware enough to get out of the way. Of course the other driver just kept on rolling.
 
If you want some experiential learning, join me on my daily commute from the east to west end of Markham -- I could fill a few pages with stories of careless and hapless drivers.

I have been hit 4 times in the last 6 years, 4 times the other driver has been charged with careless driving. Fortunately all were in my car or truck -- rather odd considering I ride only my motorcycles from March to Dec unless there is snow.
 
Mad Mike said:
If you want some experiential learning, join me on my daily commute from the east to west end of Markham -- I could fill a few pages with stories of careless and hapless drivers.

I have been hit 4 times in the last 6 years, 4 times the other driver has been charged with careless driving. Fortunately all were in my car or truck -- rather odd considering I ride only my motorcycles from March to Dec unless there is snow.
Click to expand...

Sounds to me like there's some juicy data there!
 
That intersection seems to catch drivers out. I use that route everyday and often the cars headed South from the stop will stop on an angle blocking their own view of Southbound traffic. Many of them just go for it instead of straightening up first.
 
Glad nothing happened. Personally, I try and have my left thumb over the horn and have no qualms at giving it a couple of 2 quick stabs if I come across a spidey-sense situation.
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