Motorcyclist films friend's death

[PeterStoba]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...eed-limit.html

Opinions? What do you think, was the car driver in the wrong or is it 100% the biker's fault?

Some people will obviously think differently about the situation (usually the bikers who are confident at those speeds)

[Clunk]

He became "tangled up" in the vehicle's wheels and was decapitated and lost both of his legs – as the entire scene was caught on film by Bowden behind him.

Edit: Forgot to say, the driver of the hatchback can't really be blamed for his death, if you look at the speed on the clock just before the hatchback pulls out, its 100MPH and looking at the weaving and acceleration that was going on, the driver had no chance of seeing him, and if you look closely, the bike hits the back of the car, so it's the bike's fault for going too fast in my opinion.

[this_is_gav]

100% the bikers fault. Don't care what the car was doing. The guy you're on board with was doing 100mph and the guy ahead was going faster and still accelerating just as the car pulled out.

Car driver was in the wrong, but if you're going that fast you're only asking for trouble and allowing neither yourself of others a chance of avoidance.

And I'm a biker.

[Mblaster]

Well, I'd say they're both some part at fault, it looked like he reached at least 90mph by the time he was hit by the car, and on a road like that along side the other cars it's just not safe. But that said, the car that pulled out should've checked his mirrors before going for the overtake.

[Steve]

I'm not sure the driver could have seen that bike travelling so fast.

The biker was clearly responsible.

[TAKTAK]

the car that pulled out should've checked his mirrors before going for the overtake.

Even if he did, it's quite hard to spot a bike topping a ton... It just appears...

It gets even more interesting when you have huge blind spots i.e in a panel van... Whenever i'm overtaking in the works van (Master LWB), i'll indicate, wind the window down and quickly check behind, because you have a huge void, so i might look like a smeghead, but it gets me home safe and sound..

[Andy3536]

Sort of time when you check your mirrors and the bike is either not there or miles away you pull out and he's on top of you.
Seen it happen myself although it was a close call rather than an accident. Totally the bikers fault. He's breaking the limit by a long way trying to make a pass. He was probably in the blindspot as TAKTAK says aswell looknig at his aproach.

Have to feel for the people that saw the incident and those that cleaned it up, must have been horrific.

[Rave]

I'm not sure WTF the driver of the overtaking car was doing, because as far as I could see he was pulling out into the face of oncoming traffic himself? Having watched the video a number of times, I reckon he had between 4 and 5 seconds to check his mirror before pulling out. There's no really good reason for the car to be overtaking unless the white/silver car had suddenly broken down or braked or something. And even if he had, the rule is mirror-signal-manouvre; if a car in front of you inexplicably slows down you hit the brakes while you check the mirror to see if it's safe to jink round them. Then, and only then, do you release the brakes and stab the throttle while tooting the horn and cussing them out for being a rubbish driver etc.

[badass]

It's good to see no self richeous bikers here saying it's anything other than the bikers fault.
Sometimes excessive speed is the only cause of an accident. This was one of those times. Even a very good car driver would have been extremely unlikely to have correctly judged the bikers speed before that overtake.

[Grymdawg]

Theres no way that car could have saw the biker. Agreed, completely the bikers fault.

i imagine the witnesses are in bits, seeing a guy explode under a camper van

[malfunction]

The biker was being an idiot and paid the ultimate price for it. I don't blame the guy in the car but I do wonder what the hell he was doing because, as Rave said, there was no space for him to overtake.

[peterb]

The death of anyone, through a road accident or any other cause is a sad ocurrance, in this case for both the person who died, and for those who watched what must have been a very traumatic experience.

At 150mph, the bike would have been covering nearly 67 metres ever second. The time to react to any event would be curtailed and that speed any miscalculation could (and did) result in an accident; and at that sort of speed, it is likely to be fatal.

In normal driving, most drivers are only used to encountering other vehicles moving at most at about two thirds of that speed so the other driver's time to react was also reduced by the biker's speed.

Had the biker considered that his speed would not immediately be recognised by other road users, who would have a reduced envelope of manoeuvrability - I guess not.

I say guessed deliberately - because we will never know what he was thinking about - the thrill of the speed, bravado, who knows?

What is clear is that he paid the ultimate price and if he hadn't had an accident at that moment, could have had had another through hitting a pot hole, clipping a curb or a drain cover, and at that speed, on a public road, it would almost certainly be fatal.

But before passing judgement, spare a thought for those who saw the accident, and those he left behind.

[GoNz0]

doesn't anyone think the driver in the cars being a prick and blocking the bike ?

if he was he has that to live with for the rest of his life.

neither should have been on the white lines and the car driver should not get off free as the biker would be alive if it wasn't for him being equally as stupid even if he was doing 60mph less

or should i say the biker may have lived a few more miles as he was a darwin winner one way or the other.

[DeludedGuy]

They both made errors, the biker more so, as he really shouldn’t have been weaving in and out of traffic at those speeds on that stretch of road, he was clearly too difficult to spot.

The driver of the car should not have been trying to overtake with the oncoming traffic.

There isn’t much chance of spotting a biker who has come up behind you at over 100mph from left to right, the biker was well over the limit, therefore I would have to blame the biker for speeding and reckless driving, more so than the driver of the car, simply because the car would have completed the overtaking manoeuvre without breaking the speed limit and without hitting anyone.

The biker was going too fast to react and slow down, had he been travelling at 60mph the car may have spotted him, or the biker may have been able to apply the brakes and slow down enough not to hit the car.

The bottom line is, the Biker was speeding at well over 100mph.

[dangel]

Very sad - biker's fault for me too.

[chuckskull]

The hatchback indicated(rare and makes me believe he probably checked his mirrors too), there's no way he could of seen that bike in time after undertaking the other bike and appear from behind the near car accelerating that rapidly. They'd just come out of a roundabout, he wasn't expecting something doing 100 to appear from 3 cars back. They both went for the same over taking opportunity and if the bike had been ridden even slightly sensibly, they never would have got close

I spent most of my childhood on the back of bikes and I'm all to aware how bad some drivers are, but this time that's the bikers fault. I find it very hard to muster up much sympathy for people who do 170mph on public roads. Superbikes are expensive. If you can afford one, you can afford a track day. Sad that he died, but stupidity is dangerous.