Close Call Thread

[dm_gsxr]

Date: 3/12/07
Time: About 7:20am
Location: Niwot Road West
Conditions: Clear and windy

Approaching a large pickup with three guys. I started my pass. As I got to the driver side door, I could see that they were coming up on a much slower car. I realized they were much closer and expected that they were going to pass as well so I opened the throttle; both to get ahead and to let them know I was there. As I passed the front fender and tire, I could see it beginning to cross the double yellow. They pulled back in behind the car and slowed down.

I believe they started to accelerate in order to pass the car as I recall seeing the car before I got close to the truck and it was pretty far up the road.

Mistakes:

I couldn't see the car ahead of the truck before I started my pass. It could have been making a left or right which would have ruined my day.

The truck driver didn't look before starting his pass.

Carl

[dirkterrell]

Date: 3/12/07
I couldn't see the car ahead of the truck before I started my pass. It could have been making a left or right which would have ruined my day.

Yep, that's always a good thing to keep in mind. I've heard many stories of people having someone turn left during a pass. I recall a thread here last year about such an incident. I think Pilot posted it along the lines of "can you tell what happened here?"

Dirk

[dm_gsxr]

Yep, that's always a good thing to keep in mind. I've heard many stories of people having someone turn left during a pass. I recall a thread here last year about such an incident. I think Pilot posted it along the lines of "can you tell what happened here?"

Dirk

I think in general I saw the car but it was far ahead. Either the guy in the truck picked up speed or the car was going a lot slower than either of us expected. It is hard to see around the larger vehicles and I'm pretty sure I was below the drivers window when I went by so it was a 250 or 350 sized truck.

If I remember the picture correctly, wasn't it a double yellow line too? Granted we do cross on double yellows at times but I'm always careful not to do that when there's a left or right turn visible.

Carl

[dm_gsxr]

Date: 9/28/08
Time: About 10:45am
Location: Safeway Gas at 144th and Lowell
Conditions: Clear

                                            L
S--------------------------------------------
 ...............x..................         |
 |          .                      .        |
 |    =    =.   ---------    =    = .       |
 |    |    |W   |       |    |    | C       |

I'd (C) filled up the bike and was heading to the stop sign (S) and eventually to the light (L). When I was at about the (x), the woman (W) pulled out without looking my way. I tightened my grip on the brake (I was already holding it; parking lot habit) and laid on the horn but she just kept going eventually looking over at me but not stopping.

She was making a left at the light. I gave her a little salute as I went by.

Keeping a wary eye and one hand on the brake is the safest way to travel in a parking lot.

Carl

[mtnairlover]

I wasn't engine braking and wasn't throttling up aggresively either...at least I didn't think so. But, after speaking with Patrick about it last night, I realized I was wrong about the age of the rear tire. My brain is stuck in '07, but the tire is actually 2 years old. The previous owner didn't ride much, so it's a stock tire, and since I bought it when the weather turned cold, I haven't had a chance to wear it down fast enough to require a change. Looks like new tires are in the near future for me.

And yeah, I think most definitely, it was the weather/cold combined with the age of tire and maybe I was a tad too aggresive.

[mtnairlover]

The tires are the Bridgestone Battlax tires.

On my previous Zed, I switched out tires to the Avon Azarros in 06 and then got the Avon Storm STs last year and absolutely love that tire. I have never had a problem with those tires, in any weather condition. I'm definitely switching back to those for this season.

[TFOGGuys]

The tires are the Bridgestone Battlax tires.

On my previous Zed, I switched out tires to the Avon Azarros in 06 and then got the Avon Storm STs last year and absolutely love that tire. I have never had a problem with those tires, in any weather condition. I'm definitely switching back to those for this season.

Got 'em in stock when you're ready!

[/thread jacking]

[fullgrownbear]

March 14th, 2008 approximately 3:00pm.

I was on my way back home, southbound on I-25 approaching the 270/I-76 exits. I was in the left lane, cruising with moderate to heavy traffic at a speed of approximately 65 to 70mph.

Ahead of me were two lardge semi's in the same lane, one was hauling an oversized load. To the left of me was about a 12' wide shoulder, that I had made myself aware of.

In the blink of an eye ahead of me, solid black smoke filled the air. The vehicle in front of me suddenly locked up its breaks, and I witnessed several vehicles in front of that one dive into the left shoulder obviously to avoid a collision. They didn't take up the entire shoulder, but kind of straddled the left yellow line.

I was faced with two choices. I knew I probably had enough stopping power on my brand new FZ1 in order to stop for the white van ahead of me that had just locked up its brakes, obviously due to some fucktard not paying attention. It was either stop rapidly behind him(I knew I had enough distance), or dive to the left 12' wide shoulder, and coast it out.

I chose to coast to the left shoulder, and coast it out, passing all of the dumbasses that had just about caused the accident in the first place.

It's a good thing I did, because as I was pulling into the left shoulder to avoid the mess, I glanced in my right rear view mirror and noticed the vehicle that was behind me, come within inches of nailing the white van that was ahead of me. I would have been spam in a can.

For what its worth, I think I'll take the shoulder from now on when something like this happens. I'd rather take my chances doing that then being sandwiched in between two cars.

Any similar experiences?

[Dysco]

For what its worth, I think I'll take the shoulder from now on when something like this happens. I'd rather take my chances doing that then being sandwiched in between two cars.

Any similar experiences?

I usually choose the dotted line. Traction sucks on the shoulders. It's rare that I'll quick-stop behind a vehicle, I'm usually to one side or another. Getting rear-ended doesn't have to mean getting squished.

[tarded400]

I had a similar experience a year or so ago in I25- That is when I started using ALL 5 senses while riding. We were goin along, about like you, 65-70mph when I smell hot brakes. I was thinking about why I would smell hot brakes or what else it could be, but all of the sudden traffic just stopped. I jammed on the brakes and when I glanced in my rear view, I saw an F350 with a service bed on it behind me. Luckily he stopped, cuz I chose to stay in the lane..... I would just be aware that the reason people slammed on their brakes might be a state patrol or etc in the break down lane.

[dm_gsxr]

I had a similar experience a year or so ago in I25- That is when I started using ALL 5 senses while riding. We were goin along, about like you, 65-70mph when I smell hot brakes. I was thinking about why I would smell hot brakes or what else it could be, but all of the sudden traffic just stopped. I jammed on the brakes and when I glanced in my rear view, I saw an F350 with a service bed on it behind me. Luckily he stopped, cuz I chose to stay in the lane..... I would just be aware that the reason people slammed on their brakes might be a state patrol or etc in the break down lane.

A few years ago in the northern Virginia area during the sniper shootings, I recall going home and seeing a pair of motorcycle cops riding on the shoulder going in the opposite direction (heading towards us on either shoulder).

When I got home, I saw on the news that there had been a shooting near the Springfield exit of 95 and they were heading to the shooting. And the cop that was on the bike in the right shoulder had been killed by a tow truck that had pulled into the shoulder in front of the moving cop.

While it didn't say it, I've seen thing like what you're saying where folks who aren't paying attention suddenly pull into the shoulder because they were following too close to react. In this case I think someone ahead of the tow truck driver saw the oncoming cops and hit the brakes. Since they weren't paying attention, they swerved into the shoulder to avoid an accident and the cop just happened to be right there and was killed in a head on.

Carl

[tarded400]

I had a car try and merge into me the other day- I'm used to that, but what really scared me is when I got on my horn, she swerved FARTHER into my lane before correcting and whipping back into her own lane. Car was a red intrepid with heavy body damage to the rear and a spare doughnut tire on the RF. I thought she was going to roll it. From now on I think I'm going avoid scaring them and just split lanes or something. If I would have been 10 feet ahead of where I was, she would have hit me.

[Nobody]

I had a car try and merge into me the other day- I'm used to that, but what really scared me is when I got on my horn, she swerved FARTHER into my lane before correcting and whipping back into her own lane. Car was a red intrepid with heavy body damage to the rear and a spare doughnut tire on the RF. I thought she was going to roll it. From now on I think I'm going avoid scaring them and just split lanes or something. If I would have been 10 feet ahead of where I was, she would have hit me.

Amen to that happens every time I get on the bike. I've learned to not stay next to SUV's and dumb SOB's on their cell phones. It's usually pretty easy to tell if they're paying attention by looking in the window and seeing what state the person's in. If it's two fools in a cadillac passing a blunt, I definitely get past them asap.

[Jadam]

This is something not to bright I did that I luckily didn't wreck but in effect made me think even more on the road.

crusin down sante fe in mild traffic. I was in the center lane, the guy in front of me change lanes and out of my way. I had a nice open lane ahead of me. Looked like a tunnel with full lanes on both sides of me. Well I sped up to take advantage of this clear road ahead of me. Once I started to pick up the pace I began thinking "with how full these lanes to either side of me are and how empty mine is I bet someone will just swing over"

Sure enough some guy in a saturn pulled out right infront of me without a care in the world. I knew I wouldnt beable to break in time, so i squeezed it centerline between him and a semi. Scary incedent.

It was that guys fault for not paying attention and pulling out in front of me. But just because it's his fault doesn't mean that I can't be more careful. Things turned out ok, but just got me thinking twice about every time i pull on that throttle in traffic weather I have a clear shot or not.

[teamhypoxia]

It was that guys fault for not paying attention and pulling out in front of me. But just because it's his fault doesn't mean that I can't be more careful.

Well said. Who's fault it is won't make a whole lot of difference to you or your family if you're laying in a hospital bed or the morgue.

[tarded400]

Very common situation Jadam... good advice.

[ihavealegohead]

Sunday 11:45 I meet a friend at the Gas Station On South Santa Fe Drive and Town Center Drive. We gas up check out the bikes, I remark how clean his bike is, he looks at my new Diablo Rosso tires. The sun is overhead, 75 degrees, there is a little wind.

We depart at 12:50.

After waiting for a break in traffic, I turn right and we head north on Santa Fe Drive toward 470. There is a straight part and then the road dips down toward 470. Traffic is moving at about 55 and I accelerate up to the speed of traffic my friend on his Ducati at a safe distance behind.

I was in the left lane. Approximately five car lengths and 3 seconds ahead in the right lane was a grey Cadillac sts.

In the opposite lane of traffic waiting ever so patiently to turn left in front of us, I see a Black SUV. There is a lot of traffic so I expect we'll pass before the driver makes the left turn. I'm 3 seconds behind the grey Cadillac so I cover my break just in case.


Just at the grey Cadillac approaches, the black SUV guns it and takes out the Cadillac with a frightening crunch sound, car parts are flying all over the place. The SUV clears the Cadillac right off the road leaving just debri. I hit the break softly and quickly scan my mirror to see if anyone wants to run me over. I see the ducati and some other traffic. We continue through the debri strung all over the place, avoiding the big parts we pull off to the right.

I get out and see an elderly lady in the driver seat. I can't get the door open so I walk over to the passenger side. She unlocks the door manually because the electronics don't work any more. The keys are stuck in the ignition and she can't shut the window wipers off. She's freaking out and I talk to her for about 5 minutes until she calms down. I keep telling her she's OK. We talk about the accident, I tell her that she's safe and that the car did it's job: she's OK. She wants to get out of the car. The inside looks good, she checks herself and I don't see any signs of injury. She's composed and in control, so I help her get across the seat and out. Quick check she seems good. The crash was so violent I'm surprised this 75 year old women is even walking at this point.

My friend returns after talking to the other driver. I leave my information and we go check the bikes.

Nothing stuck to the bikes, we check over the tires, no cuts or car parts sticking out of them. We remark how a few extra seconds at the GAS station might have saved our life and we head off.

If I were the grey Cadillac there is no way I would have time to hit the breaks. Instead of reading this, there would be a new thread of a different kind.

All I can say is holy shit that was close!!

[RyNo24]

Sunday April 27, 2008 approx 4:00pm

I was on west bound C-470 coming back from Black Hawk with my girl on the back of the bike and Damir fallowing, all going about 65mph. Right as we go past Bandimere Speedway, a pigeon flies out of the grass on the right shoulder. The bird gets caught in a cross wind, sending it straight for my bike, it hits the air coming off the front of my bike, missing the windshield by maybe 2 inches, I duck missing the bird by inches off my helmet. It then rolls past my helmet (I was in full crouch to avoid hitting it) and one of the wings brushed my girl's helmet. Damir said the bird re-gained control barley missing the pavement and flew off.

This all happened after I got crapped on by a bird coming down Wadsworth. I had poo on my face shield, jack, and riding pants.... DAMN BIRDS lol.

[tarded400]

I hit a bird one time doing about 130... good thing it hit the bike before it hit me. Not something I would suggest. Splattered blood all down my rain suit.

[dm_gsxr]

Date: ~5/5/08
Time: About 4:45pm
Location: Rt 287 Approaching Rt 52 from Longmont
Conditions: Clear

I didn't consider this a close call at the time but in retrospect it might be good info.

The light at Rt 52 was red. I was second back in the left lane. There was an accident in the far right northbound lane. One of the cars was halfway up the bed. There was a long line of cars in the left lane.

When the light changed, the truck in front of me accelerated and was going a little faster than the minivan in the right lane. I was preparing to signal, change to the right lane and accelerate away from traffic when I noticed a big white 10 wheeled moving type truck had all of a sudden made a U-Turn from the traffic on the northbound side directly across both lanes

I aborted my lane shift as the rest of us slowed down. He wasn't immediately in front of both lanes of traffic. No panic stops, just holy crap slow downs He slowed and pulled on to our right shoulder.

I felt that had I completed my lane shift, there's a good chance I would have easily impacted the side of the truck.

The truck that was in front of me shifted to the right lane and as I went by, he was looking over at me and shaking his head. I shook mine too and headed on home.

In this case it's hard to say exactly what happened to keep me from aborting my shift. I'd hit my turn signal and turned my head to make sure the lane was clear. It was almost a corner of the eye "WTF! Big White Wall!" instinctive abort than anything I can remember contemplating. It might just be my habit of being aware of escape routes.

Carl

[tarded400]

Gotta love the head shakers. They're always the ones that almost cashed your chips.

[dm_gsxr]

Gotta love the head shakers. They're always the ones that almost cashed your chips.

No, he was the guy that was in front of me that I was going to pass. The one swarthy looking guy in the big 10 wheeler was looking down as I went by him. The pickup guy was just commiserating with me at just how stupid folks are.

Carl

[Bebop]

I have a few of them I can tell you guys about.

First one I know all of us have delt with. I was riding home, north bound on Sheridan around 84th. I was in the left lane going maybe 5 over i was about to pass an older red pathfinder who was in the right lane I was watching him in the mirror and he checked the mirror I would have sworn the he saw me but he started to come over into my lane. I push in the clutch and rev the engine (this works better for me because the engine is louder than my horn, believe me it gets peoples attention). He notices me after his is in the lane. I share this because if we don’t have that loud horn a quick rev of the engine is a good way to get peoples attention.

This one is just me being young and stupid. I was on a back rode with some friends riding back from getting some lunch. It was a rode I had never been on before. Its a back road between two very small towns near Grand Junction. Well I am the 2nd of three riders so one in front of me in the left of the lane and I am in the right (the 3rd rider didn’t want to take the corners as fast as we were, so we would take a few faster than him and then slow down and wait). I start to take this turn and its one of the turns that starts out at a certain angle then has another turn inside that turn. Well its on a blind corner and I am, or at least I think I am, over as far as I can go when this second turn comes up. I knew I couldn’t ride out the corner by staying at the same angle because that would put me into on coming traffic(which there was none, but I didn't know that) or worse into the ravine or risk not cutting the corner enough and risk hitting the ass end of my friend .So I had one thought, get this bike over further or your dead, I did and as I pulled out of the corner I came within inches of hitting my friend who had slowed down because he had taken the corner too fast two. He could have rotated his foot to stick his toe out and touched my bike that’s how close we were. My advice from this is, if you don't know the road slow down, we were doing about 20 over. Like I said young and stupid.


Another one I have also happened on a back road near Glenwood Springs. I was riding with a friend with a car following close (too close at times). Well my bike suddenly dies. I can't figure out why it did it but I start coming to a stop on a blind corner so I get over to try to give him some space. Well this guy decides that he is not going to slow down or give me room by moving into the other lane. He forces me into the gravel and my bike slips out from me, fortunately I was wearing my helmet. I was pissed to say the least so after I got my bike started again (never figured out why it died) we try to chase him down but never find him. Personally the only thing I can think of that would have changed anything was if I would have stopped in the road, he would have been forced to stop behind me and then I could have moved to the side of the road. I guess no damage that was too bad, some cosmetic damage to the bike and a skinned elbow.

One of the bad intersections I have notice while in Denver is northbound on Sheridan where 36 merges onto Sheridan. Its two lanes over the highway and a few hundred feet off the off ramp but there is a acceleration lane for the people coming off 36 getting onto Sheridan. Rush hour especially people have a tendency to cut from the far right to the far left sometimes cutting me off or almost side swiping me.

[sandboxshooter]

I dumped mine yesterday on College Drive, Fort Collins...(well...actually power stoppie that ended bad), but better than rear ending the car in front of me. Some assclown ahead of the car ahead of me did a brake lockup FOR NO APPARENT REASON...and it was either curb on left, car on right, rear end the car in front of me, or do myself to keep from hitting anything....i chose the latter....boy, I am sore as hell right now...broken left wrist, right side all the way down hurts bad and there is some issue with right shoulder...all in all the bike has minimum damage. Rear cowling took most of it, my body helped cushion it when it came all the way over and scraped up right side fairings some. I rode it home to Cheyenne so I didn't have to leave it down there. Was a great day till then. (Friday the 13th....I just about sh#t when the nice policeman told me the day.......) So, out of commission for a little while till wrist and shoulder heals up and I get bike repaired.

So....close call from hitting other vehicles I guess you can say....I REALLY didn't wanna hit anyone else......