Safe Speed Forums

Front page news in Plymouth's Evening Herald.

http://tinyurl.com/ej79a

This video shows how nearly all crashes occur on this section of road. I travel on this road daily and see a number of accidents each month, in my opinion nearly all of them caused by tailgating.

This road is a NSL dual carriageway and 90% of the drivers on it have no idea how to keep a safe gap, so any unexpected event frequently causes a rear-ending. Drivers like the Audi driver don't help by not having all brake lights working.

Watching the video in slow motion it does appear that the motorbike driver may be the primary cause of this accident.

When he first enters the screen he seems to be braking quite heavily and definitely appears to be coming from the right lane, or in between the lanes, heading for the layby. It certainly does not appear that he was driving in the left lane before he started to pull over.

With this in mind it seems possible that he raced up in between the lanes and then turned left and braked without checking what was behind him. If he did indeed try to go directly from the right lane or in between the lanes without thoroughly checking his left mirror and over his shoulder then I think it's his fault, particularly if he did not first gradually move into the left lane well before attempting to pull over and instead tried to jump directly into the layby from a central position on the dual carriageway.

The first comment on the page you link to seems to support this...



Obviously, without witnessing the event in person or from a camera further back it is impossible to tell what really caused this accident. But I certainly wouldn't immediately assume the car driver was tailgaiting and is to blame.

"Mr Hortop [the rider] said he slowed down on the inside lane to about 20mph when the collision occured."

I agree this can't be pinned on the car driver. The bike was clearly crossing in front of the car and, presumably, braking to enter the layby. It will be interesting to see if any prosecution results.

Yes, I think this is the problem with the footage you cannot see the incident from far enough back to accurately judge.

My comments on the rampant tailgating can be seen in the clip before the accident, as cars pass within a few car lenghts of each other at 55-60mph? They have probably slowed a bit having seen a police car many clearly believe the limit to be 60 and not 70 on this stretch.

That seems unlikely given the quote from the police.



The police are using the video to highlight the importance of wearing the proper kit, seem not to be concerned with the bikers actions.

I agree that tailgaiting is a big problem in general and on this road. However, it's probably not the direct cause of this particular accident. In fact, after the first few seconds of video, after the black golf and bike pass, there is no bad tailgating for over 15 seconds before the crash.

So, since there was no tailgating observed for 15 seconds before the crash, I find it hard to agree that tailgating is the cause of this crash.

For those of you that want to see the video in slow motion, I have slowed it down for you and trimmed all the crap out.
It is still 720x576 pixels so you can watch it full screen and now weighs in at a mere 6MB as opposed to 40MB

Right click on the link below & select 'save target as' from the context menu

Click me

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

it certainly looks given the dodgy angle and less than a second of footage as though the rider has cut across the front of the car with his brakes jammed on - the driver didn't manage to hit his brakes until after he'd smacked the bike.

Looking at Gixxer's edit I would say that the biker has cut across the front of the car and braked heavily so as to stop in the lay-by. Cars don't stop as quickly as bikes, and the driver had little choice but to swerve to the right. Had he failed to do so he could have driven over him.

The same effect happens all the time with drivers pulling off the motorway too late, squeezing into small gaps in front of trucks with much greater breaking distance. Why these drivers can't just get into lane one well before the junction beats me. Perhaps they should get up earlier if time is so precious.

I would prefer to look before changing lanes rather than rely on "the right sort of kit"

A shocking video, but I cannot see how "car drivers looking out for bikes" or "Wear the right kit" should be the message on this one.

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

Another vote for it being the biker's fault. As someone said above, it looks like the car driver hardly had any time to react, and that the speed differential was quite large.

Again,

On the basis of the video. Bikers fault!

I would guess that he cut from L2 to L1 about 4-6 "Frames" before he became visible on the vid cap.

He was only *just* in front of the car and braking!

The car driver started braking (Lights on) after about 0.5 secs (probabally about right) at about the time the actual collision began!

Car driver had no chance to avoid collision

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

is it me... or does the car bonnet flip up after the impact? cant quite make it out.

Yes It does look that way!

The driver did pretty well to stay under controll!

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"