It is surprisingly easy to loose control when swerving like that. I once swerved to avoid someone coming up on me super fast in a lane I was changing in to. No idea where he came from, I checked everything before moving over, and because I continued to check I noticed him coming up on me before blowing by me like I was standing still.
Anyway, I swerved hard and correct out of shear luck and instinct, because as soon as it happened I was like, shit, I am lucky I didn’t screw that up.
Appears to be.
Given how quickly the car reacted, the driver either was already aware of the motorcycle and saw it in their side rear-view mirror, or was surprised by the kick and turned around in their seat, causing the car to swerve. Since it could be either, I’m not entirely certain pinching the bike to the wall was intentional. The driver lost control of the car very quickly.
My guess is they’re both at fault, and the pickup their fight caused to flip is the real victim. But the bike appears to flee the scene of the crash. Not too smart in this era of dashcam footage, and not a good look in court.
Also, lane-splitting may be legal in California, but getting into a fight on the freeway definitely isn’t, and getting into a fight with a car while riding a bike is incredibly stupid. It’s by sheer luck the bike didn’t lose the fight and wind up scraped across the wall.
It’s possible, but I don’t really see how we can know one way or the other. It seems like people are picking sides based on speculation about what happened inside the car.
You’re lucky to be alive. I suspect a lot of accidents result from turning too quickly or swerving too quickly between lanes on the freeway.
Cutting off the motorcyclist: poor driving, whether inconsiderate or just inadvertent.
Kicking the car: rude, dangerous to the motorcyclist himself, might have scuffed some paint (very minor criminal mischief).
Sideswiping the motorist into the lane divider: attempted murder, reckless endangerment of others nearby.
Gosh, I can’t quite figure out, who was worse? It’s just so cloooose.
Do you think that’s Clark Kent on the motorbike, that he can divert a moving car with his foot?
Once again, it’s quite possible the car’s swerve wasn’t intentional at all. You can’t figure it out, because there’s insufficient information, so you’re assuming something you simply cannot prove.
Hint: No one is asserting the car was moved by the motorcyclist’s actual kick, silly; rather, the driver possibly may have been STARTLED — a likely occurrence, given the circumstances — and swerved accidentally. As noted above, a simple swerve at high speed becomes a different animal entirely.
Hopefully a cop on the scene would have attended to the wounded first.
The loud noise in conjunction with the proximity of the motorcyclist would startle most people, I know I’d be afraid that I had somehow hit him. It only takes one jerky movement on a steeringwheel at high speeds to cause a car to swerve violently.
Any driver can accidentally and unwittingly cut someone else off. Best not to assume malice where human error will suffice.
Cops aren’t even supposed to chase vehicles that flee. They’re supposed to radio another cruiser to intercept. Not that they always don’t and do respectively.
That was sort of where my head was at. I did not literally mean the officer would abandon the scene and chase the cyclist. Thank you for clarifying that for me.
As I say above, I totally accept that initially cutting off the motorcyclist could have been inadvertent.
I am perhaps a bit biased toward assuming malice in the subsequent sideswiping because I’ve had people very definitely deliberately try to run me off the road like that (on a bicycle not a motorcycle, and no I did not kick their car, if nothing else because I’m sure I’d just knock myself off my bike trying).
I’ll keep this simple…two wrongs do not make a right.
That’s fine, our individual experiences color the way we interperet things. I’ve had my share of run-ins with cars when bicycling. Some motorists are incredibly unaware if not intentionally vindictive.
In my opinion, the worst behavior was kicking the car on a freeway at high speed over a perceived slight. All of the other incidents might have been accidental, but that action was unambiguously intentional and reckless.
Edit: spelling
I’ve watched that two seconds where the car swerves into the bike about 20 times now and I really can’t tell. My guess is it was intentional, but I’m a motorcyclist too and my guess may be biased by having similar experiences as you.
Frankly, if the bike did flee the scene as appears to happen (though maybe it pulled over after the video cuts off), that was really stupid. Although kicking the car was probably reckless endangerment and criminal mischief, fleeing the scene is a felony and the rider will likely face a much worse charge than if they’d pulled over and waited for the cops. But I’d say given the animosity, any rescue attempts should to be left to other motorists.
What I find fascinating is how the car sped up after the impact.
I saw the second half of an accident Monday outside College Station in San Diego (first half was hidden by a bus, but I heard the impact). As I looked over, the impacted car literally peeled out, made a hard left as the driver fought to regain control, and entered a parking lot, crashing onto three cars before coming to a stop.
It’s my assumption that people often stomp on the accelerator in cases like this, assuming they’re stomping on the brake.
I’ve been on a motorcycle and seen piss-poor and/or vindictive drivers; and I’ve been in a car and seen piss-poor and/or vindictive motorcyclists. Maybe my own “startle” experience colors my judgement – but I think we really don’t know what was going on inside the car (let alone inside the driver’s head). We really do know that the first contact in this accident was from a motorcyclist who approached the car deliberately and gave it a good, swift kick at freeway speeds.
(BTW, nice handle. Is Terra your nation?)
Yes, but not my destination 
Your thinking is pretty much the same as mine. My guess is the car attacked rather than was startled. But I don’t see how that could ever be proven in court. Whereas the biker’s actions are beyond doubt. But IANAL.
All of this, yes.
Nothing good happens when we’re rebutting each other point-by-point.
Except that kicking at the car might cause a little property damage but driving your car intentionally into a motorcycle can easily kill. I’d say the car driver escalated things waaaaaaay more.
Yeah, I know. It was more than a little wiggle I have done in the past, but the alternative would have been rear ended and that probably would have put me sideways or worse.
Knock on wood.
If you can’t be good, its good to be lucky.
