I don’t think they fail to remember anything. They are simply convinced that their urgency is worth way more than our lives.
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Seems to me the guy was – at that point – fleeing for his life. The guy tried repeatedly to run him over and the guy when he had countless times to disengage. Yes, very dangerous, but his alternative is, what, exactly? To get run over by this maniac?
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While that allegation is interesting when looking for the cause of the anger to begin with, it is pretty clear that the cyclist is not driving twice the legal limit, into oncoming traffic and weaving between other vehicles, for fun or sport. It is quite apparent that they are fleeing for their lives from a clearly mentally disturbed person who is intent on doing them bodily harm (in exchange for the easily fixable property damage). They are definitely at fault for reckless driving, as they put themselves and many other people in danger, and should be punished charged for that. However, as safe a rider as I would like to imagine myself, I don’t know that I would do much different in a flight/flight scenario of that sort. Thankfully I have not had to make the choice.
@Papasan, someone for who I hold quite a deal of respect and admiration for, has said that they just pull to the side when someone acts in that manner towards them while riding. I’m not quite sure how that would protect one from someone who is willing to put all those people at risk by driving their murdermobile around in that fashion. If they want to hurt you, they will - whether you’re on the side of the road or not. But again, Papasan has experience with that, and I do not.
EDIT: atl is correct - they should be charged, not necessarily punished.
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It is, on further thought, probably right to charge the guy with reckless, but I think he’s got a pretty solid defense here.
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Pull into the gas station?
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It’s too bad neither of these vehicles had brakes and could stop by the side of the road and let the other person move on.
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@AcerPlatanoides @SteampunkBanana - In a state like Florida, where most of my life was spent, I would never, ever stop ANYWHERE (except maybe the parking lot of a police station) with someone chasing me in their vehicle. They are clearly willing to risk, or intentionally carry out, bodily harm on a number of people. This shows someone who clearly has a different mental landscape than is safe to be operating a vehicle with. Who knows what they have in the cab with them. It’s Florida. Gun, pipe, bat, knife, even alligator. Hell, with police on bystander assault what it is in that state, I’m getting icky even thinking about having to stop for the police themselves.
No thanks.
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Yeah, while I was watching the video I was trying to think of where I might have tried to go if I was in the motorcyclist’s situation. Unless I knew exactly where the police station was, I’m not sure what I’d do. Maybe look for a police car? A motorcycle shop? The more I think about it, the more just trying to get away seems like a reasonable thing to do, although amazingly the guy in the Ford keeps catching up even when the motorcyclist really guns it.
BTW, here’s the “how it all started” video from the motorcyclist’s Youtube feed. Looks like all he did to initially set off the car guy (see 0:45) was to split lanes and pass him. As far as I can tell the motorcyclist doesn’t touch the car’s mirror until after the car driver has already started racing him, trying to cut him off, etc.
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all good points, but in a confined area, the biker has the advantage. Not sure I was recommending stopping per se, but a change of venue for sure.I had a contractor with a heavy trailer chase me in my old nimble car, and a quick U turn around a traffic island gave me the 60 seconds I needed to actually disappear. (Granted, the roads here are not a giant grid) Taking advantage of the acceleration and turning of his bike would be his way clear.
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He could be charged for reckless driving just for the “How It All Started” video. (As could the car driver). The car driver doesn’t like the lane split and pass at the light and accelerates very quickly and dangerously to pass on the right, the motorcyclist takes offense and accelerates to WAY above the speed limit to “prevent” that. If that’s a speedometer in the frame, looks like the traffic is going about 30 mph prior to the incident and he’s over 100 after. Tripling the speed limit is reckless driving just about everywhere. That’s automatic, right?
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I wonder…
If it was just a normal citizen that had been injured, would the cops have extended the same courtesy to your friend?
Lane splitting in FL is illegal unlike CA. The friendly police officer making a left turn @ 0:51 doesn’t seem to mind.
I understand the sentiment posted here about not wanting to stop for fear of getting shot or beat down but if you watch this first vid you’ll see he had an opportunity to defuse the situation from the start but needed to play drag race with the dude he pissed off. They are both idiots.
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Not when the only evidence of it is also exculpatory. IANAL
Had the evidence been police eyewitness with radar, well we’d have a whole other situation than we hav.
I’ve been plenty of places where it appeared that I had that opportunity, but when i took I I learned I was the only one interested in that. Traffic is not a place to engage in conversation. If someone engages with you in traffic, to punish you, they are starting something. They bear the responsibility. He tried to leave, that is what is correct in traffic.
Don’t “victim blame”.
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I agree, but any rider who thinks they’re a contender in any accident involving a car is dangerously deluded. In any collision, car beats bike, end of story. Yes, it sucks that car drivers are oblivious to bikers and cyclicsts. But that’s not a reason to commit suicide by atomobile.
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No he did not try to leave, that’s my point, he tried to play race car games escalating the situation. He’s only a victim of himself being an ass. Unfortunately for him an even bigger ass was there and wanted to be a vigilante.
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Rider did nothing wrong, driver should be facing attempted murder charges.
The victim blaming in this thread is disgusting.
I totally agree, except for the lane splitting, drag racing, driving into on coming traffic, and reckless endangerment. Other than that he did nothing wrong.
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Violating traffic regulations in order to escape from attempted murder is neither ethically nor legally prohibited.
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Definite split-baby situation, probably 25% of the baby is on the motorcyclist, 75% on the car driver.
The thing that might bring it back to 50% baby on each side was: that motorcyclist did so many reckless things to “escape” the crazed driver. The fact was this wasn’t an “escape”; it was a testosterone-fueled drag race. And I wonder if he took greater risks thinking “Wait till I upload this!”
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