'Tis the season.....beware.

[Dogdaze]

Okay, title a little dramatic but there you go.
Just want to share a tale as to remind us to watch out as the weather gets better.
So last week , my younger brother who lives in the UK took his bike out in the afternoon to visit a client, whilst riding in the bus lane (bikers are allowed to share this with cyclists and of course buses) a car in the right lane decided she wanted to make a left turn at that precise moment as she was traveling parallel to him at the same speed, 40mph, and a car length ahead.
In doing so she took him out. Police also suspect she may have had white earbuds in at the time (I know so people on here like to listen to music while riding, but why on earth do you need earbuds/phones when sitting in a car???

So far he is still in a coma, suffering from a lower back crushed vertebrae (they think they fixed that one) four more cracked upper back vertebrae, all of his right ribs broken, both lungs punctured, a broken knee that they cannot operate on as he now has a lung infection, broken collar bone and shoulder blade, that will also have to wait until the infection has cleared up. Oh, and they removed his spleen due to massive trauma to his mid-section.

He had helmet, gloves, armoured leather jacket and boots on, not sure if wearing riding pants with armour would have saved his knee or not, clearly jeans didn't.
I'm not sure why I'm sharing, whether the need to remind us that we need ATGATT or just venting from somebody's stupidity. Car drivers hardly ever feel the damage they cause other than a little premium jump.

 

[klunsford]

Sorry to hear about this. My prayers and thoughts are with you and your family.

 

[Kevhunts]

Wishing your brother a speedy recovery!

 

[Tyke]

Bad news dogdaze my wishes for a full and speedy recovery

 

[Bryn]

I'd think she'll be going to court for that one ..

Here's hoping he's soon fit and well again

 

[Rasher]

Hope he pulls through with minimal permanent damage.

I can understand this scenario very well as I commute by bike, EVERY day I pass several cars with drivers messing about with f***ing phones / tablets etc and I am not even trying to spot them, just so many at it on a daily basis.

Saw a bloke last week holding his phone across his steering wheel with one hand and operating it with the other, I think he was playing a game - at about 60mph in the middle lane of a motorway at rush hour :exclaim: I beeped and used universal sign language to display my displeasure, he just looked a bit confused by my actions.

I also know a young lad who almost lost his foot in a similar crash (but the car was coming the other way before turning across the bus lane)

Most drivers do not think at all, they are just in a zombie state as they slumber towards their destination, and in the UK the only thing the Police care about is speed - and maybe alcohol (but only for a couple of weeks at Christmas. Getting caught messing with a phone at 60 mph is the same penalty as driving a couple of miles an hour over the speed limit.

I am sure it is similar in many places, but these stories make my blood boil, almost certainly avoidable with the most basic level of awareness and driving skills being applied by the car driver.


Please keep us up to date with progress.

 

[streaky]

Sorry to here that , Hope he makes a good recovery rasher


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[Tempesc]

V sorry to read this Dogdaze. - must be a hard time for you and your family.


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[Dogdaze]

Thank you all for your well wishes.

FredBGG, although I would not personally ride in a shared bus lane, it is still legal in the UK, that not withstanding, we all ride the way we do! He only had jeans on, but as I mentioned, not sure if armoured riding pants would have done much to prevent the knee injury. He was on a GSXR 600, his choice, not mine. But with all the beeping of the puny horns would not have got this person's attention as she was wearing earbuds.
I also know my brother, and he is so different to me, not nearly as attentive to the stupidity of other roads abusers. Maybe that comes from age, having kids or both. The leather jacket was a Dainese Race jacket, but without the pants they will and could ridden up his back when he came off the bike. We are still awaiting the full Police report, but seems like the car cut him off without waring and catapulted him and into a solid object. I will post exactly what happened when I know.

But this is why I posted, so as to remind people of the numpty's sharing the roads.

 

[Tempesc]

FredBGG

It sounds like you have a very robust approach!

I think it is important not to leave the impression that somehow this is Dogdaze's brother's fault.

The truth is even the best protection cannot eliminate risk, and from the account given it seems whatever he did or wore, he would be in a bad way.

As stated already Its legal and normal to ride in the Uk in a bus lane - i (and i suspect most uk bikers) do it.. Uk drivers know this and should make the same observations before crossing this lane as they do any other.




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[Ramseybella]

I am sorry about your brother he is going to need big time support when he comes out of it and I hope the court gets all they can get for his recovery.
Damn spinal injuries are not a good condition to be in along with the punctured lung.

God speed his recovery my friend!! O

Its always on my mind what someone is going to do around me, even other bikers can pull some stupid shiT.
I thought about the scenario on what would be the results in a crash on 550 the other day when I was driving in a healthy rain storm.
I just had to shake it off as we all know it is never a good outcome no matter how minor the crash can be.
I was damn lucky when I got T-Boned on my Triumph and I am still dealing with the injury to my knee after two years, I probably will be dealing with it for the rest of my life at my age.

 

[Dogdaze]

Hey FredBGG, I did not assume you laid any blame at my brother, we're good ::008::

Also by way of update, if anyone is interested, spoke to my nephew who happens to be in the Met Police, and he has said (I initially may have got it wrong) that as I said my brother was in the bus lane and a car was in the parallel lane about a car length ahead, a woman coming from the opposite direction stops to turn right (across the the path of the bike) at which point the car drive next to my brother slows to a stop and 'flashes' the oncoming vehicle to allow her to turn across the lanes, she does, but did not check to see if all the traffic had stopped or even looked for the bike, and so the bike ends up buried in the side of the car and brother is now airborne at 40mph and lands 60ft from impact on his left side, where most of the damage occurred.

I too have a loud 2-tone horn, and very bright LED DRL, but with all that you still have to react to hit the horn, brake etc, and sometimes you just don't get time to react to anything.

Again, thank you all for your kind words.

 

[Rasher]

The stats for motorcycling are quite horrific, and in some cases, like this, there may have been very little to have prevented it.

We can ride defensively, armour up, take advanced training etc. but sometimes bad luck intervenes and shit happens, generally we just hope it will happen to someone else - and tomorrow any one of us could be that someone else.

My kit is fairly decent, but I do not wear the latest Moto-GP spec gear, or dress as to shine out like a vision of the Angel Gabriel coming along toe road. I respect and defend the rights of people to wear what they want.

My second biggest fear is of falling foul to some idiot like this who does not take their driving seriously or consider the safety of those around them, my biggest fear is my Wife will fall victim to one of these morons...

...but we all ride because we love it, and unfortunately have to accept the risks, the risk of my own mistakes I am comfortable with, the risk others put me at I despise, but I ride on, and going back to the original post I think we all need to make sure we are doing our best to take care of ourselves in a world where it is far to easy to obtain a licence to thrash around in two tons of metal.

 

[Dogdaze]

Where is the bus lane located compared to the other lanes? Do you have the location so we can google maps/satellite it?

There is always so much to learn.

The bus lane forms one lane of a two lane heading in a northly direction, no bus lane on the opposite direction and a 'marked' median with turn right filter lane. Change google maps to 'earth' setting.

https://www.google.ch/maps/place/Slough,+UK/@51.4972386,-0.5551819,126m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x487663427e9e92a9:0xb16ca352b90b0206!6m1!1e1?hl=en-GB

 

[Dogdaze]

"The signs are nice and clear so drivers from outside of London should have no excuse."

Ah ha! You made the assumption that people actually look at road signs. You have much to learn grasshopper. All joking aside (what else can you do?) you just have to follow someone to realise this, roadworks are classics, from 1-2km away the tell you work in progress up ahead, then 1km lane merge, then 500 lane merge, and how many people suddenly at the last second swerve over and the look on their faces, " who the heck put those traffic cones there?"

 

[Tempesc]

Hi Dogdaze - how is your brother doing? Really hoping he is on the mend.


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[Dogdaze]

Hi Tempesc,
Still in a coma, they opened him up last week to pin all of his left ribs, they were not about to heal on their own, they are hoping that will help his left lung repair faster and re-inflate naturally.
Once his respiratory infection clears they plan on working on his knee, collar bone and shoulder blade. They fixed his vertebrae, and seems no lasting damage to spine from the scans.

Thanks for the enquiry ::008::

 

[Tempesc]

Thank you - he is in my thoughts and prayers.

Andy


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[iClint]

Sorry to hear about your brother. I hope he gets better soon.
I'm sorry to hear about the Splenenectomy. That is rough. He will have to be careful with bacterial infections
as the spleen serves very important bacteria fighting functions.


Regarding the accident ....

Two things to point out.
Riding in a bus lane that is normally reserved for buses can be dangerous because car drivers are only expecting buses in that lane.
Also being a car length behind someone puts you right in the blind spot of the driver.... and that is assuming that they even look.
When ever I am even momentarily in the blind spot of a car I blow my horn. If there is a cross roads I'll blow my horn more insistently.
It is a preventative measure we have to take due to the behavior of so many car drivers.

What type of bike was he on?
You mentioned his gear. Jacket with armor and helmet. What type of jacket was it?
Most motorcycle jacket armor is far from adequate.
It also sounds like his legs were not well protected.

Today I was chatting with a couple of riders about gear. They saw my eye sore air-bag vest and that got the conversation going.
They had pretty expensive big brand adventure jackets and pants. Two different brands. On both jackets and both pants I showed them how you could totally move the pads away from where
they need to be without any effort at all.... if they were to crash with that gear the chances of the pads being where they should be would be quite low.
CE armor is only a material certification. It does not at all mean that the actual gear is certified. Most is really quite useless.

I firmly believe in ATGATT, but with an emphasis on ALL..... as in lots of it and comfort is secondary to effectiveness.. I ride with a three layer strategy:

Layer 1
Hard shell knee braces with long hard shell shin protection. The braces use three full wrap around straps.
Hard shell free ride hip and waist protection Alpine Star Bionic shorts.
Dianese City Guard mesh jacket with back, chest, shoulder and elbow/forarm hard shell armor.

Layer 2
Very tough riding pants. Either very heavy mesh or full kevlar
Very tough leather jacket (not the whimpy 1.2/1.4 cowhide)... much heavier.
No armor in the jacket. I want the leather skin to be independent of the armor in layer 1.
Jacket surface can more around without moving the layer 1 armor.
High leather boots with heavy composite protection or competition MX boots.
Large thick shell helmet like a Shoe RF-1100, not the more compact skinny stuff like Schuberth etc.
Yup it's a big helmet with more wind drag, but size is your friend.

Layer 3
Hit-Air airbag vest that when deployed opens a huge wedge around the neck, full length frontal and back bladders as well
as thick side (kidney) protection and rear hip/butt loop.

On top of that version of ATGATT I add very visible headlight modulation, loud indicator beeper, wireless helmet tail lights and brake light modulator along with Hi Viz colors.

And then drive as if I'm invisible anyway because so many drivers are simply stupid.

If I had to put all that shit on to go for a ride I just wouldn't bother.

And I have been there and done that as far as injuries go..... I have come off at low speed in ATGATT and broken bones, Come off at high speed in jeans and sneakers and not had a scratch on me, Taken on a car and come off second best despite all the gear and witnessed a bloke with the best gear money could buy take on some road furniture in a low speed crash and die on the scene despite his gear and first responders doing everything possible to save him.

Fred I noticed in your extensive list of gear there was no neck brace!? (that airbag jacket isn't going to cut it) You mean you actually go out side with that bowling ball on a tooth pick on you shoulders? you are risking a High level spinal injury that could leave you a quad overtime you leave the house. ( I spent some time in a spinal ward, so I know just how easy it is to break your neck)

All you can do is cover your skin and ride in an effort to not fall off and hope for the worst doesn't happen.

All the armour in the world "MIGHT" reduce the damage from an impact provided it happens in the precise manner the armour is designed to protect and the blunt force is small. Any impact at anything even close to road speed is still going to break and shatter bones tear flesh, explode organs. If these things concern you sell your bikes and give up riding now because overtime you get on a bike these are the risks.

 

[Dogdaze]

Hey FredBGG,
brief update, I believe he will be released tomorrow from hospital. Seven operations and one more due in two months. Walking on one crutch and an upper body cast for another 8 weeks. New clavicle made from titanium (old one shattered beyond repair) body weight loss of 32lbs and in extreme pain but they will not allow him to have anything stronger than paracetamol, in case he becomes an addict, gotta love the NHS!!! Total scar length from stitches is 205 cms.
At least he's alive, right?