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[North Georgia Hawg]

Glad you're OK, Don! You are being to easy on the guy. That "I didn't see him" don't cut it. 1000lb scooter, 200lb man, headlights blaring. He just didn't think, or thought "He will stop"...........3 secs either way and you could have been gone forever!!! ACCEPT NO EXCUSES

That's very true!

Glad you made it OK, Don. Bikes are relatively easily fixed, people not so much...

Having been in several close calls like this over the years, I've come to the conclusion that nothing beats plain old experience. It just takes lots of time between the bars to develop the instinctual response that you performed in a situation like this. I'm glad you have that experience. Many riders would have seized up and THOUGHT too long, instead of just letting their brain- and muscle-memory developed over years of riding just do their thing to deal with the situation.

I put on a pair of the Dynamics Rings turn signals last fall, in an attempt to increase my visibility. They might help with some distracted cagers, and they might not... But I'll take all the help I can get!

Again, glad you didn't get injured, Don! There are people out there trying their best to kill us...

Ken

[Twolanerider]

Glad you're OK, Don! You are being to easy on the guy. That "I didn't see him" don't cut it. 1000lb scooter, 200lb man, headlights blaring. He just didn't think, or thought "He will stop"...........3 secs either way and you could have been gone forever!!! ACCEPT NO EXCUSES

I totally agree that the guy should have seen me.  That he looked without really looking so was a careless ass in the process.  My headlight (bright LED), running lights (bright Halogen, different color pattern, triangular pattern to the headlight) were on and it was daylight in a stretch with no other traffic immediately around me.

The guy stopped at his sign.  He looked both ways.  I saw his head swivel.  And he was looking, seemingly, right through me when he pulled out.  Absolutely positively should have seen me.  For whatever reason I just didn't register in the empty space that was his head.  Then he compounded things by slamming to a stop in the middle of the land when I did finally register.

Wouldn't have even needed 3 more seconds to have made this a non-event.  Half that and there would have been plenty of room and time.  The guy just screwed up.  Somehow managed to look without seeing (or something).   I was pissed for a good five or six seconds (concurrent to making sure no pooh had come out).  Then a quick case of the shakes and hee-bee-beebees then it was time to be pleased I didn't get dead or bent and hit the throttle and ride on  .

[Twolanerider]

That's very true!

Glad you made it OK, Don. Bikes are relatively easily fixed, people not so much...

Having been in several close calls like this over the years, I've come to the conclusion that nothing beats plain old experience. It just takes lots of time between the bars to develop the instinctual response that you performed in a situation like this. I'm glad you have that experience. Many riders would have seized up and THOUGHT too long, instead of just letting their brain- and muscle-memory developed over years of riding just do their thing to deal with the situation.

I put on a pair of the Dynamics Rings turn signals last fall, in an attempt to increase my visibility. They might help with some distracted cagers, and they might not... But I'll take all the help I can get!

Again, glad you didn't get injured, Don! There are people out there trying their best to kill us...

Ken

It was certainly an experience that reminded me of things I'd stopped doing.  Fortunately, as you say Ken, while I lost probably half the reaction time I had available to just staring at the wrong spot that was still a short time and the instincts took over and the bike and I scooted by.  Hell, I was even luck the angle of the foot peg bracket was such that when it clanked off of whatever it struck that it could just fold up rather than jerk the bike sideways.  Some things very quickly went wrong there (from both the driver and me) but some things also very quickly went right.  As a result I got to ride out another tank of gas that day. 

[ultrafxr]

There is a phenomenon called inattentional blindness. Cage drivers are looking for other cages and trucks - big things. Not motorcycles.  I almost overtook a bicyclist going the same direction on a two lane road with no shoulder while driving my cage a while back. Just plain did not see him until I was very close to him. And yes I was paying attention - not distracted at all.


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[J-Carr]

I hate to admit it, but I almost backed into a bike in the Chip last year in sturgis pulling my truck out after unhooking the camper.  I know I looked and specifically for Motorcycles under the circumstances.  I don't know if it was that or he was just at an angle that it both a mirror and my back window blind spots as my head swiveled.  Thankfully I heard him yell at me before I made contact.  I felt like a complete heel.

It is one reason I never forward all the watch out for bikers emails.  I think most people are, but still screw up frequently.  I'd really rather we all learned the skills Don was reminding us of.  Hopefully everyone will learn to watch out for us and hopefully we won't need to use those skills to avoid them.  But you can't control what the other guy does.  Only how you prepare and respond.

I'd rather be prepared and alive, then right and dead.

[Twolanerider]

There is a phenomenon called inattentional blindness. Cage drivers are looking for other cages and trucks - big things. Not motorcycles.  I almost overtook a bicyclist going the same direction on a two lane road with no shoulder while driving my cage a while back. Just plain did not see him until I was very close to him. And yes I was paying attention - not distracted at all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not surprised there's a title for the phenomena Jerry.  As it does "just happen."  Sometimes we just don't see chit. Especially things outside normal expectation. 

It's not a case of right or wrong or intent.  It just happens; which is why those of on two wheels are always best served is we take care of and watch out for ourselves and do all we can to allow the rest of the world to just leave us alone (regulatorily speaking) as much as they possible can.  If "they" make the roads more and more safe for the cars "they" are helping us too.  From there we can adjust and cover our own asses for the rest.  We're such a minority though that if administrators and regulators feel they have to start adjusting or compensating for us we won't like the result.

[ultrafxr]

Not surprised there's a title for the phenomena Jerry.  As it does "just happen."  Sometimes we just don't see chit. Especially things outside normal expectation. 

Exactly Don.  Here is a pretty good definition:

Inattentional blindness, also known as perceptual blindness, is a psychological lack of attention and is not associated with any vision defects or deficits. It may be further defined as the event in which an individual fails to recognize an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight. The term was coined by Arien Mack and Irvin Rock in 1992 and was used as the title of their book of the same name, published by MIT press in 1998.  Here, they describe the discovery of inattentional blindness and include a collection of procedures used describing the phenomenon.  Research on inattentional blindness suggests that the phenomenon can occur in any individual, independent of cognitive deficits. When it simply becomes impossible for one to attend to all the stimuli in a given situation, a temporary blindness effect can take place as a result; that is, individuals fail to see objects or stimuli that are unexpected and quite often salient.

[Indenial]

I try to be extremely observant when pulling out in my truck. But my 2011 Chevy has a large windshield support right where the traffic is.  I have come close, twice, to running into a pedestrian crossing the street. They were in the way of the support and I just didn't see them.  Knowing this, I always move my head back and forth to be sure no one is there.  Same when pulling out into traffic.

[MIKEYTEE]

I just saw and read this thread. DAMN DON! You had some help on that one, your angel was watching and guided you through the motions. Without your years of experience and cat like reflexes ( even an old cat ) the angel couldn't have helped.
Glad your alright and had and could tell us the story. May we all learn something from this.
Mike