Waiting 40 metres from the traffic lights to turn right at the corner of Metcalfe and High Road facing Lynwood High School.

Lights were red.

There were two 14 to 15 year old school girls waiting at the lights for their green to safely walk across the duel carriageway that is High Rd.

30 seconds pass and i notice the lights change colour but not for myself turning right into High Rd nor for the girls at the pedestrian crossing.

The light change to green was for the cars on High Rd.

At or just before the change the girls crossed the first two lanes and made their way on to the middle strip then had a quick look and saw the cars on High Rd were stationary and started to sprint across the two lanes.

The nearest car on the outside lane heading south had just started to move forward but stopped immediately after noticing the two girls.

The car on the inside lane had his view of the girls blocked off by the car on the outside lane.

The two girls made it past the car on the outside lane but then ran in front of the one on the inside lane which had accelerated to about 5 or 6 km/h and then when he saw them both directly in front of his car he braked hard.

His front bumper possibly touching one of the girls.

They both continued across and started laughing and giggling whilst walking up the hill on Metcalfe Rd.

I wound down my window and shouted to them to me more careful but they both seemed completely blaze about their near death experience.

I guess you had to be there?

Oh yeah, just the tip of the iceberg. You're mad if you don't have a dash cam these days.

Yeah, nearly kill a motor bike rider the other day. I was doing 110klm ( by the gps) in a 110k zone and went to pass a truck going slow up a hill and from ****ing nowhere a motor bike is beside me. I had been travelling on the road for about half an hour slowly passing other vehicles going slower than the speed limit. Said motor cycle rider must have been speeding and probably thinks it's my fault for not seeing him. If he/she wants to speed, then ****en do it, but read the traffic. If your speeding and passing a car in the left lane (of a 2 lane road) that is coming up on a slow moving vehicle, then expect them to move into the right lane. If your to stupid to read the road the don't ****en speed.

I think if you hit a teenager at walking speed its unlikely to be a fatality...?

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Crusoe said..
Said motor cycle rider must have been speeding and probably thinks it's my fault for not seeing him. If he/she wants to speed, then ****en do it, but read the traffic. If your speeding and passing a car in the left lane (of a 2 lane road) that is coming up on a slow moving vehicle, then expect them to move into the right lane. If your to stupid to read the road the don't ****en speed.

maybe his speedo said 110 and he foolishly expected you to check your mirrors and blind spot before indicating and moving into his lane?

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Dawn Patrol said..

Crusoe said..
Said motor cycle rider must have been speeding and probably thinks it's my fault for not seeing him. If he/she wants to speed, then ****en do it, but read the traffic. If your speeding and passing a car in the left lane (of a 2 lane road) that is coming up on a slow moving vehicle, then expect them to move into the right lane. If your to stupid to read the road the don't ****en speed.

maybe his speedo said 110 and he foolishly expected you to check your mirrors and blind spot before indicating and moving into his lane?

Yeah good point DP, but it's hard to judge distances at 10pm and you can go from having plenty of room to overtake, to some one dead and everyone is looking for some one to blame. All because someone believes it okay to speed and everyone should get out of their way. I'm always very aware of what other traffic is doing when overtaking and go through scenarios to avoid becoming a victim. Like when you move to the right lane to allow a conga line of merging traffic to join the road, sure as $hit, some of them are going to put their foot down and come into the right lane with you. And unfortunately, the blind spot for cars in a merging lane can make a car in the far right lane non existent in their mirrors.

Natural selection.

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Crusoe said..
Yeah, nearly kill a motor bike rider the other day. I was doing 110klm ( by the gps) in a 110k zone and went to pass a truck going slow up a hill and from ****ing nowhere a motor bike is beside me. I had been travelling on the road for about half an hour slowly passing other vehicles going slower than the speed limit. Said motor cycle rider must have been speeding and probably thinks it's my fault for not seeing him. If he/she wants to speed, then ****en do it, but read the traffic. If your speeding and passing a car in the left lane (of a 2 lane road) that is coming up on a slow moving vehicle, then expect them to move into the right lane. If your to stupid to read the road the don't ****en speed.

If you didn't AT LEAST check your mirror before indicating to overtake then checking your mirror before crossing the centerline, then yeah your fault.

Turn your head to check the blind spot, don't trust your mirrors.

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Kamikuza said..

Crusoe said..
Yeah, nearly kill a motor bike rider the other day. I was doing 110klm ( by the gps) in a 110k zone and went to pass a truck going slow up a hill and from ****ing nowhere a motor bike is beside me. I had been travelling on the road for about half an hour slowly passing other vehicles going slower than the speed limit. Said motor cycle rider must have been speeding and probably thinks it's my fault for not seeing him. If he/she wants to speed, then ****en do it, but read the traffic. If your speeding and passing a car in the left lane (of a 2 lane road) that is coming up on a slow moving vehicle, then expect them to move into the right lane. If your to stupid to read the road the don't ****en speed.

If you didn't AT LEAST check your mirror before indicating to overtake then checking your mirror before crossing the centerline, then yeah your fault.

Turn your head to check the blind spot, don't trust your mirrors.

Yep, I'd get the blame. But the situation only arose because the person on the bike was speeding. Reminds me of a road safety ad where a guys pulls out of a T intersection thinking he has heaps of room to safely cross the path of the oncoming car. He doesn't realise the other car is speeding and gets t-boned. Speed kills. The ad is trying to convince people of the hazards of speeding, not about giving way at T intersections.

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Crusoe said..

Dawn Patrol said..

Crusoe said..
Said motor cycle rider must have been speeding and probably thinks it's my fault for not seeing him. If he/she wants to speed, then ****en do it, but read the traffic. If your speeding and passing a car in the left lane (of a 2 lane road) that is coming up on a slow moving vehicle, then expect them to move into the right lane. If your to stupid to read the road the don't ****en speed.

maybe his speedo said 110 and he foolishly expected you to check your mirrors and blind spot before indicating and moving into his lane?

Yeah good point DP, but it's hard to judge distances at 10pm and you can go from having plenty of room to overtake, to some one dead and everyone is looking for some one to blame. All because someone believes it okay to speed and everyone should get out of their way. I'm always very aware of what other traffic is doing when overtaking and go through scenarios to avoid becoming a victim. Like when you move to the right lane to allow a conga line of merging traffic to join the road, sure as $hit, some of them are going to put their foot down and come into the right lane with you. And unfortunately, the blind spot for cars in a merging lane can make a car in the far right lane non existent in their mirrors.

If he is a motorcyclist that is going to continue riding well into the future then he will have been expecting you to pull out in front of him anyway.

Motorcyclists who expect other road users to see them coming don't last very long.

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Kamikuza said..

Turn your head to check the blind spot, don't trust your mirrors.

What's wrong with your mirrors? Of all the weak links in getting a signal from photons bouncing off a motorcycle to somewhere in your brain where action will be taken.... It's not going to be the mirror.

Fred says it best!