Does Biker Deserve Death Sentence?

Necro post, but…

That video doesn’t show enough to judge the car driver’s intent.

If there had been a previous instance where the car had cut off the bike, one might presume the driver is inattentive.

Is it so unreasonable to think that if the driver was not paying attention, wasn’t aware of his proximity to the bike, and was startled by the kick? And then jerked the wheel in panic?

Sure, maybe they tried to run the bike into the barrier. But there’s no way to tell from the video.

Doing such things are seriously absurd and nonsense. Don’t know why people take risk of their life. It’s so sad that no strict rules are implemented for bikers like these. It’s high time to take action against them.

https://www.ericpetersautos.com/

I have had a number of incidents over the years where motor vehicle operators have compromised my safety on my motorcycle, but overall it was through inattention or negligence, not malice. I have the mindset that the road is a battlefield when I am on my motorcycle. I am an enemy combatant with no weapons or armor and I must survive by wits, agility and speed alone. I has worked well for me. I started riding on the street in 1978. I have never been involved in a major accident.

When I was young (and hot headed) I took revenge on a couple of drivers for nearly killing me. But rather than attempt to fight a tank from “horseback”, I hung back and let them go. I followed them and waited for them to stop and get out of their vehicle. Then confronted them on equal footing. I scared the living shit out of one them. The other one obviously (and arrogantly) wasn’t scared. When I pointed out he’d just run me into two lanes of oncoming traffic, his response was “So what?” and walked away. It turned out he was the VP of the bank that held the loan on my motorcycle and had almost destroyed his collateral along with the customer, lol. My message in both cases was clear: in the future, look out for motorcyclists! In the first case I received an apology from the lady. In the case of the arrogant banker, my message was punctuated with a far amount of missing paint from the side of his Lincoln Town Car.

Nowadays, living in a rural area, I don’t have to deal with traffic that much. I still employ various defensive riding techniques to avoid the idiots in four (or more) wheeled boxes when I do. I also ride a bike that will outperform practically everything else on the road: the Kawasaki ZX-14. So even if the average Angry Man decides to engage me in a round of road rage, he won’t be able to catch me unless he’s driving a Z06 Corvette at the very least. And I haven’t had too much trouble with Vette drivers over the years.

I did have an issue with the occupants of a Chevy Nova back in the early 80s. It was apparently a case of mistaken identity. This scruffy looking couple chased me down through traffic, cussed me, cut me off, slowed in front of me and repeated this a couple of times. I kept changing lanes to avoid them. As we were coming up to a traffic light they got beside me again. The male passenger had his window down and let loose with a fresh barrage of profanity. I flipped up my face shield and spat a huge loogie right in his face! I had a half dozen cars lined up perfectly ahead of me and high-tailed it out of there. It was very satisfying and I can only imagine how pissed he was.

Being an avid road cyclist (as in “push bike, two skinny wheels, two pedals on one shaft, twenty pounds all up) I’ve been assaulted and harrassed by numerous motorists. Most incidents took me by surprise as cars, travelling much faster, passed me and passengers threw things at me (rotten aim, in all but one case), opened doors into me (knocking me sideways, but good bike handling skills enabled me to retain balance, get a number plate at night as they sped away, and keep going, calling the coppers later. Who did… nothing. Which was MORE of an insult than the door crash. Punks being punks, it is only a matter of time they’ll pick a less skilled rider and he’s down, possibly run over as he skids along the macadam, helpless……) And that was in Seattle, a world famous bike crazy town. Nontheless, full of idiot coppers.

Had a city bus (not in seattle) make a deliberate lane change and keep coming into MY space, at about 30mph for both of us, again knocking me seriously sideways, but again, serious bike skills enabled me to steer the bike back underneath me. Did not go down. I chased him down to his next stop, got his numbers, and repported him to the safety officer the next morning. The guy began to push back, the driver had had a supe look at the bus… of course, a soft shoulder covered in spandex will leave no mark on a clean bus’ flat side. Their conclusion? The driver did NOT contact me. Welll, I’d been out on a club ride, four other riders were half a block behind me, three had watched the bus hit me and were certain I’d go down… astounded Indid not. I knew who they were, and told the safety clown that Ihad three eye witnesses who would come into a courtroom and testify that the driver DID indeed swerve sharply to hit me. He changed his tune, and admitted this driver had had previous complaints from cyclists. He’d get after the guy. I told him I am a commercial driver, and that such conduct has NO PLACE mbehind the wheel of a commercial vehicle. Better let the guy go elsewhere before he dumps someone and seriously hurts him or makes him dead. Having a previous history puts YOU, the safety supe, in a position of responsibility. He admitted Iwas right…. dunno whether the clown was canned, bt he should have been.

Some folks just get a burr under their saddle blanket for something, and go all aggressive in an instant. Immature, but yet real. Seems these two had some “bad blood” like that.. and the ying press trying to selectively edit the video record boils MY blood. They should be taken to task, confronted with the whole clip, and demand made they retell the story accurately. That footage needs to be made over to the coppers to they can charge the punk in the car for aggressing agaisnt the rider, and for violating California’s sacred car pool lanes.. $365 fine as of last summer for any car pool lane violation including entering/exiting outside the designated sections.

Bunch of niggers in the concrete jungle.

I try to avoid any interactions these days. Keep it purely logistical.

I’m glad for the access, but have no desire to even acknowledge anyone.

Be excessively polite to avoid conflict yet remain aloof is my credo.

I can believe car drivers do wrong towards bikers. But I’ve never seen it happen. However I often see bikers passing in “wheelie” position at 90 plus MPH between autos where there’s not another lane, but the painted white lane guides only. I saw a band of upwards of 300 bikers take over a highway for over ten miles. One got in front of me and slowed to 30MPH, apparently daring me to hit him. Wrong takes place on both sides but considering the reputation of biker gangs, this poisons the well in the thinking of many non-bikers towards them.

We may not know the totality of what really happened here, as there may have been something that occurred prior to the video that we didn’t see. Nonetheless, what I do see is the motorcyclist as the aggressor. Even if the car cut him off, pulled in front of him, whatever. It’s unfortunate but very often you truly don’t see a motorcycle. I have accidentally cut them off or pulled in front of them many many times. Wasn’t out to get ‘em, just honestly didn’t see them. Right or wrong, drivers often just don’t see motorcycles, and whatever happened, this guy should have just been grateful he didn’t get hit and gone on his way. I’m sure many EP Autos readers will vehemently disagree, but I’ll tell ya what, you kick my door because of an honest mistake, then fuck you, I’m coming after you and I don’t give a shit if you die. If you’re stupid enough to fuck with my 6 thousand pound truck on your 400 pound motorcycle, don’t bitch when your ass gets squashed.

It doesn’t take much to throw a car into a slide at highway speeds. Many years ago while driving a 67 Chevelle I was struck a glancing blow on the left rear quarter by a Chevy II as it passed me at about 70 MPH. My car went into a sideslide and I overcompensated in my attempt to steer out of it. I hit an embankment going sideways and rolled. It was a ragtop. My then girlfriend and I were lucky to walk away with minor injuries. No, we weren’t using seat belts. The Chevy II also went into a slide and hit a culvert. I’ve witnessed other slides and flips occur as cars have clipped one another at speeds of 60 and above.

When you slow the video down you can see the whole drivers door dented in just before he hits the divider. A hit to make that dent would have sounded like a bomb going off in that car.

The other thing I find scary is how unstable that SUV is, looks like an Escalade. The compact car had already lost momentum hitting the divider and inertia from changing direction would have also reduced its velocity. Just a hit at the rear wheel was enough to flip a much larger and heavier vehicle.

Anyone think that the driver heard a loud crack against his door and panicked? In the split second it took to turn the wheel, he may have thought it was a gun shot or that he had hit something and swerved. It looks like the motorcycle was in the driver’s blindspot. People react out of instinct when they hear loud noises.

Just a lesson in physics should have everyone asking what the motorcycle rider was thinking. He caused that accident as his actions were the immediate cause of the collision.

After having a serial killer approach my drivers side window and try to get me to lower it, I have no hesitation to run a son of a bitch over if he comes near me. I’d prefer the more civilized option of exercising my Second Amendment rights but those are reserved to friends of the mayor who pay bribes.

THE motorcycle is THE agressor in this video. He is trying to harm person in THE car. On top of that fleeing THE scen of a crime/accident which is an even worse crime. We DO not know what happened before this.
I agree with the point of two really stupid persons.

I think we are pre-supposing that the car driver did something to the biker first- which may very well have been the case. But suppose the car driver had been in some type of altercation with the biker just prior to this incident, and was trying to get away from the guy? Or suppose the biker was the original instigator of the road rage? Suppose the car driver had just done something which the biker considered disrespectful, and the biker was attempting to even the score by kicking the car?

Someone pulls up alongside me and kicks my vehicle, I’m probably fighting back with my vehicle, too!

A statist would say “The car driver should not have done anything. He just should have called the police” [Bullies with guns and legal immunity always make things better, right?]

But that same argument would have had the biker “calling the police” on the car driver first, for whatever impropriety he may have committed….

I think a Libertarian view would be that unless the car driver had caused some actual harm from which he was fleeing, that the biker should not be kicking his car; and if he does, then he should expect the driver to take actions to protect his property/mitigate damages/prevent further infliction of damage. Expecting the driver’s actions to be well thought-out, or somehow a perfect match of “like force”, etc. is not realistic, in the real world on the spur of the moment.

Be we right or wrong; be our reaction in scale to the threat, etc. I think we would all do much like what that driver did. This time, it just ended badly for the driver instead of the biker- but the biker was the instigator here, unless the driver had done something heinous- like kidnapping the biker’s daughter or something, and was attempting to flee.

And I think that the biker exhibits a very reckless and violent attitude, not to mention a disregard for his own safety and that of those around him, by being willing to initiate a fight with a car while on his bike. It takes quite a temper to do that.

All I know is, you mess with me on the road on your bike- you picked the fight, and I’m under no obligation to play fair, so you’re going down! No different than if the same guy were taking a sledgehammer to my truck. I’m not going to say “Would you please stop doing that?”, or call the police. I’m going to hurt the guy. Don’t want to get hurt? Then don’t initiate violence, because I never will either.

Who initiated the violence? If the car had intentionally tried to run down the biker before, then the driver was the initiator. But if the biker just had an issue with the driver because maybe the driver accidentally cut him off or “disrespected” him or something, then the biker is the initiator of the violence.

All I know is that that biker was damn lucky that he didn’t die, or even get injured!

Seems to be plenty of stupid to go around.

Why would someone on a motorcycle try to kick a car while moving? Regardless of the jerk in the car, why not try to stay behind him and avoid contact? That’s rule #1, don’t ever get in front of an obviously deranged driver. They become the hammer, you are the nail.

Without seeing what led up to the moment of the kick it’s hard to say who started this fracas. However, based on the vehicle control skills and actions of the drivers I’d have to say the car was the bigger of the two idiots.

The smart thing in traffic is to try to deescalate and break contact with someone acting aggressively or foolishly, especially when they have two more wheels and a ton or more mass on you. Being dead or maimed but technically in the right – no thanks.

Both drivers broke that rule, though the car driver did by far the greater escalation.

I’ve seen all kinds of things from the cab of a big rig. I’ve even been involved, involuntarily, in an incident even prospectively more deadly than this. A car and a moving truck like a Ryder or Uhaul(can’t recall the brand and don’t care)were obviously at odds about something. They came on me at much higher speeds than I was driving(65). It was in the wee hours between Houston and Sealy on I 10. The car is trying to force the truck to stop and the truck is attempting to run the car into a skid or whatever damage can be done to stop it.

Then the truck driver got the bright idea to use my rig as a shield since bullets may have been flying. It went on too long so I put on my flashers and finally came to a stop in the high speed traffic at night just to remove myself from the fracas. Last I saw they were continuing to off each other and I luckily went on making sure to not catch them. Seems like they both finally caught the same exit.

You see shit like this when you’re on the road all the time and it can quite literally be a tiff between the opposite sexes or a drug deal gone bad or anything in between. I recall that one vividly since it was my first of that sort. Too bad it wasn’t my last. To be completely honest, I was hoping they’d both swerve off the road and end up in a big fire together. I’d report it later the next day as required…..by CB to another trucker seeing it happen too. FEFEFH’s.

Remember that Simpsons episode where Homer’s accused of sexually harassing a girl, and when the TV crew interviews him, you can see the clock on the wall behind him jump around to wildly different times?

I suspect the facts of the case are with the biker.

For whatever my thoughts are worth, and I say this with 20+ years of street riding and hundreds of thousands of commuting miles, I’m really of two minds on this incident. In one, I recognize that motorcyclists must proactively protect themselves. I’ve had cars genuinely try to hit me. And I know that we don’t have the luxury of engaging in road rage, ever, so from a practical standpoint, if we decide to play that game, we have some responsibility for the outcome. In the other, while it’s possible that the driver swerved out of panic, I’m not buying it as a likely probability. But all of that aside, they’re both assholes: their nonsense dragged in and almost killed completely innocent third parties. So, in my mind, screw them both.

If you can find the longer version, you need to put it up and change the title to “attempted homicide ends badly for perp in car, and innocent bystander in SUV.” I guarantee the courts would hold the biker responsible for the inverted SUV after watching this cleverly edited and annotated TV version!

Thanks for putting this up, Eric,
Because it is the most recent example of TV News intentionally broadcasting mis-leading video.
There is a longer version on you tube. It does , in fact, show that the car crosses the double yellow from the right, and cuts off the bike in the HOV lane. The version seen here is the one edited for the TV news broadcast that was claiming a hit-and-run biker. The un-edited version starts before the bike even passes the cammer on the left, and the bike was already legally travelling in the HOV lane.
Notice how often the TV news says “speeding motorcyclist”. They are editing with malice, in order to incite the public against bikers, as lesser human beings. This man shoves a foot towards an aggressive driver who has repeatedly attempted to lane change on top of him. In fact, what is still in this cut-version is the car driver’s attempt to hit the bike, not a “surprised reaction” to an aggressive biker, as the TV newscasters have claimed.
The biker actually did get hit by the car, and did not lose control, and I’ll be damned if I would stop anywhere within sight of another vehicle that has purposely tried to crush and mutilate me against a concrete barrier.
If the bastard survived the car-wreck, I might have been tempted to shoot him in self defense. So, is fleeing from a vehicular assault on your life a “hit-and-run”??? The TV news would like to convince us it is!
You and I have both seen it, and will continue to do so, as long as the public keeps getting false information fed to them on TV and I-Net Vids.