-Ralph-

Car drivers on the road were just like you and me before they stepped into the car. Your Mum and Dad are probably car drivers too. The vast majority of them don't have homicidal tendencies towards motorcyclists.

Staring straight at you, doesn't actually mean he saw you. The brain can only process a percentage of the picture the eyes are feeding it with, and therefore the brain subconsciously chooses to ignore things that it is not expecting to see. It's exactly the same phenomenon as looking for your keys; they are not on the hall table where you left them, you look round the kitchen they are not there, you look on all the surfaces that you might have left them around the rest of the house, nothing. You come back to the kitchen, they are slap bang in the middle of the worktop. How did you not see them the first time? Because you didn't think they were in the kitchen, you were sure you had left them on the hall table.

If the driver was looking for cars, trucks and buses, it's very common that he/she can stare straight at a cyclist or motorcyclist and not see it. It's one of the principals behind the THINK! campaign. If whilst sat at that junction, he'd conciously thought, 'must look for bikes too', his brain would not have ignored that part of the picture.

It's just a day to day danger that as motorcyclists we need to be aware of, and almost all car drivers do it from time to time, and they are not trying to kill you, it's just human nature.

Glad you are OK and well done for keeping it rubber side down!