2 near misses in 2 days - partly my blame ?

OK first one yesterday on the way home from Work


A Road traffic is moving @20 mph

long stretch of road, no oncoming traffic so I overtake @70mph.

Suddenly a car pulls out in front of me to turn right. I didn't see any indicators but even if they where on isn't he supposed to look into his mirror ?????!!
Slammed the brakes - that slowed me down just enough to wave around his car.




2nd one this morning.

I join the A12 off the Slip road I'm stuck behind a lorry doing 65mph.

I indicate look into my mirror, turn my head. OK a car is there but its far away. I pull out & overtake the lorry, keep an eye on my mirror - the car gets bigger & bigger So I pulled as close as possible to the left side next to the lorry - the car overtakes me on the right.
After the shock I gunned it to catch up - no chance this guy must have been doing approx 150mph. Eventually I caught up at slow moving traffic. He is staring straight ahead and ignores me. Young boy racer type.

Judging on Speed & Angle of Impact:

On the first one If I hit the car I would have broken some bones but still be around

Second one would have been a fatality, no doubt.


Anyway I avoided both accidents. But if I didn't would any of those 2 be partly my fault ?

I'[m finding myself riding alot slower again.

Thanks

1st one almsot certainly, they should check mirrors but with that difference in speed you could easily appear after they have looked but before they turn.

2nd one, you should have judged speed better, but he was a prat for not slowing down when he saw a lorry and you. His fault in reality.

Originally Posted by Carsick

1st one almsot certainly, they should check mirrors but with that difference in speed you could easily appear after they have looked but before they turn.

2nd one, you should have judged speed better, but he was a prat for not slowing down when he saw a lorry and you. His fault in reality.

your not the first to miss judge speed like that, i did that on the a14 one day, scared the drap outa me,

again guy in a corsa over took on right hand side, must have been doing 90mph and sum..

First one difficult to say but you must take a considerable share of the blame IMHO. You were speeding, for a start!!

A 50mph speed differential is too much for filtering IMHO, which as Carsick says might explain to some extent why the guy either didn't see you or misjudged your speed.

Plus, you were overtaking at a junction, which is normally either a "no no" or should be done very carefully at a speed where you can see everything and stop if you have to. With a long queue of traffic moving that slowly it's odd-on that someone will try to beat the queue by rat-running through side streets.


2nd one you might be criticised for poor obervation but the guy was speeding and excessively so. Perhaps you might have stayed behind the lorry a little longer to take a more complete picture of the speeds of those around you, but that's hard to say as I wasn't there.

On the plus side, they were misses, so you get the benefit of wisdom with none of the associated damage/injury/insurance issues.

If it makes you feel any better, I've done both in the past.

Originally Posted by Carsick

If it makes you feel any better, I've done both in the past.

Aye.....me too

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Learn from the experiences and you'll be fine

[Bluepete]

The first one is the same as the second one. The driver in the first one probably didn't judge your difference in speed properly, neither did you with the second one. Luckily, you lived and will hopefully learn

Originally Posted by BluePete

The driver in the first one probably didn't judge your difference in speed properly, neither did you with the second one.

An elegant summary

Victim and perpetrator

I won't pass judgement.
The car from behind the best way to judge speed is to look, look away and then look again. It only takes micro seconds and you can make better decisions based on these 2 mental pictures.

As for the boy racer I'd have just knocked on his window and then told him I was reporting him for dangerous driving. No aggro from me, if your bike is right at his driver's door he can't get out and attack you either. It would be best to let him drive off first tho...

I'm sure I should have judged the speed better, but to be honest I'd have never expect a car overtaking that fast & not slowing down