Police cause SV650 to crash...

[NTECUK]

Originally Posted by Fordward

PS: Even if this was a staged and planned emergency stop, it doesn't absolve the copper of blame, he should have said 'no, it's too dangerous', or if it wasn't planned he should have seen the speed they were coming at, the distance that they were away, and said 'feck that, I'm not walking out there, they can go back and film a second take'.

I bet he wouldn't have walked off the hard shoulder of a motorway into the carriageway with traffic approaching from that distance.

If 'Stuart' told you to jump off a cliff in order to help with his safety video, would you do it?

If I'd been the Kwak or VFR rider and Stuart had told me to do 90mph in the fog, then all pull an emergency stop together in a straight line, for the sake of filming a safety video, I'd have told him to get stuffed.

There's probably a bit of film makers licence going on.
I don't think that the police would like you to actually do 90 on a unrestricted single carriage way.

Originally Posted by Spank86

It doesn't matter what the policeman did because he hit the bike in front not the policeman.

Actually I think it does matter.

Who's to the say the second bike would have stopped in time and not hit the copper had that first bike not been there? Or if the first bike had managed to swerve around the copper and the second one take him out? Nobody knows where the second biker was looking or how much attention he was paying.

Few people ride perfectly. The copper should know that. Which is why I'm amazed at how is actions are being compared to that of a sheep.

Let's suppose their were deaths in this scenario. Two bikers who were not able to stop in time because a copper thought "oh they look like they're riding a little pacey, let me jump out in front of them". I know who I'd blame. His actions alone directly put those peoples lives at danger. Had he not jumped into the middle of the road, it would not have happened. The copper's an adult. Not a child or some roadkill animal.

Originally Posted by Spank86

either one of which means that the speed was excessive for HIM (OR he was too close to the bike in front, they are two sides of the same coin, the slower you are going the closer you can be).

If you go out for a ride do you peg your speed to what is safe for valentino rossi or what is safe for you?

Originally Posted by Red Herring

I would suggest that you can see the fog, you can see your mate ahead, and you can see the speed that you are both doing. Given that you are both riding at the limit of your view (being able to stop in the distance you can see to be clear) it is not unreasonable to expect that should your mate have to demonstrate that measure he will be stopping quite quickly.....

I think Wideboy is confusing "speed limit" with "excessive speed".

A speed limit is set by law, (in this case there isn't one), excessive speed is speed that is to high for the circumstances. These circumstances are all encompassing and will take into account the riders ability, so what may have been appropriate speed for one rider may well be excessive for another, even if they are following each other along the same road at the same time. The SV rider didn't appreciate what was happening up ahead in time to react to it safely (for whatever reason) so his speed was excessive, he got it wrong.

I'm relieved to hear that I'm not the only one who thinks the speed was excessive for those conditions, especially for the SV rider, just because the other two riders didn't bin it, doesn't automatically mean their speed was correct, they got away with it that's all.
If that was the case, me speeding doing 60 past a school with a 20 limit would be ok as long as I didn't crash.

Originally Posted by thulfi

Actually I think it does matter.

Who's to the say the second bike would have stopped in time and not hit the copper had that first bike not been there? Or if the first bike had managed to swerve around the copper and the second one take him out? Nobody knows where the second biker was looking or how much attention he was paying.

Few people ride perfectly. The copper should know that. Which is why I'm amazed at how is actions are being compared to that of a sheep.

Let's suppose their were deaths in this scenario. Two bikers who were not able to stop in time because a copper thought "oh they look like they're riding a little pacey, let me jump out in front of them". I know who I'd blame. His actions alone directly put those peoples lives at danger. Had he not jumped into the middle of the road, it would not have happened. The copper's an adult. Not a child or some roadkill animal.

The sheep is just a symbol, it could be any reasonable hazard, as I said earlier, on a mountain road, you're more likely to see a sheep than a cop in hi viz.

Another scenario, going along a road, car in front slams his brakes on for no reason, you shunt it up the back, who's fault?
It's yours in the eyes of the insurance, end of, that's how all the Asians in Brum are getting their whiplash claims in, happened to my best mate in his transit.

Originally Posted by specialone

The sheep is just a symbol, it could be any reasonable hazard, as I said earlier, on a mountain road, you're more likely to see a sheep than a cop in hi viz.

Like I said, there will always be careless or inattentive riders/drivers. But the point is, this hazard was brought on because the policeman deliberately jumped out onto a road where he thought people were riding too fast. In my opinion, that changes the whole situation and is not comparable to any generic hazard on the road.

The copper was a knob and shouldn't have done it, but the fact that the first rider stopped, in the eyes of the insurance, absolves the copper IMO and places blame on the SV rider, he even admits it was all his fault on the YouTube comments.

Originally Posted by specialone

The copper was a knob and shouldn't have done it, but the fact that the first rider stopped, in the eyes of the insurance, absolves the copper IMO and places blame on the SV rider,.

which was basically what I was getting at.

It would be different if the first bike had gone down or hit the copper or a million other things but the situation we see is one bike cannot stop quick enough when the bike in front does.

That's it.

I agree that the cop ought to get a bollocking from his boss but that's quite apart from the accident.

[Wideboy]

Originally Posted by specialone

I'm relieved to hear that I'm not the only one who thinks the speed was excessive for those conditions, especially for the SV rider, just because the other two riders didn't bin it, doesn't automatically mean their speed was correct, they got away with it that's all.
If that was the case, me speeding doing 60 past a school with a 20 limit would be ok as long as I didn't crash.

no it wouldn't what kind of comparison is that?! you'd be breaking the speed limit and the law. I'm not confusing speed limit with excessive speed, my argument is that they weren't at excessive speed because A) there is no speed limit and B) the others stopped whilst going at the same speed thus proving that as a group they weren't riding at a dangerous speed for the conditions. I really don't know what is so hard to understand by that .

you can quite clearly see on the clip the VFR brake with no response from the sv rider. As I've said already . To me this says that he wasn't paying 100% attention to the VFR. If you can see the brake light on a video then you can sure see one in first person. After he fails to respond he then panics when he could have gone round.

This thread (not the video) does show what coppers have to go through and why they make good coppers.

[Ch00]

Going back the fact we know its a staged event for a film.

The brief might have been 3 bikes ride up the hill as fast as you like and a Police man or somebody that looks like one will stop you. Maybe the bikers were having to much fun when and forgot they were getting stopped.