Another close call, these cagers are out to get me!
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 8:27 pm
Was coming home the other night, doing about 65 on the divided four lane. As I was approaching a SUV that had it's front end approaching the side of the road on a perpendicular side street from my right, I saw his front tire start turning, when I was only about 60 feet away! I layed on the horn, bumped the beam to bright, and countersteer/flipped the bike into the left lane just as he got about halfway onto my roadway, in what would have been my exact location at the same time I passed by him at the 45 I got her down to had I not flipped to the left lane. Scared the bejesus out of me, because the moron was looking downrange away from me at the backs of cars already gone 1/8 mile away as he entered the street! I have to get these extra lights on! Maybe an air horn too... That was too close...
So how do you more experienced chaps deal with these folks that just don't seem to see you, even with headlights in their faces at night? How can you get their attention? This guy was not even looking my direction when I could first see him, he was looking downstream (that is how close I was when he pulled out, I could see the back of his head through his driver's window). My flashing high beam is what got him to turn to look at me! Had I not done that, he would have pulled right on out and been sitting across my lane, and turned into the left lane as his illegal acceleration, which would have resulted in my likely severe damage or worse as that was my selected escape route. Had I been in that lane already, I would have had no escape route at all, as he hogged both in my mirrors for a while.
There was no crossing centerline, but an elevated median at that point, it was not an intersection, just a driveway onto the highway from a side street, and not even a stoplight was there. I think he had a stop sign back several yards at the connection to this mile long straightaway, but he did not even stop for it before passing it, which is what alerted me that he was about to do something exceptionally stupid and dangerous to my safety before I could read the print on his tire sidewalls directly in front of me... Dang, they rolled forward and I felt the blood run out of my head...
So how do you more experienced chaps deal with these folks that just don't seem to see you, even with headlights in their faces at night? How can you get their attention? This guy was not even looking my direction when I could first see him, he was looking downstream (that is how close I was when he pulled out, I could see the back of his head through his driver's window). My flashing high beam is what got him to turn to look at me! Had I not done that, he would have pulled right on out and been sitting across my lane, and turned into the left lane as his illegal acceleration, which would have resulted in my likely severe damage or worse as that was my selected escape route. Had I been in that lane already, I would have had no escape route at all, as he hogged both in my mirrors for a while.
There was no crossing centerline, but an elevated median at that point, it was not an intersection, just a driveway onto the highway from a side street, and not even a stoplight was there. I think he had a stop sign back several yards at the connection to this mile long straightaway, but he did not even stop for it before passing it, which is what alerted me that he was about to do something exceptionally stupid and dangerous to my safety before I could read the print on his tire sidewalls directly in front of me... Dang, they rolled forward and I felt the blood run out of my head...