Near miss on the bike today!

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
14,220
Location
Sandwich, Kent
I had a real scare on the bike today. Its the first time I've actually been in a situation where I think I could have been seriously injured. More importantly, it was something completely out of my control.

I as riding down a dual carriage way doing the 50mph limit. I was about 30 yards behind a small van. As this van passed a bus, suddenly a big plank of timber came loose from the roof rack. It must have been at least 2 meters long and 12 inches wide. This bit of wood launched off it so fast I barely even saw it before it flew past. Fortunately, the bus sucked it behind it and out of my path.

I was a bit shocked at what had happened. Not far up the road the dual carriageway came to a set of lights. I pulled up next to the van, tapped on the window and shouted through that the guy had lost some timber a way back. The guy looked at me like I was a peice of dirt, and drove off. This seriously PLEASE DON'T SWEAR, THANKS :~) - NathanE me off. I felt like following the idiot and giving him a peice of my mind. But i couldn't be arsed. Was just glad I was ok.

Just reminded me how vulnerable I am on a bike, not just from my own actions, but also from 'tards like this on the road.
 
Bit of a close shave. Goes to show what a bunch of ***** some people are though :confused:
 
Whenever I'm out on the bike, I ride within my limits and more importantly, I ride within the bounds of absolute safety in the given situation. By doing this, I can pretty much eliminate the possibilites of human error, such as going to fast on a corner or generally riding too erratically. I can also make myself as visible to other drivers as possible, allowing myself to reduce the possibility of somebody making a careless mistake or misjudgement and ending up taking me out.

Something like what happened to you however is completely un-avoidable and is one of the only nightmares I have about riding a bike.
 
MrSix said:
Something like what happened to you however is completely un-avoidable and is one of the only nightmares I have about riding a bike.

Scaffolding plank through a windscreen at 50mph would be pretty lethal in a car also me thinks.
 
Nasty, and I know this is going to sound bad but...

Highway code stopping distance at 50MPH is 53 Meters, thinking distance alone is 15 Meters, which is why
This bit of wood launched off it so fast I barely even saw it before it flew past.

Yeh, I know, your thinking distance may be less due to having good reactions, maybe your bike stops a sight quicker too but either way, you were too close. I'd put money on you now giving extra room to vehicles with stuff externally attached now ;)
 
Was it airborne as it went past you (or you went past it more accurately!) ? If it was on the ground the bike would have gone over it no problem
 
MrSix said:
Something like what happened to you however is completely un-avoidable and is one of the only nightmares I have about riding a bike.
Agree with that, couple of years back I got hit in the chest by half a brick that fell off the back of a high loaded lorry doing 50+.

Yes it hurt like **** at the time. :p
 
Dano said:
Nasty, and I know this is going to sound bad but...

Highway code stopping distance at 50MPH is 53 Meters, thinking distance alone is 15 Meters, which is why

Yeh, I know, your thinking distance may be less due to having good reactions, maybe your bike stops a sight quicker too but either way, you were too close. I'd put money on you now giving extra room to vehicles with stuff externally attached now ;)

27 metres behind someone in a 50 limit is a more than reasonable distance, give him a break.

GSXRMovistar said:
Agree with that, couple of years back I got hit in the chest by half a brick that fell off the back of a high loaded lorry doing 50+.

Yes it hurt like **** at the time. :p

**** that!

I'm going to stop reading this thread, otherwise I'll end up walking to work in the morning!
 
Well at least he had the decency to look at you

The last time I was going down the motorway a white van pulled into my path at 60mph whilst I was at the side of his van - I instinctively pinned the throttle and before I had time to move out of the way I got a wing mirror in my face, and I slowed down and waved at him and he under cut me and took the off ramp before I could catch him

I can tell you that if I had my visor open or helmet unstrapped I would be a pile of body parts lying on the road. Head hurt like **** after though :D

Just goes to show you having your lights on, with a bright yellow bike wearing a reflective orange jacket some people still can't see you. :(
 
Mohinder said:
27 metres behind someone in a 50 limit is a more than reasonable distance, give him a break.

Apparently it wasn't though was it.

I'm not having a go, just pointing out that we all are guilty of being far to close to the vehicle in front and it's situations like this that really brings home the reason for needing a safe distance between vehicles.
 
But then you could argue that if he was back a few meters more the wood might have been low enough and slammed straight into the front forks and flip him over the bike lol
 
27 metres is a safe distance.

What are you on, seriously.

Glad it missed you, guy seems like a moof. It's possible he couldn't hear what you said with your helmet on though?
 
I was a good distance behind the guy. Certainly a lot futher from him that 'normal traffic' would be, as I was catching up with the van after taking a vehicle a fair way back from him (about 200 meters).

The plank launched upwards. I guess it let go on the front roof bar and flinged upwards. It would have hit me around head height I guess if the bus didn't divert its course.
 
Fireskull said:
But then you could argue that if he was back a few meters more the wood might have been low enough and slammed straight into the front forks and flip him over the bike lol
Yup.

Wardie said:
27 metres is a safe distance.
According to who? certainly not the highway code.

Bug One said:
I was a good distance behind the guy. Certainly a lot futher from him that 'normal traffic' would be, as I was catching up with the van after taking a vehicle a fair way back from him (about 200 meters).
That was my point, 'normal traffic' is rarely ever at a safe distance.
 
Dano said:

I don't quite understand what your getting at? braking distances etc. are kind of irrelevant here as the plank was moving towards him.. it's not like it was a car in front that had slammed its brakes on and was slowing/stationary.

Besides, if you want to argue highway code, I'm pretty sure that there is something in there to do with securing loads..
 
Not really on topic but GXR's post got me thinking (usually dangerous)

My cars peppered in stone chips, which is annoying but on a bike does the bike tend to bear the brunt of them or do they bounce off the rider :eek:
 
I'm going to take this to another level and say 27 metres is also too far away. With that distance you get cars move into the gap which then puts you in a situation where you're too close to the car in front and slowing to increase the gap puts the car behind up your rear end.

You're riding further back still, cars will be wondering why you're leaving such a big gap and tailgate. You on the other hand might have to swerve to miss the bit of wood or hit the brakes to shave a few mph off but the car behind is too close to safely do that.

So how do you win?

Dano you clearly don't ride :p
 
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