sadly bikers are often the cause of their own demise too. I had a guy on a Harley just yesterday make a left turn in front of me with no turn signal. I've had guys go racing past me on either side on a 4 lane with no warning weaving in and out of traffic. Had a guy out byRapid City go by me doing 90mph+ on the interstate doing a sustained wheelie. He vanished out of sight still on one wheel. Drinking and driving is really bad. Drinking AND biking is just insane. IF there's one place you don't want even a millisecond of delayed reaction time , it's on a motorcycle. Riding at night is another stupid idea. Hitting a deer with your car can make a mess of your car. Hitting a deer on your bike usually makes a mess of you. I've known a guy killed by hitting a horse on a county oil at night and another guy who died hitting an Angus cow out by Alliance at night. Bikes even ridden cautiously are just plain dangerous.
I find it interesting that almost anytime you read about motorcycle vs car accidents, many people just assume the driver of the car was at fault. Based on a different article, the motorcycle hit the van, not the other way around; and the driver of the van isn't going to be cited. Putting those two things together, I don't think the van was at fault. Still tragic and terrible, but also probably his fault.
A few years ago, I thought about buying a scooter for my wife to run errands around the neighborhood. I brought it up to my insurance agent and he said the same thing. Too many distracted drivers on the road.
Don't want this to be a"dump on bikers" post, but my experience of close calls has been about 50/50 and I might be generous to the bikers. Never had an accident but definitely some close calls with one just this past week. Driver hwy 81 by Geneva. Two bikers in the right lane and I'm in the left lane. One biker right beside me with the other ahead of me by about 10 car lengths. Lead biker signals to come into my lane. No problem. Just assumed a normal lane change. Next thing I know the bike's brake lights come on. There's a turning lane there but for some reason the biker decided not to use it while trying to make a left hand turn on the freeway. I locked my tires up, brand new now probably have flat spots.
I agree. My experience riding it was mostly the crotch rockets doing dumb shit who ended up street meat. But I lost count of how many times I would see a car veering into the other lane while texting going 65 mph.
Known 2 friends who do MC. 1 drove for 3 years before her fatal accident. The other was 5 years before he died a few weeks ago.
According to eye witness reports Benson was traveling at a "high rate of speed". The minivan driver was not ticketed.
