2016 fatalities so far

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Last week,, it occurred to me that I really had not heard about as many recent local motorcycle tragedies. Then,, on Friday, a suv turned left in front of me,, and only some quick braking on my part saved my day,(luckily). So when I got home,,, I searched out information on the current season, and found this discouraging article. Over the past long weekend,, our area reports two more motorcycle fatalities where vehicles have turned left in front oncoming bikes, with the car drivers charged in both cases. Plus we have had very serious near misses within our ST community. A couple of things appear to be contributing to the steady increase in incidents. One,, distracted auto driving is now rampant,, and the single biggest cause of all road accidents,, recently surpassing dui's. 2ndly,,, we have a lot more bikes on the road, at least in our area. Finally,, driving skills continue to deteriorate,, even as car design continues to improve. Indeed many drivers would be significantly less dangerous driving fully autonomous vehicles. Till then,, I only see the incident rate and and insurance rates,,, continuing to climb. Cat'

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/2016-could-be-deadliest-in-5-years-for-ontario-motorcylists-opp-reports-1.3675752
 
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Joined
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60
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Ontario, Canada
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2005 ST 1300
Last week,, it occurred to me that I really had not heard about as many recent local motorcycle tragedies. Then,, on Friday, a suv turned left in front of me,, and only some quick braking on my part saved my day,(luckily). So when I got home,,, I searched out information on the current season, and found this discouraging article. Over the past long weekend,, our area reports two more motorcycle fatalities where vehicles have turned left in front oncoming bikes, with the car drivers charged in both cases. Plus we have had very serious near misses within our ST community. A couple of things appear to be contributing to the steady increase in incidents. One,, distracted auto driving is now rampant,, and the single biggest cause of all road accidents,, recently surpassing dui's. 2ndly,,, we have a lot more bikes on the road, at least in our area. Finally,, driving skills continue to deteriorate,, even as car design continues to improve. Indeed many drivers would be significantly less dangerous driving fully autonomous vehicles. Till then,, I only see the incident rate and and insurance rates,,, continuing to climb. Cat'

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/2016-could-be-deadliest-in-5-years-for-ontario-motorcylists-opp-reports-1.3675752
Yes wait to renewal time.
 
OP
OP
Catmandu2
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Frankly,,, riding in the GTA terrifies me,,, Ken. Total distrust of all other drivers down there,, forces me to come up with innovative routing solutions. It is the only reason I have not turned in my 407 transponder !! Stay sharp,,, my friend, Cat'

Yeh down here in the GTA it seems like there have been a few bike accidents every week all riding season.
 

st1300doug

Way up here, area wise. Over 500+ accidents in Missouri. Just in our city (Columbia), one fatality and another crash- BOTH due to cage driver's turning LEFT in front of a rider. Sigh.......MORE Cage driver's ed. needs to be applied. That's in 3 days!!!
 
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Hi all:

i dont wantto over-simplify things, but in my experience, a good number of car-at-fault crashes could be prevented by the biker being more defensive and vigilant. Clearly that wasn't the case with Cat's recent close call, and those crashes of several other ST-Owners forum members - but around Windsor - it actually is the case. In my area, the majority (really) of bikes are Harleys and a LEO buddy tells me that a substantial number of these folks are older - but inexperienced - riders. These bikes are pretty expensive ($20-35K and up) and so often these folks are retired or nearly so, and thus they are typically in their 40-60s. This means that while they may have 30-40+ years of driving experience, they often have less than 1-3 years on a bike.

As an example of the results of that demographic pattern of folks who are older, but inexperienced bikers, I recently followed a chap who was in that age bracket for about 45 minutes and while he certainly seemed to know how to operate his motorcycle OK, I noted that in more than 40 miles of county road riding, through towns and the countryside past factories and farms, his head never moved once. I mean that he didn't appear to look around, check his mirrors or over his shoulders - at all. He simply rumbled majestically all the way across Essex County - and from all outward appearances, he was assuming that everyone saw him and wouldn't attack him with their car in the manner described by Cat above. One thing is for sure - if one of the many cars we encountered in that ride had pulled out in front of him - he would have been toast.

In contrast (and I was about 40 feet behind him the entire time), I was riding my ST (complete with headlight modulator and VERY loud horn) assuming that nobody could see or hear me and that their sole purpose that day was to kill me. Don't get me wrong, I was throughly enjoying my ride - but - all the while I was gawking around, covering my brakes and horn and always planning my escape into the ditch or around on the left. In short, I was riding the way I was taught in the 1970's by an old OPP copper (Ontario Province. Police - our version of a state trooper).

Anyone who has ridden for a long time or who rides daily in heavy traffic will be doing the same thing (hello SupraSabre) - whether they realise it or not.

Please don't take offence anyone - I am not picking on older H-D riders here, but they are simply SO prevalent in this area that you hardly ever see any other type of bike and rider demographic....and again, this is what the police tell me. The recent spate of M/C crashes in my area have virtually all involved exclusively this type of rider and while the crashes are virtually always the fault of car driver - on paper - the biker always looses, as we all know.

Oh yeah, an exception was a nice young father of two (26 years old) who was killed on a Suzuki GSXR in a "single vehicle crash" while riding on a local multi-lane expressway early one morning a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, he was doing about 130 km/hr (around 80 mph) when he hit the road sign.

Anyhow, I agree that our pastime IS dangerous and that in any crash, we will loose - but that means that it is up to we bikers to be vigilant and not give other motorists a fair shot at us. To me, that is one of the key challenges of being a proficient motorcyclist - and that is what makes it a challenge and thus, fun.

In closing, let me say good for you to Cat for avoiding a tragedy and let's all be safe out there.

Pete
 
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Also keep in mind it seems the "scooter crowd" is growing Leaps and Bounds as well. I gotta believe a high percentage of them are inexperienced too.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk
 

Highway STar

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Frankly,,, riding in the GTA terrifies me,,, Ken. Total distrust of all other drivers down there,, forces me to come up with innovative routing solutions. It is the only reason I have not turned in my 407 transponder !! Stay sharp,,, my friend, Cat'
I live in Toronto and have commuted downtown often. It might be terrifying if it wasn't so boring. This year I gave it up and now ride a bicycle for my commute. Which is exciting at times but also 20-30% faster than any motorized vehicle and up to 5 times faster than public transport. The vast majority of drivers here show great consideration and care around cyclists.

Sure I have had a few very close calls on the moto but I have managed to be aware and avoid them. Never noticed a particular change from driving in other cities. Most of the traffic fatalities I have heard of were attributed to excessive speed, even if another vehicle was involved.

YMMV.

The scoots are, in my opinion, more likely to bend the Highway Traffic Act into interesting shapes for sure, but downtown the real threat are the e-bikes, the ones driven by the young, male, white trash.
 

BakerBoy

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Statistics for Colorado: https://www.codot.gov/library/traffic/safety-crash-data/fatal-crash-data-city-county/Colorado_Historical_Fatalities_Graphs.pdf No motorcycle-specific data is shown there, just fatality counts.

Sobering.

There appears a general improvement in fatalities per million vehicle miles travelled (MVMT) since early 2000 decade. That trend surprises me given the more blatant distractions I see from other drivers in recent years, so perhaps vehicles are better designed and that accounts for reduced fatalities.

A Denver Post article on motorcycle death counts YTD: http://www.denverpost.com/2016/07/22/motorcycle-deaths-colorado-2016/
 
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Many bike fatalities around here this year. Most are either the classic left hand turn in front of you, or, dumb speed.

Stay VERY aware of your surroundings out there. Many accidents could probably be avoided, tho certainly not all. A lot of air around you is a very good friend.
 
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Frankly,,, riding in the GTA terrifies me,,, Ken. Total distrust of all other drivers down there,, forces me to come up with innovative routing solutions. It is the only reason I have not turned in my 407 transponder !! Stay sharp,,, my friend, Cat'
I have to disagree with you. Admittedly, my experience in Canada is very limited. Three years ago, on my way to a Guzzi rally in Lavigne, Ont., I drove through the Toronto area. I passed by the airport, and I must say, this has to be the safest road I've been on in a long long time. How can you get in an accident when you are stopped? This otherwise marked thoroughfare was a linear parking lot. (Of course I'm kidding, we have rush hour freeways here that are the same way.)

I went to the BMW MOA national rally in Hamburg, NY this summer. A biker was killed on the lake road when a car was rear-ended and forced into the oncoming lane, the biker had no chance at all. And, at the rally, a tree was blown down on top of a tent during a late night storm, and last I heard, the camper was killed. Its dangerous out there.
 

Andrew Shadow

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My contention is because car design continues to improve driving skills continue to deteriorate. Nobody actually drives anymore- they are only along for the ride.

Catmandu2;1965208Finally said:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/2016-could-be-deadliest-in-5-years-for-ontario-motorcylists-opp-reports-1.3675752[/URL]
 

acedantinne

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Just lost 2 riders Yesterday on route 33 north bound. Per state police they hit a deer, 1 bike into the other, as in chain collision. after hitting the deer. Eye witness =truck driver
 

schlep1967

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Just lost 2 riders Yesterday on route 33 north bound. Per state police they hit a deer, 1 bike into the other, as in chain collision. after hitting the deer. Eye witness =truck driver
Saw this one in our local news also. 1:30 AM in deer country. Gotta ride smart.
 
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