Almost got whacked the other day

[BailyD]

On Patrol on three lane County road, east/west and turning lane in center of 50 mph road. The road enters a more populated/business section (speed limit should prob. be lowered, but hasn't been looked at in a long time)

 

I was traveling west, speeding vehicle was east, locked their speed at 67/50....I made my U turn and began to close lights/siren. There was one car between us. I closed at approximately 75 mph (within Dept. guidelines)....

 

I passed the one vehicle ahead of me using the center turn lane....I was just past this vehicle, but stayed in center with my lights/siren activated to give me a buffer from the two lanes. A vehicle entered the road at a right angle from my right (eastbound shoulder) and froze in the center turn lane as I was heading at her drivers door. I threshold braked (may have just barely had rear ABS come on) and brought my bike to stop at her window..... The thought of broadsiding her at anything close to that speed was frightening and left my hands shaking for a while as I circled my MC to calm down.

 

I let the speeder go and spoke with her.

[Glenn Reed]

Glad you were able to avoid the impact and go home in one piece.

[Kathy R]

I am so very glad you were able to stop in time. The way you were able to tell this story I felt I was right there in your boots. Horrifying moments.

 

What did she say?

 

Sounds like you were on the RT-P?

[BailyD]

I was operating my RTP. She stated she was blinded by the sun and did not see me. The only problem was I was traveling east (sun was coming up) and she was looking west. When I pointed this out to her she thought about it for a moment, then said she had looked east and was blinded, then looked west and couldn't see me because of sunglare she was just exposed to.

 

She was nice enough, very young lady. I told her I would have hit her right smack in her drivers door. She replied "yes, I would have been hurt". I explained I would have been on the receiving end of the big stick.

 

I was riding my partners bike that day because mine went down. I purposely (and at my own expense) doubled the front exposure of emergency lights. I put an additional pair on my tip over bars. I figured that most crashes occur because someone doesn't see the bike and pulls out. My partner's lights are not quite the same. I think if I had mine it may have made a difference.

 

I'm parking his bike until mine is fixed. We have a rule about not sharing, but I wanted to get out and ride.

[NCStephen]

Glad you are OK... Glad your training kicked in and you made right actions about getting stopped. I think that depth of training and abilities is something we all could use more of. I hope the driver learned something about being attentive as well.

 

NCS

[Danny caddyshack Noonan]

That there is why it is good to go out and practice those stops every once in awhile. Good on you!

 

[BailyD]

I have to turn from a County road (50 mph) onto a smaller side street that is in a semi-rural part of town every day to go home on both my BMW or HD. Nearly every time I come home I pratice holding my speed at 50 until I'm nearly on top of the side street, then I do an emergency brake. Obviously I make certain no one is in front of behind me.

 

I find that doing this keeps my braking sharp and I like hearing the "tinging" of the asphalt coming off my wheel into my front fender from heating the tire up after I've turned off the main road

 

[Bill_Walker]

I hate to be one to criticize your technique, but as a driver I probably wouldn't be looking for a motorcycle doing 75 mph in the center turn lane. Sorta like the gorilla in that psychology experiment. If you had been where she expected to see you, she might have seen you.

[Jaguar]

I hate to be one to criticize your technique, but as a driver I probably wouldn't be looking for a motorcycle doing 75 mph in the center turn lane. Sorta like the gorilla in that psychology experiment. If you had been where she expected to see you, she might have seen you.

 

Good point, but I would have to lean on the side of the officer. He did say "lights/siren activated". If she was sitting at the stop sign and heard a siren, she should have completely scanned the area around her to see where the siren was coming from before proceeding.

[racer7]

To expect a siren to be any protection is foolish. If one is sitting in a well made closed car with the sound system on, a siren needs to be quite close before it gets heard. And at 75 mph the small distance equates to very very little time.

 

More than once I have seen emergency vehicles with what I would consider pretty marginal lights/flashers and sirens pulling out across high speed traffic and not being noticed by many until they almost got hit.

 

A 75 mph differential - relying only on sirens and lights is pretty lousy insurance. Good thing the OP had the skills to deal with what otherwise would have been way ugly.

[BailyD]

I understand about using the center turn lane but I'm only about five feet from my travel lane. If she doesn't see me five feet from my lane, then she probably is not going to see me in my lane. That extra couple of feet gives me a fraction of second longer and space to do something as the car emerges rather than directly broadsiding me.

 

A big part of my job is speed enforcement. I have to go fast to catch the speeders so I understand it's inherently dangerous. If I had to guess, I'd suspect that MY visibility wasn't as much a problem as the typical driver being distracted by something of their own making.

 

She was issued a summons for failure to yield to emergency vehicle.

[BailyD]

I DO blame myself for not seeing her stopped at the exit for the apartment complex. It's small and wooded, but still for the life of me I can't remember seeing her stopped and wating to pull out. She just appeared in the lanes crossing in front of me??

 

I work very hard at avoiding target fixation (speeder) and am not easily surprised by cars on side streets. I did leave out part of the story where I made my initial U turn. With my lights and siren on I was trying to inch around a U turn in order to avoid a SUV approaching behind speeder. This car would not slow and decided to play chicken as I was trying to make my U turn. We ended up face to face when the SUV finally slowed enough for me to begin to safely pull around in their lane. The driver made a motion with her hands as if to show she was allowing me into her lane.

 

I just cannot believe the way drivers just REFUSE to slow down, move over to make the correct movement when an emergency vehicle is present? It was VERY obvious I was trying to make my turn. I think the driver believed there was enough room for me to turn without her slowing, but I will not take the chance by pulling into their lane until I AM SURE they recognize my actions.

[LarryM]

Bailey - glad to see you are okay. I used to be a volunteer EMT in Somerset County, NJ. My first call was a fatal motorcycle accident. It was grim.

 

As an EMT I learned one thing very quickly. People cannot see a 12,000 lb. orange and white box ambulance with all the lights flashing and the siren going. How can they see a tiny motorcycle?

 

People just don't give a damn.

[Danny S]

 

I can't believe you gave her a ticket. Going 75mph in an area where you not suppose to be riding is asking for someone to miss seeing you.

[BailyD]

I can't believe you gave her a ticket. Going 75mph in an area where you not suppose to be riding is asking for someone to miss seeing you.

 

By State statute and procedures I am allowed to operate my police motorcycle at those speeds. The operation of my mc 5 feet from my lane has little to do with her not seeing me. Do you honestly believe if I was five feet to my right she would have seen and heard my motorcycles lights/siren? Five feet is probably less than the vertical distance of me sitting on my motorcyle.

 

How would you suggest I stop the speeding car? Maybe if the woman arrived at the intersection five seconds earlier she could have had to deal with the 3,500 lb car traveling at 67 mph with no lights or siren broadsiding her car. I wonder if the driver of the speeding car could have stopped his/her vehicle in time to avoid the crash?

[Horse]

I threshold braked

 

AAMOI, why not brake even harder and let the ABS do it's stuff?

 

 

Regarding 'you' being seen and whether or not the other speeding vehicle would be, I presuming that if you were in pursuit then you were travelling significantly faster in order to catch up? Yes, you may be allowed to go those speeds - but that doesn't actually make it a great idea.

 

Please don't get the idea I'm knocking you or your work, but a 75mph impact wouldn't have been pretty (you probably have more first hand experience of accident scenes than I), perhaps it wasn't the environment where a pursuit was really the best option? You ask how you should stop speeders? Perhaps not doing turn-arounds; you mentioned being delayed, did that affect your mental attitude and encourage the 'red mist' which is why you missed the encroaching vehicle in the side turn which you might otherwise have seen? Perhaps that extra delay being baulked on the turn should have tipped the balance from 'Hmmm I'll catch that one' towards 'Nope, he'll be an extra stretch away now' . . .

 

 

Anyway, enough of me sitting at my desk having lunch and pontificating, here's a video:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xW-VAvQvSk

 

 

[is there a preset/button for embedding video here?]

 

 

 

[BailyD]

...... Perhaps not doing turn-arounds; you mentioned being delayed, did that affect your mental attitude and encourage the 'red mist' which is why you missed the encroaching vehicle......

 

I was thinking this too.. Good observation..

 

I don't think letting the drivers go due to their speeding at 67+ mph would be a good idea. There are many driver's regularly speeding at this rate. I could have caught the driver before I ever reached the woman if the one vehicle had not delayed me in making my U turn.

[Huzband]

I hate to be one to criticize your technique, but as a driver I probably wouldn't be looking for a motorcycle....

 

Sorry, Bill, but stood out to me.

[Horse]

I don't think letting the drivers go due to their speeding at 67+ mph would be a good idea. There are many driver's regularly speeding at this rate. I could have caught the driver before I ever reached the woman if the one vehicle had not delayed me in making my U turn.

 

I wasn't suggesting letting them all go - more a case of either doing it more as a 'stakeout' so you are already on 'their' side of the road so all you have to do is accelerate, or perhaps - sometime - just say "It's not worth it to me, my life Vs a speeding ticket".

 

AAMOI, with a pursuit speed differential of just 10mph, how long (time and distance) would it take to catch up?

 

Brake from your speed to 0mph & Turn around in road

(even feet up, while turning you're not going fowards or away towards the speeder)

Baulked by oncoming vehicle

Accelerate to 75mph

 

Each of those has a time 'cost' - during which the speeder was travelling away from you at 90-100 feet every second . . .

[BailyD]

I agree, stationary is probably the best and safest way. It changes how long it takes to close the gap on a speeder as compared to when I'm moving. I have to take into consideration my maximum speed vs. how long I want to travel to at that particular speed in order to close the gap.

 

Try to avoid using the word "pursuit" It is a big no;no to say I was pursuing a speeding vs. closing the gap on a speeder!

 

[Francis]

Riding in the NY-NJ corridor I see a lot of drivers who do not pay any attention to the laws or the relative traffic situations...as I'm sure you do. The SUV that blocked you is a perfect example of "attitude". I always mount air horns and extra front lighting on my bikes just for the ability to make myself heard and seen among the dennisons of our two states.

 

In your case you have flashing lights and a siren to add to your own conspicuity. Both the SUV driver and the woman "should have" seen you and yielded. Obviously they did not. Glad you could stop in time and go home safe.

[Horse]

I always mount air horns and extra front lighting on my bikes just for the ability to make myself heard and seen

 

you have flashing lights and a siren to add to your own conspicuity. the SUV driver and the woman "should have" seen you. Obviously they did not.

 

[Mike]

I hate to be one to criticize your technique, but as a driver I probably wouldn't be looking for a motorcycle....

 

Sorry, Bill, but stood out to me.

 

What I think almost all of us fail to realize is that Bill pretty much hit the nail on the head. It has absolutely nothing to do with not giving a damn. Anyone who's driven an emergency vehicle can vouch for it...many people just dont see you.

 

Inattentional blindness is about as well documented a scientific phenomenon as exists. Our brains are simply wired to exclude a large percentage of the visual stimuli within our range of vision. As the web page I linked to notes, it can be exacerbated by too much stimuli or too little.

 

Flashing lights, bright colors, modulators, etc. can all help, but any hope that all motorists will see you at all times is a false hope, flying in the face of human physiology. The only true answer--apart from parking the bike--is to assume that no one can see you.

[BailyD]

Operating as if I cannot be seen has been a technique that has served me well over the past 25 years. Human physiology aside, it is still not a defense for careless operation, failure to yield right of way.

 

I investigation four to five crashes a day with a fatal crash on average every seven weeks. I have a pretty good understanding of visibility, but I also have an expectation drivers will be more careful. In recent years I wonder if the lack of attentiveness is actually the human physiology or a clear case of distracted driving. Besides speeding I also monitor drivers and their operations all day long and have noticed an increase in drivers "multitasking" while driving.

 

With what I watch all day I'm a little reluctant to easily give a pass due to inattentional blindness.

[Mike]

Operating as if I cannot be seen has been a technique that has served me well over the past 25 years. Human physiology aside, it is still not a defense for careless operation, failure to yield right of way.

 

I investigation four to five crashes a day with a fatal crash on average every seven weeks. I have a pretty good understanding of visibility, but I also have an expectation drivers will be more careful. In recent years I wonder if the lack of attentiveness is actually the human physiology or a clear case of distracted driving. Besides speeding I also monitor drivers and their operations all day long and have noticed an increase in drivers "multitasking" while driving.

 

With what I watch all day I'm a little reluctant to easily give a pass due to inattentional blindness.

 

I'm not suggesting that you should give anyone a pass. You're in a much better position than I am to judge who is and isn't being careless, but I have long wondered if citations for mistakes that arise out of the way we're wired as human brings have any hope of changing behavior. I know that's the hope, and I don't know what other answers there may be, apart from attempting to engineer better solutions not ensure visibility.

 

My son, who's a military police officer, is home on leave. He told me that a couple of nights ago he was responding to an incident and followed a car for three blocks with lights and sirens activated before the driver noticed and pulled to the left side of the road (across the oncoming traffic lanes) to yield. My son's diagnosis was not inattentional blindness, but "dumbass."

 

Anyway, good on you for a good response. Threshold braking is something we should all practice on a regular basis.

[BailyD]

QUOTE: "My son's diagnosis was not inattentional blindness, but "dumbass........"

 

 

 

[Fubar]

On a lighter note, what color were your pants BEFORE this happened?

[BailyD]

Navy blue.....after: darker navy blue....

[Horse]

May be of interest:

 

WHAT DO DRIVERS DO AT JUNCTIONS

 

http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/conferences/congress2006/proceedings/day2/langham_labbett.pdf

 

 

Can object recognition theories

explain visual search failures at

junctions?

 

http://www.mosac.eu/public/file/Langham%20Conspicuity%20Thesis.pdf

 

 

Some factors affecting motorcyclists' conspicuity

 

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/grahamh/RESEARCH/GrahamPublicationsForWeb/HoleTyrrellLangham1996.pdf

 

 

 

[Deek]

I hate to be one to criticize your technique, but as a driver I probably wouldn't be looking for a motorcycle doing 75 mph in the center turn lane. Sorta like the gorilla in that psychology experiment. If you had been where she expected to see you, she might have seen you.

 

Nope, I'm with the motor officer on this one. Having a buffer between the existing vehicles is important; they tend to do idiotic things (I was a non-motor officer - seen it a ton of times). The excuse was she could not see a police motorcycle with lights? Come on, she "couldn't" have seen a fire truck either! She is just one of those idiots who have no business driving a motor vehicle on a public road. She is not in the majority sadly enough.

 

 

[Deek]

I can't believe you gave her a ticket. Going 75mph in an area where you not suppose to be riding is asking for someone to miss seeing you.

 

I hope this is in jest?

[Deek]

"...My son's diagnosis was not inattentional blindness, but "dumbass."

..."

 

We often called this behavior "driving stupid". It really ought to be in the traffic codes....and using that same phrase!

[Bayou Red]

My oldest daughter refused to learn to drive until necessity forced her to. Apparently she took to heart my repeated mutterings while behind the wheel of the cage that "every idiot out there is trying to kill you."

 

Having done a good portion of driving on foreign soil with different driving survival skills has been a blessing for me here in the US. I agree that the majority of the US population don't know "how to drive." They have never had the need to learn beyond point-n-shoot. Isn't that why the automatic (transmission, but there really is a double entedre there) was made?

 

#1 Road Rule: You're invisible. It's always your responsibility to anticipate, see and avoid. In a failure to yield argument metal always trumps flesh.

 

My own blunt opinion.

 

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Feliz Navidad, Happy Holidays.

 

Tony