17-05-12, 09:10 PM
Whilst I'm sure most people's sympathies will be with the rider, judging from the reports, some of which describe this as a "head on collision" and the lorry being over the centre line it sounds like the rider was on a left-hand bend and probably panic braked and went straight on when he saw the lorry coming.
(Of course it may have been a right-hander because I've also seen too many riders in the "Decapitation Zone" ie taking a right-hand bend as if they're on a race-track trying to clip the apex, meaning their heads are over the white line and in the line of on-coming vehicles...)
In either case, given that the BMF guy says "It has also been accepted by all parties that the lorry was too wide for its side of the road and when cornering at the time of the collision was over the white centre line" it seems daft that he also says "how it can possibly be right that a driver licensed to drive the largest and most dangerous vehicles on the road is not expected to stay on his own side of the road"?
If the width of the lorry means it has to straddle the white line, there's nothing that the driver can do about it unless he wants to run *off* the road, he simply has no option, so whilst it's a terrible shame that a biker has lost a leg, I have to say that it does sound as if the mistake was his.
It doesn't matter whether you're in the right or not, you aren't going to win an argument with an artic and it won't make it hurt any less, so just try not to get into the situation in the first place.
(Of course it may have been a right-hander because I've also seen too many riders in the "Decapitation Zone" ie taking a right-hand bend as if they're on a race-track trying to clip the apex, meaning their heads are over the white line and in the line of on-coming vehicles...)
In either case, given that the BMF guy says "It has also been accepted by all parties that the lorry was too wide for its side of the road and when cornering at the time of the collision was over the white centre line" it seems daft that he also says "how it can possibly be right that a driver licensed to drive the largest and most dangerous vehicles on the road is not expected to stay on his own side of the road"?
If the width of the lorry means it has to straddle the white line, there's nothing that the driver can do about it unless he wants to run *off* the road, he simply has no option, so whilst it's a terrible shame that a biker has lost a leg, I have to say that it does sound as if the mistake was his.
It doesn't matter whether you're in the right or not, you aren't going to win an argument with an artic and it won't make it hurt any less, so just try not to get into the situation in the first place.