Huge crash...but I avoided it!!!

[JAZZ-n-FZ6]

So today I was riding home on the 91 freeway and I am in the carpool lane following a Honda Goldwing. On this portion of the 91, there are 2 sets of double yellow lines.

The freeway was down to about 20 mph but the carpool lane was still moving around 65-70 mph. Well all of a sudden this lady in a red Integra decides to go across the 4 yellow lines and go into the carpool lane without looking. She pulls out right in front of a BMW and causes a crash. Both the vehicles went sideways leaving the Goldwing driver nowhere to go, so he T-Bones the Integra and then slides into the back of the BMW and ended up underneath it with the Goldwing boxing him in. As the Integra bounced off the BMW, she hit another BMW, which caused two other cars to get in a crash.

As for me, I was about 50-100 feet behind the Goldwing and watched the whole thing. I had to slam on my brakes really hard and avoid the flying debris and then swerve around the crashing vehicles. It was pretty insane.

All for the people in the crash, all the drivers were fine, and somehow the Goldwing driver was ok. All he had was some medium rash on his arms...and he was not even whering a jacket or gloves, and only a 3/4 helmet.

It was a crazy crash to watch and almost be apart of, but thankfully no one was hurt.

 

[McLovin]

dude this is an insane story, i ride 91 too, so i can kinda imagine the road and how it happened...i think everybody in this incident including you were really lucky, and for that lady, she should go to jail or something WTF, idiots need to wake the f up. I try to never ever ride anywhere close a car if i can for this reason. Good save, be safe!

 

[VEGASRIDER]

Hope you provided a statement to the Chippers, and gave that lady the 3rd degree blame. Nice job avoiding the crash. Just think if it was the other way around, you ahead of the Goldwing. Ouch.

 

[cv_rider]

Moving fast in the carpool lane next to slow traffic in the non-carpool has always seemed one of the most dangerous riding conditions - not much time to respond if someone lurches out in front of you. I saw the immediate aftermath of such an accident while riding in the carpool lane myself some time ago.

As long as the Integra didn't pull out directly in front of the GW, it would seem if the GW rider had maintained a safe following distance, he should have been able to stop without hitting the car in front. Was the GW closer than 2 seconds to the car in front?

Good for you for maintaining a safe following distance so you could get out unscathed!

 

[fazer.rider]

holy crap! i cant imagine what the video would look like if you had a camera rolling. must look like a scene out of the movie final destination.

 

[08fz6]

im in soucal..... currently. Anyway I think you guys are nuts to ride a bike on the interstate in ca period! I don't feel safe in my car..... People here fly and don't pay attention to jack. Just the other day a guy in a red f150 came flying up to a red light I pulled off of a side street and no one when I looked, pulled out looked in my mirror and out of no where here he is. He also felt the need to tailgate me. the thought of brake checking him was on my mind but figured he was driving a 5-10 year old truck at least and I prob wouldn't get jack out of him if he had rear ended me. We were in a 35mph zone litterally 500 ft from the red light and he had to be doing easily 40, cars in the left lane were stopped for the light and there were a few cars in front of me, after the light I was able to get in the left lane and he went by shaking his head at me and he just got it right back... Anyway he almost rear ends the car in front of him waiting to turn and he goes around them almost taking the side off of the cars in the left lane next to him.....

 

[Kriswithak]

Its amazing how many bad drivers there are, and yet how they all seem to think they are in the right when they are blatantly breaking copious amounts of road rules.
Its sad the police aren't tougher on plain bad drivers.

 

[Tailgate]

Moving fast in the carpool lane next to slow traffic in the non-carpool has always seemed one of the most dangerous riding conditions - not much time to respond if someone lurches out in front of you. I saw the immediate aftermath of such an accident while riding in the carpool lane myself some time ago.

As long as the Integra didn't pull out directly in front of the GW, it would seem if the GW rider had maintained a safe following distance, he should have been able to stop without hitting the car in front. Was the GW closer than 2 seconds to the car in front?

Good for you for maintaining a safe following distance so you could get out unscathed!

cv_rider: Yeah, I agree with you. Sometimes, I see cars/bikes blowing past maybe as much as 65MPH faster than the almost standstill traffic crawling in the adjacent non diamond lane and I think "possible major accident just waiting to happen." If I'm in the diamond (car pool) lane in similar situation, I will not sheepgate the driver in front of me doing, say, 60+MPH faster than the crawlers in adjacent lane and I will slow it somewhat down, cover my horn button and both brakes. I know this practice might p.o. somebody behind me in the diamond lane but I'll accept that. But, riding/driving in the carpool lane in such a situation, to me, is a "yellow light/caution" condition. I would somewhat re-think this if, as on 91 freeway, there were sets of double yellows or some other divider separating the diamond lanes from the others---on area freeways in the Sacramento area---we don't even have sets of double yellows between carpool and regular lanes. There are just the standard lane dividers!

RE the GW rider and maintaining a "safe following distance." I agree. But, let's face it, probably 80+% of motorists tailgate the F out of everything. Unfortunately, this includes some motorcyle riders. Yeah, you gotta wonder if that GW rider wasn't sheepgating.

 

[staticghost]

Damn dude. That is crazy. I am so glad that you are OK and hopefully everyone involved in that crash is OK as well. Damn got goose bumps just by thinking about this.

 

[Wavex]

Thanks for sharing, and glad you were not involved in the crash! I saw a crash happen right in front of me on the 91 a couple of years ago... A semi changed lane at the same time as a car and all I saw was the car flew in the air (100yards in front of me), flipped in the air, landed next to the truck and both caught on fire... 4 hours later the cops had us U-turn one-by-one on the shoulder of the freeway to get to the closest previous on-ramp to get out... imagine the mess... everybody was miraculously fine as well (I was in my Jeep wrangler and have the whole thing on camera... crazy)...

 

[JAZZ-n-FZ6]

Ya, I did stay and give a statement to the cops because no one else saw the whole thing unfold. They all were trying to avoid hitting the cars around them. The GW was probably to close to the car infront of him, but I know I sometimes do the same because I know I can stop faster than cagers, and forget that I can stop faster than cagers if they get into an accident that stops them almost instantly. It was a good reminder on how quick things can happen and how important it is to take the extra precautions.

 

[RJ2112]

.........but I know I sometimes do the same because I know I can stop faster than cagers...........

:Flash:

Better look at that again, my friend... 60-0 still takes 120 feet; same as a car. In fact, some cars stop better than most bikes.

Glad you came through this incident in good shape, and kudos for making the statement to the PD.:cheer::rockon:

 

[JAZZ-n-FZ6]

That may be true in some cars, but my 96 4 cyl Camry brakes 60-0 in 142 feet and in this accident, I had less than 20 feet to spare.

 

[VEGASRIDER]

I myself find myelf tailgaiting other drivers more often rather than having somebody follwing too closely. There is no way that I will be able to stop in time, it's that simple. However, my line within my lane is directly right behind the left or right wheel of the vehicle thats ahead of me so it's going to be a easy swerve for me, if they hit the brakes.

 

[Tailgate]

One of the major leage stadiums around here is going to limit the time of tailgating. Can't, say, show up at 9:00 a.m. and tailgate many hours before the 1:00 p.m. start. I guess, some people are getting too wasted and project a bad image or something.