- Joined
- Aug 24, 2007
- Messages
- 889
- Reaction score
- 79
- Points
- 28
- Location
- Alberta, Canada (GMT-7)
So, what would you do? Yesterday evening I'm heading home from work, but taking the usual long way around. I've got my work stuff in my back pack, the typical, drawings, camera, water bottle, cell phone, all the that stuff.
Heading north bound on 99th Street, a 4 lane road, just past Whyte Avenue, I am approaching a commotion ahead so I move to the right lane as it really seemed that traffic had really slowed down all of a sudden. As I get closer, people are standing everywhere, getting out of cars, running out of buildings in their socks, calling on their cell phones, all unfolding in front of me.
The oncoming lane ahead is completely blocked, the center lane in my direction now has three cars stopped with people getting out, my right lane has now been blocked just ahead of those vehicles pulled over leaving only a small passage to continue through. Oncoming cars are trying to squeeze through while one other vehicle in front of me waits to make his move through the same opening. I can see that the traffic behind me is now starting to pile up so my instinct is to safely and quickly move through this congestion as I always worry about being on the bike when distractions of this nature tend to make me invisible to traffic.
As I pass the obstruction in the left lane, I first see a red car pointed the wrong way in the left lane diagonally with the front end almost on the curb. At first glance I can see that the whole driver side door has been crumpled. My first thought was one of the three cars that stopped in the middle lane had t-boned the car but then I saw it. There laying on it's side next to the driver side door is a motorcycle, cruiser looking, I think, with panic all around. I couldn't see the rider but I think he or she was still on the ground with a flurry of people doing something. I just got the hell out of there, again thinking of my own safety.
This morning I'm reading the newspaper looking for the accident and nothing. I began to think about what I saw and didn't like what I was thinking. I realized that my reaction to yesterday evening's mishap was treated like just another typical collision, no thought or regard to whether it might have been someone I know.
Clearly I was only seconds behind this rider and I can only ascertain that the vehicle had pulled out into our lane without stopping and hit the bike. If I had been a few seconds earlier, could that have been me?
Should I have stopped to assists? There where plenty of people already there but are they smart enough to know not to try and remove the rider's helmet? For the sake of my own safety, the immediate area was not a stopping zone. Yes I could have found a side road to pull over in, again I couldn't process what I just saw.
I had a camera on me. Should I have taken pictures of the accident and posted them on here for everyone to see or should I have submitted them to the local paper so they could have written an article on it for today's issue?
With this point and shoot camera I have, should I have taken some video of the event as it continued to unfold and posted it on here or submitted it to my local TV station so they could put it on the 11 o'clock news?
This morning with the absence of the accident in the newspaper, I thought I should have stopped and taken pictures and videos to show the rest of the members here what I saw, but all I have are words. Maybe you would have wanted to see them but how is that in good taste to be that person taking those pictures and videos at the price of some possibly dying fellow motorcyclist laying down on the street? I just hate the feeling and the thought I just had.
Sorry, thought I would share the moment.
Heading north bound on 99th Street, a 4 lane road, just past Whyte Avenue, I am approaching a commotion ahead so I move to the right lane as it really seemed that traffic had really slowed down all of a sudden. As I get closer, people are standing everywhere, getting out of cars, running out of buildings in their socks, calling on their cell phones, all unfolding in front of me.
The oncoming lane ahead is completely blocked, the center lane in my direction now has three cars stopped with people getting out, my right lane has now been blocked just ahead of those vehicles pulled over leaving only a small passage to continue through. Oncoming cars are trying to squeeze through while one other vehicle in front of me waits to make his move through the same opening. I can see that the traffic behind me is now starting to pile up so my instinct is to safely and quickly move through this congestion as I always worry about being on the bike when distractions of this nature tend to make me invisible to traffic.
As I pass the obstruction in the left lane, I first see a red car pointed the wrong way in the left lane diagonally with the front end almost on the curb. At first glance I can see that the whole driver side door has been crumpled. My first thought was one of the three cars that stopped in the middle lane had t-boned the car but then I saw it. There laying on it's side next to the driver side door is a motorcycle, cruiser looking, I think, with panic all around. I couldn't see the rider but I think he or she was still on the ground with a flurry of people doing something. I just got the hell out of there, again thinking of my own safety.
This morning I'm reading the newspaper looking for the accident and nothing. I began to think about what I saw and didn't like what I was thinking. I realized that my reaction to yesterday evening's mishap was treated like just another typical collision, no thought or regard to whether it might have been someone I know.
Clearly I was only seconds behind this rider and I can only ascertain that the vehicle had pulled out into our lane without stopping and hit the bike. If I had been a few seconds earlier, could that have been me?
Should I have stopped to assists? There where plenty of people already there but are they smart enough to know not to try and remove the rider's helmet? For the sake of my own safety, the immediate area was not a stopping zone. Yes I could have found a side road to pull over in, again I couldn't process what I just saw.
I had a camera on me. Should I have taken pictures of the accident and posted them on here for everyone to see or should I have submitted them to the local paper so they could have written an article on it for today's issue?
With this point and shoot camera I have, should I have taken some video of the event as it continued to unfold and posted it on here or submitted it to my local TV station so they could put it on the 11 o'clock news?
This morning with the absence of the accident in the newspaper, I thought I should have stopped and taken pictures and videos to show the rest of the members here what I saw, but all I have are words. Maybe you would have wanted to see them but how is that in good taste to be that person taking those pictures and videos at the price of some possibly dying fellow motorcyclist laying down on the street? I just hate the feeling and the thought I just had.
Sorry, thought I would share the moment.