Bicycler wrote:Agreed but have you seen the video? That wasn't the case here. The road was pretty darn straight. The car was facing towards the oncoming bike wishing to make a right turn across its path. The driver admitted to not seeing either the bike or car coming towards him. If there had been the slightest bit of doubt about whether he ought to have seen it the driver would not have pleaded guilty.
I've watched the video. I was trying to avoid doing so. I know that road and that junction very well. I worked in Norwich for years, but I don't drive it so often now. The car was turning into Wood Lane. Yes, the road is straight, but that junction is in a dip and blind over the brows both front and back. If I remember correctly, I think the motorbike would not be seen until it was level with the advance direction sign, but that's still six seconds before impact and the car only passes the point of no return two seconds before impact.
Even at the speed limit, I suspect it wouldn't have given enough extra time to brake - possibly to swerve, but that would be gambling on no car following the right-turner, plus the road surface through those junctions is usually pretty awful so braking might be impaired.
Has anyone here commented on the fact the biker had just left a race track? He pulls out from Norfolk Arena onto Saddlebow Road (2 or 3 roads away from where I sit typing this) which is 40mph max, yet his speedo in-shot shows him immediately accelerating to 60mph as far as I can tell (big notches every 20). There are lots of HGVs and agricultural vehicles turning on and off that road (that's part of why local campaigners got NCN1 diverted off it and onto a tarmac cycleway along the river bank), so he was fortunate not to meet any, or to lose control on any of the worn-out bits of that road. There's also a police base if you turn right out of the arena gates - shame no police passed and pulled him over. Basically, everything about Saddlebow Road screams that it's 40mph for good reason so I'm shocked to see a biker treat it like that... and there are quite a few bikers using it because C&A Superbikes is next to the police base and it's the nicest way for motorbikes from town to a lot of the fen villages. I know the car driver was also to blame, but should there be a compulsary "cooling off" rest before driving or riding away from a racetrack? Maybe a big "THINK" advert alongside or opposite the gates, too?
Also, thinking again, that probably means the biker did 35 miles in broad daylight along the A47 at up to 150% of the speed limit, probably including through the 6 or so villages (because the video also shows some dodgy overtaking just after leaving Little Fransham), and Norfolk Police didn't react before the crash, so I'm surprised they made such a big thing of this video. I'm also surprised that they let it be called an accident in the video.