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comment by thenewgreen

No shit? You alright man? bicycle or Motorcycle? Either way, hope you aren't too fucked up.





kleinbl00  ·  3689 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Worth noting that "sideswiped by a service vehicle" happened on the bicycle last november.

Again, FUCK LA.

thenewgreen  ·  3688 days ago  ·  link  ·  

yeah, I remember that. Start knocking on wood prior to saddling up.

kleinbl00  ·  3688 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'm 400 miles a week on this gig. NHTSA has calculated that motorcycle travel is 37 times as dangerous as car travel. So that's the equivalent of 15,000 miles a week in a car.

Guess my number was up.

thenewgreen  ·  3688 days ago  ·  link  ·  

In that case, statistically you've gotten it out of the way. Nice.

kleinbl00  ·  3689 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Motorcycle.

Put the turn signal on, let it blink once, lunged across the double yellow, totally sideswiped me. Sent the bike spiraling across I-405 at rush hour. I came off two lanes into it, bike kept spinning another couple lanes. Stood up, looked at the guy, who yelled at me "you were going too fast!" to which I said

YOU CROSSED A DOUBLE YELLOW!

Would have been a $700 ticket for him if the cops had seen it. They didn't.

On the plus side, I wasn't run over by six lanes of northbound traffic. And, thank god for crash bobbins. I'll need to replace 'em but the bike is largely intact. I'll need ~200 worth of parts to get it running again, from f'ing Nuremburg, of course.

On the minus side, yeah. knocked across 4 lanes of traffic. Amazing thing is I was only an hour late for work.

thenewgreen  ·  3689 days ago  ·  link  ·  

So, just bruised up and pissed off? Any repercussions for the idiot that crossed the double yellow? Also, were you going too fast?

Glad you're alright, that's scary shit. Now that you're a dad, each accident carries more weight, no?

kleinbl00  ·  3688 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Speed limit on the road is 65. It was rush hour; CHP had guidelines that said "don't be going more than 10mph faster than traffic." Traffic was going probably 35; I was probably going 45-50.

I seriously hope he loses his job. He was driving livery and the point of putting on a turn signal is to say "I'm changing lanes" not "bombs away." The fact that he was from Ventura pretty much emphasizes that he isn't used to paying attention to white-liners, UNLIKE EVERY OTHER CAR ON THE ROAD.

And that's the thing: I was going straight in a straight road in the place where I'm supposed to go straight. He was CHANGING LANES across a double yellow out of the carpool lane, which is a massive ticket in California. And it's not like people don't do that. And it's not like I haven't stood on the brakes before. And it's not like I haven't dealt with exactly this problem before. But today? Yeah, nowhere to go.

Thump.

Spin.

Billing the shit out of those fuckers. New helmet, new jacket, whole nine yards. Asshole.

steve  ·  3688 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Billing the shit out of those fuckers. New helmet, new jacket, whole nine yards. Asshole.

oh hellz yes