Jerry Tahl was an average rider. He owned two motorcycles. One was a standard class, the other a touring bike. He was a bit more cautious on his standard when it came to being seen, since it was smaller than the tourer. Jerry normally used the smaller bike to go to work.

One weekday morning, he went to the garage to crank the standard one, only to find the battery dead. So, Jerry opted to take the bigger motorcycle.

Jerry much went the same route everyday to work. He was pretty used to the other vehicles since they were much the same ones he saw daily. And he was somewhat familiar with each of there driving habits.

As Jerry rode into town, close to where he worked, he came up to a traffic light. Just ahead of him was a mini-van full of bouncing kids. Jerry thought to himself how glad he was to be on his motorcycle and not in the van. Just as the van got to the intersection, the light turned red.

After a wait of what seemed like forever, the light turned green and both van and Jerry started across the intersection. Just as soon as the van cleared the intersection, and Jerry was halfway across, a car in the on-coming lane turned left right in front of him. Jerry applied both brakes hard and managed to stop before hitting the car. Jerry narrowly avoided what could have been a serious accident.

After finally getting to work, he though back as to what went wrong. He saw the driver looking right at him. So why did the car turn anyway?

Questions:
1) Is eye contact a good form of communication?
2) What is the most common multi-vehicle type accident?
3) What could Jerry have done to reduce reaction time?
4) What distracted Jerry?
5) What could Jerry do to be more visible to the on-coming traffic?

Answers:
1) No. Drivers are used to seeing cars and trucks, not motorcycles. Even when it appears the driver is looking right at the motorcyclist, they could actually being looking “through” instead.
2) Intersections
3) Covered his clutch and brake
4) The kids in the mini-van
5) He assumed since he was on a bigger motorcycle, he would be more visible. Jerry’s lane position was such that the on-coming driver’s view was blocked by the mini-van from seeing Jerry. Jerry should have stayed back and over in the left track for more visibility. He assumed since he was on a bigger motorcycle, he would be more visible.

Till next time – Ride Safe and Stay Visible.

Collen Campbell
Chapter M-2 Rider Educator