Saturday, February 4, 2012

Running Over A Bicyclist

This would be a trucker's nightmare.  Running over a pedestrian, bicyclist or otherwise someone in or on a small vehicle.  I know a trucker whose trailers tandems ran clean over the head of a teenaged boy.  Wasn't the trucker's fault, but - it messed that driver's head up rather permanently.  He quit truck driving altogether, he simply couldn't handle it anymore.  It wasn't just the fact that he had killed the boy, he also ended up seeing this kid's brains all over the asphalt.

Dicey.  Scary. Unnerving are a few words that describe what hit me the other day, in traffic, in the semi.
I was in a dual left hand turn lane.  I had seen the group of bicyclists cruising down the street before I got to the light, but they were on the right side of the road.  I got up to the left hand turn lane and sat there, looking around, waiting for the light to turn green.

If you are going to sit in the blind spot of semi truck while sitting on a bicycle next to it in traffic and expect the driver to avoid running you over, you might want to rethink that plan.

I have watched bicyclists all over the place doing some very stupid moves in traffic.  Some of these people think they have the right to cut off machinery that - they are no match for.  I read and hear in the news about bicyclists getting killed frequently in these parts, there is a reason for that.  Number one, motorists are not paying the same attention to the road as they once were.  The electronic s*** has taken their attention off of the road.  Number 2, the extreme, almost arrogant attitudes that I see cyclists have and using while riding down the road.

I am NOT one of those drivers that isn't paying attention.  Especially when driving the truck. Too much happens too quick and you have to be all over it before something really bad happens, like running cars and this and that over.

The problem on this particular occasion is that I could not SEE these bicyclists, they must have been RIGHT next to the truck in the blind spot.  Wherever they were, they most definitely should not have been there.  When the green arrow came up, I was moving right off the start.  The next thing I know, a bike is hurling off to the side, out in front of the same traffic that was also waiting at that light.  The green arrow and the regular light came on at the same time, meaning all the south bound lanes could take off.  This guy was swerving around with cars who also didn't expect what happened attempting to avoid running over him.

It was pretty shocking to see this dude attempting to save his own life while he was laughing at the cars that were swerving to avoid hitting him. ????  What was THAT all about?  Laughing at the cars that don't want to hit him?  It was all a big JOKE to this dude!!! I'm serious, this dude is swerving his bike in the middle of hte lanes attempting to avoid traffic that is attempting to avoid him and he's out there laughing at everyone!!

2 comments:

Lowandslow said...

I hear you. I've often thought, even posted, about how obnoxious some bike riders can be. Many seem to think traffic laws apply to cars and trucks, but judging from their actions, NOT to them. I'm surprised there aren't more accidents/deaths than there are.

S

BenB said...

Indeed. One would think that cyclists would be a bit more respectful of the thousands of pounds of cars and pickups or the 10's of tons of trucks that are travelling by them at much higher rates of speed.....

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