Driving to work on the motorway, suddenly no cars on the other carriageway. Rounded a bend and there was just an ambulance, a couple of police cars, a black car and a body with a sheet over it. Motorcycle helmet beside the body.

Looked really strange in the setting of an utterly deserted motorway.

Sadly someone won’t be making it home tonight, and some poor parent/partner will be getting the dreaded knock on the door. It has really brought home just how vulnerable 2-wheeled road users are, especially after I was charging round the lanes with some mates on road bikes last night – we got quite close to cars a couple of times.

I shall be going home tonight doubly glad to see my family, and sparing a few thoughts today for the biker and his.

Probably this guy…

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xwEIBZlqmc[/video]

Isn’t this what snapchat was invented for?

OK, so I was a bit upset about this, and perhaps looking to share a bit of compassion.

I hope it doesn’t happen to you or yours, Jamie and Baby

I found a dead body in a park near my mum’s house in 2000 (grey, misty morning on my way to university).

Was surprised how little it bothered me, despite being able to vividly recall the expression on the guys face, the position and awkwardness of his body etc. I was on my way to a forensic medicine class at the time and remember thinking how different the body I just saw compared to the ones we were shown in class.

Totally out of the blue, just a few years ago, I started having weird flashback type images about it. Not hugely disturbing, but not pleasant either. The human brain is odd at times.

Gallows humour, 40mpg, it gets us through interesting times.

Seen a lot of dead bodies in my time, and the first time is upsetting.
Just remember there is nothing you can do about it, it was probably an accident, just feel sorry for the guy, and value your own family.

at least the mountain bike community got told about it first 🙄

Did you knock on doors around the area to find its owner?

Did you knock on doors around the area to find its owner?

You’re a very bad man, druidh.

*stifles laugh*

Rubbernecking is bad.

Rubbernecking is bad.

In general, yes, but I don’t think the OP was.

In general, yes, but I don’t think the OP was.

His mpg would be higher if he was.

occupational hazard for some of us, doesnt make it easier though and I still find it eery and profound. It does make you realise how fragile life is full stop. Not the time or place to repeat stories but Ive seen stuff that would break your heart. Some deaths have been from such maddeningly trivial causes I’m not sure it’s made me risk averse -yes I might get killed on my MTB/Road bike/R1/snowboard, but the most stupid innocuous things can claim a life.

His mpg would be higher if he was.

It’s a double edged sword.

Rubbernecking is bad.

I agree. I always say ‘look away/don’t look’ to mrshora as we approach. The problem is you take in sooo much information in a tiny split-second glance, literally less than a second so even though you don’t mean to you get the snapshot anyway 🙁

The true-rubbernecking, slowing right down (you always encounter this jamming on the opposite carriageway so people can have a good morbid stare/pciture. ****.

The wife and i were coming back from Pacha in Ibiza along the San An to Ibiza town road around 97-98, around 5 in the morning, we were pretty out of it (though in a cab), the Guardia Civil had the road closed off but we managed to crawl past the accident that had closed it. A scooter had hit a taxi head on coming the other way, there were two bodies both with blankets covering them and blood running from both, plus an additional small blanket which, due to the shape, we deduced must have been the head of one of the deceased, we later found out that one of the bodies had indeed been decapitated. It’s fair to say it brought us right down…

i saw a dead body when i was 13. it was older kid from my school who had been knocked off his bike by a woman opening her car door 🙁
he got knocked under the wheels of an arctic that was going past him.
i didnt see the accident but i was there before the police etc so i saw what was left of his mangled body. his head was flat and he had an arm off. its pretty grim thinking about it even now 20yrs on

Have spent some time in India and Nepal where they are a bit more relaxed about dead bodies than we are. Some of them were in a right state and I think that has done me a favour

Have also been at the side of a few elderly relatives when they’ve passed away.

Jamie’s clip of the motorbiker between two lorries staggers belief. Was the rider on something? Madness.

Jamie’s clip of the motorbiker between two lorries staggers belief. Was the rider on something? Madness.

The guy explains what happened in the text under the clip. The trucks were stationery.

Lost count how many I’ve seen, old people, young people, road accident victims, murder victims, children… All have an effect to a greater or lesser degree.

Still haven’t seen as many as my father in law. He’s a pathologist. Once he knocked his mobile during a p.m when reaching for his dictaphone thingy.

My wife got a very detailed voicemail message about the innards of his “patient”.

Best thing was when we brought it up with him next time we saw him, he denied it completely and said it must have been somebody else!

Instead of dwelling on the sadness of the death, let it enthuse you with life.

The guy explains what happened in the text under the clip. The trucks were stationery.

He went for that slender gap and at any stage one could.. have moved.

My dad once saw a similar scene – and no bag to cover up the corpse. He was very quiet for several days.

For people like Bregante- I imagine it takes abit out of you each time over time. Another line on your face?

…or you just get used to it?

M27?

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/10610373.Biker_killed_in_lorry_collision/

RIP fallen biker :\

Proper LOL @ druidh

Rubberneckers are a pain in the backside but not as bad as the muppets who don’t slow down at all. At least 20 vehicles went past me at well over 80mph (a couple of motorbikes I estimate were doing well over 100mph) while I was attending a cyclist on the verge of the A68 a few weeks back and that was with my car blocking 1/2 the road and lights flashing!

There is a morbid fascination with injury/death and I’m constantly amazed that people won’t ‘move along’ when asked politely. Some actually get quite miffed that they have to move so you can get to the patient!

…or you just get used to it?

in a way, yes. In as much you get used to coping, compartmentalising it and moving on, not as in you care less. When you’ve had a small child ask “why did daddy kill mummy?” or “Will mummy’s ear grow back?” (after taking a shotgun blast to the face) you try not to dwell on it too much. So I’m off to a what-tyre thread!

Well you all do a bloody good job.

Couple of years ago, on new years eve, drove past a little pond by my village to se a cop car, ambulance and a corpse with a white blanket over it, saw a shock of white hair.

An old lady (of confused mental state) had got out, and wandered off, probably slipped in.

A few years ago driving through chester, a bus in the oposite carrigeway big hole in in its front windscreen, and smashed facia panel, no driver, got a bit closer and there was the driver looking at the floor, a chap had run in front of the bus and been killed, and been dragged under bus and out the back,driver looked shocked and really upset.

He had just dropped his wife off shopping had forgoton something and recrossed the road and was hit by the bus.

So tragic, for all.

Did anyone see RudeTube last night? The guy who was filming a steam train next to the track and a high speed train came in the other direction. As close to being killed outright as he could have been without it even touching him.

If we’re looking at near misses:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrxI9bV9yxY[/video]

About fourteen/fifteen years ago I was driving up to Cirencester, following a couple of cars going fairly slowly, as one was going to turn right. Just as he started to turn a bike went past at around 60-70mph, narrowly missing the turning car! ‘Thats an accident waiting to happen’, I thought.
A couple of miles on, there’s a railway bridge, set at an angle to the road, which has a sudden dip at each end, to accommodate high vehicles, with a narrow lane coming into it from Hullavington village. Approaching the dip, especially in the dark, it’s difficult to see vehicles in the dip, especially if they’re turning right into the lane, facing traffic heading north to Cirencester. As I got there, there was a car stopped, hazards on. I stopped, put mine on, and went to see what was up.
The driver was comforting an extremely shocked elderly couple, who’s car had a motorbike embedded in the front.
There was no rider by the car, so I walked along the road under the bridge, to find the rider sprawled in the road out the other side. I felt for a pulse in his neck, but, unsurprisingly, there was none.
An ambulance turned up several minutes later, and they attached a machine to him, but no response.
Somewhat shocking, but not something that really preys on my mind.
I look at it as evolution in action, TBH.
Terrible for his family, but I felt more concern for the lovely old couple who’s car he hit at 70mph.

Was it on the M27 this morning ?

If so I passed as they work working on the guy giving chest compression.

As a biker it really shocked/upset me 🙁

Seen a couple of bodies in the past , cutting through a passage as I did most days on my post round found a young lad (about 18) staring blankly at the sky with a hyperdermic hanging out of his arm it just made me a bit sad and think why. Most upsetting though was on the east coast road between Scarborough and Whitby where there was a helmeted head seperated from the body ,the riders motorcycle was in a similar state with the front and rear ends on opposite sides of the road. I still cringe now thinking about it.

As for rubberneckers they wind me up massively more so since I nearly ran into the back of a guy who slammed his brakes on to get a better look then threatened me when I sounded my horn at him.

Just outside my work a few years ago, there was an old lady just collapsed on the ground with a young lad crouched over her, with a bit of blood on the pavement. I pulled into our carpark, grabbed a first aid kit and went to see if I could help. But she was spark gone, no breathing, no pulse, just a bit of blood from her head where she’d fallen. I probably
should have tried CPR but I just knew she had gone. Very quickly after another car pulled up and it was a doctor from the local surgery, about 200 yds further down the road, who confirmed it was pointless. He came by our office a few days later and said it was an aneurism, just turned her out like a light.

Oddly though, it was the first and so far only dead body I’ve seen and it had no impact on me at all. I know it was someone’s mum, gran, etc, and i was sad for them, but to me she was no-one, just an old lady who’d set off for the shops and dropped dead on the way. I was more worried that I wasn’t at all bothered about it and whether that said something about me (so I posted it up on here, of course. People said I was normal, which was good)

I do hope all these recollections of finding dead bodies, is helping the OP through this difficult time.