This has been quite humbling and instructive.
I cycle 10 miles a day in central London, and I generally feel pretty safe. I like to think that I’ve got a pretty good awareness of what’s around me, what people are likely to do and what to look out for.
I’ve got a feeling of safety, but I know it might be false, because people to continue to be injured and killed on the same roads I ride on. I take a real interest in accidents, and sometimes feel a bit morbid for askig so many questions, but I want to know if I’m feeling safe because I’m aware enough, or because I’ve been lucky.
I watched the OP vid and spent a bit of time freeze framing the first few frames where the accident happens. I can see the van obscuring the black car’s view, the black car getting a feeling of an opening because the van’s moving, and knowing he needs to be quick to squeeze into the same gap. He gets a quick glimpse of an open road, and nips in.
The road seems open because there aren’t any cars in it, and he’s decided already he needs to be quick. When “Mrs Dozy” sees black car turning in, she knows there can’t be anything coming, so carries on turning, carries on looking where she’s going. What could be coming the other direction when she knows there’s a black car blocking the way?
Course. if she’d taken the a second to look, like all of us would have done, she’d have seen the bike.
Then I looked at the basketball/gorilla thing. I knew there’d be a gorilla, because I knew the set up. So I thought I could count the passes and see the gorilla. Granted the gorilla was trickier to see, but I didn’t spot it until the second watch. Thought was a subversion of the original. (Granted, I’ve also had a bottle and half of wine)
I don’t think Mrs Dozy needs to be vilified. In terms f fault, Mr black car precipitated it by giving Mrs Dozy the impression the road was clear. She should have taken the extra second to look, but I can understand why she didn’t.
so I’ll be looking out for this more tomorrow. My sphere of caution has been widened. As a vulnerable road user, that’s all you can do. (although quite what I’d have done differently in the riders position, I really don’t know…)
Safe travels all! And don’t get to high an opinion of your observational skills after a bottle and a half of wine!
