Scary stuff riding in London.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1aSvoIpVss[/video]

😯

😯

That’s pretty bloody scary for the rider!

Is it wrong that the only thing from that that really stuck in my mind was how funny he sounded with the video in reverse?

I can’t believe her reversed and did it again.

no interest in the rider at all by the dick driver, went to check his truck.

was watching this earlier. Pretty crap driving by the Selco driver. Bless the lady who had a go at the driver and gave the rider a hug 😀

Also watched one of his other videos about other people bad driving on roads but spotted him undertake a moving car at a crossing on the zig zags. tut tut

You can see that he is bang in the front pillar blind spot most of the way through that maneouvre. Scary. Could easily have been the granny and the pushchair.

Then again, if you’re going to drive something that needs such a wide line on corners, there’s got to be some way of sticking your head sideways and getting a view.

The most good-natured nearly-crushed-to-death road-user award?

how can something like that be allowed on the roads with such a huge blindspot, especially in London?

😮

Further evidence that HGVs and lorries with massive blindspots have no place in cities and busy residential areas.

He was lucky it was only his bike that went under those wheels, particularly as the driver then reverses without finding out if there is anyone under the truck!

Shit driving, but is it only me that thought the rider could have moved too, onto the other side of the road, but became a bit fixated by ‘surely he must have seen me by now’

it only me that thought the rider could have moved too, onto the other side of the road, but became a bit fixated by ‘surely he must have seen me by now’

From the video timeline he has four seconds from when the truck starts to turn to when it hits him.

That’s not a lot of time to realise what’s happening, get over the initial disbelief factor, decide on a plan and implement it.

get over the initial disbelief factor

And I think that’s something that people forget – it’s a very common/natural reaction – the whole “he must have seen me, no surely, no, shit!”

That’s not a lot of time to realise what’s happening, get over the initial disbelief factor, decide on a plan and implement it.

This +1

I had a bump in my boat the other week and put a fairly substantial hole in the other boat. There was about 4 seconds between the “WTF are they doing” moment and the collision, during which I got it wrong and made things worse by trying to avoid them. At least by staying still he gave the driver a chance to see him and react.

That’s not a lot of time to realise what’s happening, get over the initial disbelief factor, decide on a plan and implement it.

Conversely, if someone pulled out on you at say 40mph and you were 4 seconds = 71mtrs (without any braking) I’d reckon you’d have ‘plenty’ of time to “realise what’s happening, get over the initial disbelief factor, decide on a plan and implement it”

Probably because the getting over the disbelief gets short circuited in that situation and it’s just ‘see, decide, do’

Not criticising the rider at all, it just illustrates what they say about assuming the worst in all cases, better to take action to avoid something that didn’t happen than not take action because you couldn’t believe it was about to. Which as a cycle commuter has saved my bacon a few times, when the unbelievable happened.

Motorbikes really aren’t very easy to maneouvre at low speed compared to push-bikes. He can’t just pull the front wheel up, plant it at 90 degrees and get out of the way.

I wouldn’t go onto the RH side of the road either – that’s where truck-boy is going.

Not so easy to just drop it and leg it either.

Conversely, if someone pulled out on you at say 40mph and you were 4 seconds = 71mtrs (without any braking) I’d reckon you’d have ‘plenty’ of time to “realise what’s happening, get over the initial disbelief factor, decide on a plan and implement it”

And he probably expected the driver to either stop or move to the other side of the road, not carry on towards him.

I was riding home last year on a wide cycle path, I usually stick to the left hand side of the path. Saw someone coming towards me on my left, thought they’ll probably move over, as we got closer he didn’t move and clearly wasn’t looking ahead so I moved to the middle of the path with plenty room for him to pass, he looked up at the last second, decided to move to the right side and moved straight into my path. He came off much worse than me.

Probably because the getting over the disbelief gets short circuited in that situation and it’s just ‘see, decide, do’

Yep, but I think the big difference is that someone pulling out on you is something you are mentally prepared for. It is probably a situation you have seen before, you are aware it can happen, and so you recognise it much more quickly and already have a plan. In fact you were probably already watching them in case they pulled out.

Whereas this is a novel situation with an unusual and unexpected hazard.

Sitting calmly watching the video, where you know what is going to happen, it’s easy to say he should have dodged onto the other side of the road but from his point of view that is where the truck was heading so that’s another little assessment and mental leap he needs to do in the short time available.

someone pulling out on you is something you are mentally prepared for

That’s my point. As a vulnerable road user you have to be mentally prepared for ‘everything’ – even the ‘surely he’s not going to’ scenario. I’m convinced it’s a state of mind*, some seem to have it and others don’t, evidenced by the number of arguments that start when videos of crashes get posted on here and people start saying ‘why didn’t they just….’ or ‘they shouldn’t have been…..’ and others respond with ‘they shouldn’t need to….’

* paranoia mainly 😉

Lorries like that will be no longer be sold when the new EU rules come in in 2023 (? I think).

The new lorries will have lower cabs, with less blindspots – like bin lorries are now.

Bad driving by the lorry. If he knew he had to take up the whole road,he should have been checking down the road.

The bike couldn’t move and he did a good job of actually getting out of the way

I wouldn’t go onto the RH side of the road either – that’s where truck-boy is going.

Yeah, I think the biker is pretty much knackered in this situation, the only option he had was to slam on immediately and even then ****wit in the lorry would have probably driven straight into him.

‘surely he must have seen me by now’

I’ve had this before <which I think graham has explained quite well while I was typing>. I tend to be pretty aware of door pillar blind spots now, I see soooo many drivers attempting to pull out of side streets where their approach speed and my speed along the road contrive so that the door pillar is between me and the driver throughout, worrying.

The bike had had to stop short probably not in the right gear, and not moving forward.
He was (at that moment) riding quite steady, oddly enough if he had been ragging it he would have been able to go round the truck.

But, how many wrong choices did the driver make.
Even assuming the biker he could see was the rider and not the pillion!

Very poor driving, he needs some serious training.

new EU rules come in in 2023

Not soon enough.

Rider was buggered in that situation, the only way out of the danger was backwards, and bikes don’t do reverse gears.

As a vulnerable road user you have to be mentally prepared for ‘everything’ – even the ‘surely he’s not going to’ scenario. I’m convinced it’s a state of mind

I agree that “everyone is a moron and/or trying to kill me” is a pretty good way to stay alive, but you can’t go around “mentally prepared for ‘everything'” at all times, no matter how unlikely. That would be exhausting!

Also bear in mind that in those four seconds he did react and take action: he shouted (and probably waved) then opted for a quick stunt roll to get the hell out of there.

He saved himself from serious injury, which is surely the main goal.

Lorries like that will be no longer be sold when the new EU rules come in in 2023 (? I think).

Awesome – only need blind (see what I did there ?) luck to keep road users alive for another 8 years, plus however long to phase out all the old ones !

Poor bike

He was remarkably calm in that situation .. considering the reaction of the driver I think he let him off lightly.

It’s very easy to play woulda-coulda-shoulda with the luxury of hindsight. Fact is, there’s very little time between “oh shit, he’s not actually going to stop” and “crunch.” Dropping the bike was actually pretty quick thinking.

In all honesty I’m not entirely sure what I’d have done differently in that situation, even given thinking time. I’d bet half of the keyboard warriors on YouTube would’ve been under the wheels along with the bike.

That’s annoyed me so much I have had to email Selco.

That would be exhausting!

That’s why the ‘everything’ is in commas, but yes, it is. The last 2 miles of my commute through town are far harder mentally than the 10 miles of country roads where generally the only hazards are people passing too close and the odd side road. I’ve had all sorts, people stepping out without looking, car doors (they hurt and always get a wide berth now) lane changes when you’re ‘safely’ filtering, dogs escaping from kids clutches, footballs……. it’s 100% concentration.

The thing is – as a car driver we should be giving the same level of attention, but we don’t, we’re reading the newspaper / on the phone / applying makeup / singing / eating breakfast…….I’ve seen them all. Because the penalty for failure when in your safety box is almost entirely on the other party. And while no-one wants to run a dog or a kid over……..

Anyway, going off topic now, will duck out here.

That’s my point. As a vulnerable road user you have to be mentally prepared for ‘everything’ – even the ‘surely he’s not going to’ scenario. I’m convinced it’s a state of mind*, some seem to have it and others don’t, evidenced by the number of arguments that start when videos of crashes get posted on here and people start saying ‘why didn’t they just….’ or ‘they shouldn’t have been…..’ and others respond with ‘they shouldn’t need to….’

While I agree with the premise of assuming everyone is out to kill you. Braking because someone cut you up/pulled out is entirely different. As you said, you’re already anticipating someone doing something stupid like that, and your reaction time is about 0.5s between registering what’s going on and hitting the brakes. But crucially you never had to make a decision, it’s a reaction.

In the video they see the truck coming, react to that by stopping. Then there’s 3 choices, 1 try and ride up the kerb on the left, 2 stay still, 3 turn right. Even watching that from my desk I’ve no real idea how wide he’s going to swing, is he going to mount the kerb too, how quickly will he swing back onto the other side, does he think it’s a 1 way street and isn’t even looking for me? If he swings back to his side what arc will his rear wheels take (it’ll be a lot tighter, will there be any room at all?). If the driver had got it right his rear wheels would presumably have made a very tight arc round the corner, so there would have been no room there either?

And you’ve got only about 2seconds to do all that after you’ve made the initial decision to stop and wait for him to see you.

I suspect if you went right you’d have gone under his rear wheels, you’d be in the same position as those that die filtering inside similar lorries turning left.

Ahh.. YouTube comments.

I think the most disturbing one (with multiple +1 likes) is:

There is a reason insurance is mandatory. They’ll pay for this, but if they fired drivers for every little scrape, then nobody would be driving anywhere.

Sums up a lot about the general attitude to driving these days.

Insurance is just one more thing that safely insulates drivers from the consequence of their own actions.

That’s annoyed me so much I have had to email Selco.

WTF ??

Pretty shocking video

Good reaction from the biker
Very poor reaction from the driver

I was very impressed with his dismount of the bike. Getting off a bike isn’t the easiest thing to do quickly, especially when there’s no stand. And it’s not something you practice! It’s just a massively panicked exit from the bike I guess

I assume the Police are going to be involved and the driver will be losing his licence and never to be allowed to drive a truck again? He clearly wasn’t looking where he was going if he ran straight into the biker like that…

Also, note total lack of emotion from him… maybe he was in shock but he didn’t look like a man who realised he nearly crushed another man to death… not ideal to be driving a truck like that in London if you don’t understand the implications of getting it wrong…

FWIW the assumption that all the people around you are about to do the very stupidest thing they can think of, has kept me safe so far. e.g. if there’s a vehicle in a side road coming up to the junction and you’re on the main road, take primary, make eye contact, clear yourself of their A pillar blind spot and give yourself space in case they pull straight out… as indeed many do. ie: never just ride on past, assuming they’re going to stay put.

In London you do need your wits about you, I’ll admit… there’s too much going on for even the most skilled driver to pay attention to…

<edit> cameras are doing a great job of highlighting how lousy the quality of driving is in the UK… the more stuff like this gets uploaded and shared, the more pressure builds to get it dealt with… it takes it above the level of individual anecdotes and provides proof…

That’s annoyed me so much I have had to email Selco.

You are joking right?

Drivers mistake was not looking into the road before turning into it. Happens a lot. I had a serious go at a woman yesterday who came flying out of a T-Junction at 20+mph having only looked left and nearly wiped me out.