Topic: Anatomy of a crash

[Turbo Bob]

A very interesting article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8344025.stm

really makes you think...

[Brigitte]

Thanks for sharing that, Rob.  Very sensitively written, and clearly shows the devastation that two bad decisions can wreak on a family.

[aquadorhj]

just for clarification, when you say "really makes you think" , what are you thinking about?

I may quite possibly be slow or something...  I really can't think much else other than "sad story".

[Turbo Bob]

just for clarification, when you say "really makes you think" , what are you thinking about?

I may quite possibly be slow or something...  I really can't think much else other than "sad story".

Makes me think about having that "one drink".

Makes me think about always checking my blind spot.

Makes me think about my Dad having to do this for 16 years as a traffic cop.

Makes me think about how some of my worries are tiny compared to hearing news like that.

Makes me think about how difficult it would be to bring up two kids on your own.

Makes me think about what reaction I would have if the police turned up on my doorstep to deliver news like that..

....

[tpl]

I read it.  Initially it made me wonder why anyone would ride a scooter in poor conditions.  The scooter rider was unlucky in that he hit the van in such a way as to kill him. If he had just gone straight into the sheetmetal on the side of the van he would of course have been injured but would probably be alive... who knows.

[Winklovic]

I read it.  Initially it made me wonder why anyone would ride a scooter in poor conditions.  The scooter rider was unlucky in that he hit the van in such a way as to kill him. If he had just gone straight into the sheetmetal on the side of the van he would of course have been injured but would probably be alive... who knows.

So many 'what ifs' for those left behind to torture themselves with. 

[PJungnitsch]

An article in the March issue of the UK magazine Bike added a bit to the understanding of why cars pull out in front of motorcycles. Research on how certain insects attact prey was applied to the SMIDSY crash (sorry mate, I didn't see you).

When attacking, a dragonfly stays directly in the line of sight between its potential dinner and a fixed point in the distance. If dinner moves, the dragonfly alters its path just enough to stay on that line of sight. It doesn't swoop out to "lead" its victim. This tactic has the effect of keeping the dragonfly at the same point in the prey's visual field. Because the prey sees no change in the big picture, it is unaware of the impending attack. This is called motion camouflage.

Motion is difficult to perceive when it is directly along the line of sight. Because the object is stationary relative to the background, an observer doesn't see a change in the overall image and thus isn't cued to the presence of a moving object. Though the object increases in apparent size as it nears, the change goes unnoticed at first--moving from 1000ft distant to 900ft may not affect the image enough trigger a response. A motorcycle is particularly susceptible to motion camouflage because its cross-section area as seen by an observer is much less than that of a larger vehicle.

But as the object gets closer, apparent size increases more rapidly. At constant speed, an approaching object takes the same time to move from 200ft to 100ft as it did from 1000ft to 900ft, but the apparent size increase is greater. Eventually the object seems to grow suddenly in size, and the motion camouflage is broken. This is called the looming effect. According to the Bike article, when an observer is startled by the looming effect, he may freeze in his tracks. If the observer is an oncoming left-turner, he may stop in the middle of the intersection, making a bad situation even worse.

Duncan MacKillop, the riding instructor who related motion camouflage to motorcycling, suggests that diverging from the direct line of sight will break the motion camouflage and get the observer's attention. For example, a driver stopped at a cross-street on your right will be looking left at a slight angle to the path of the road. If you stay to the left of your lane, you will diverge from his line of sight, making yourself more noticeable. But if you're veering right (say, moving from the left to the right lane) you'll be moving along the crossing driver's line of sight, helping to hide your motion against the background.

MacKillop recommends: "I observed a smooth, gentle, single, zig-zag motion, at any point along the line, created a rapid edge movement against the background and destroyed the motion camouflage. Drivers' eyes snapped towards me and they froze the movement I swept left to right and back again."

http://www.motorcycleinfo.co.uk/index.cfm?fa=contentGeneric.twhhyjzpxapzkouq&pageId=146841

[Turbo Bob]

Wow, another powerful story.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8407635.stm

I have certainly done some silly overtakes in my time, especially before I was 30...  "There but for the grace of god go I"