TwickenhamCyclist
Guest
Witnessed a pretty horrific motorbike accident on Saturday evening – yes this is a cycling forum – but I know lots of you ride motorbikes as well.
I was driving the family down to Broadhempston, Devon. Just nearing the end of the journey and we were on a three lane A road climbing a pretty steep gradient (1:10? at a guess) – it’s the A380, Telegraph Hill, just after it splits from the A38 close to Kennford for those that know it.
As the road climbs, there is a filter lane off to the right, to turn around, and a few hundred meters after that the road narrows from three lanes to two – effectively merging the middle and outer lanes.
The road was fairly busy, 5:30pm on changeover day, but the traffic was flowing at full speed so to speak. The left hand lane was nose to bumper with lorries, caravans and busses doing 35 / 40mph up the hill. We were overtaking in the middle lane at about 70mph, and there were the usual nutters doing a 100+ to get to the next bottleneck before us, overtaking on our right.
I’m not the “best” driver in the world, but I think I’m pretty safe – observant, courteous and patient etc (well, in the car at any rate!). I left a good 4 to 5 second gap between me and the blue car in front – the sort of nice space you leave for the BMW’s to swerve into and slam on the anchors when they realise the road in front of them runs out in 5 yards.
There are a few signs advising that the road is about to narrow, I check the mirrors and sure enough there is a black BMW in the outside lane doing about 100, with a motorbike right up his arse. The BMW passes us, quickly followed by the bike. The blue car in front of us starts to change lane, left into the much slower left hand lane. Mr black BMW slows and starts to move into the middle lane, parallel with Mrs Blue car, I guess to let the bike get past him, and also because the road is running out. I thought to myself, this will be close…
Then it all went into slow motion – Mrs Blue car decides, whilst half in the left, and half in the middle lane, that she actually doesn’t want to change lane after all and starts moving back into the middle lane. Mr Black BMW is now half in the middle and half in the outside lane, parallel with Mrs Blue car, and the motorcyclist has started his overtake them both. Mr BMW is forced back into the outside lane and the motorcyclist is forced out of the outside lane and into the filter lane, which unfortunately has a queue of traffic in it.
The motorbike hit the back of a stationary truck doing at least 90mph. Biker and bike went up int the air. He was thrown clear, 20 feet into the air, landed, and then slid up the carriageway, rolling over like a rag doll. He must have revolved ten times at the very least. Mrs TwickenhamCyclist was screaming at the children not to look, I was slowing down. The motorcyclist finished spinning along the tarmac and then actually stood up as we passed him – god knows what internal injuries he had sustained.
Our safety being paramount, I pulled into a lay-by a little further up the road, just in front of Mrs Blue car, who was shaking and white and calling the police/ambulance. Mrs TC checked Mrs Blue Car was OK and left our details, the motorcyclist was by now surrounded by a crowd a couple of hundred meters back down the road. Not wanting to hang around we left after about ten minutes, and passed the mangled bike up the road about a quarter of a mile after the initial impact.
It was a pretty shocking sight, and the image of the crash kept repeating in my mind for several days. I hope the motorcyclist was OK, but can’t help thinking he must have broken a few bones at the very least.
Called the local police an hour later to leave my details as a whiteness - it seemed to really annoy them, and the operator actually got pretty pissed off that I couldn’t pinpoint the accident to the nearest yard – FFS, how many motorcyclists were knocked off at 5.45pm at the beginning of the A380 that day? anyway they didn’t call back so I guess it wasn’t a fatal/serious injury.
Be careful out there all…
I was driving the family down to Broadhempston, Devon. Just nearing the end of the journey and we were on a three lane A road climbing a pretty steep gradient (1:10? at a guess) – it’s the A380, Telegraph Hill, just after it splits from the A38 close to Kennford for those that know it.
As the road climbs, there is a filter lane off to the right, to turn around, and a few hundred meters after that the road narrows from three lanes to two – effectively merging the middle and outer lanes.
The road was fairly busy, 5:30pm on changeover day, but the traffic was flowing at full speed so to speak. The left hand lane was nose to bumper with lorries, caravans and busses doing 35 / 40mph up the hill. We were overtaking in the middle lane at about 70mph, and there were the usual nutters doing a 100+ to get to the next bottleneck before us, overtaking on our right.
I’m not the “best” driver in the world, but I think I’m pretty safe – observant, courteous and patient etc (well, in the car at any rate!). I left a good 4 to 5 second gap between me and the blue car in front – the sort of nice space you leave for the BMW’s to swerve into and slam on the anchors when they realise the road in front of them runs out in 5 yards.
There are a few signs advising that the road is about to narrow, I check the mirrors and sure enough there is a black BMW in the outside lane doing about 100, with a motorbike right up his arse. The BMW passes us, quickly followed by the bike. The blue car in front of us starts to change lane, left into the much slower left hand lane. Mr black BMW slows and starts to move into the middle lane, parallel with Mrs Blue car, I guess to let the bike get past him, and also because the road is running out. I thought to myself, this will be close…
Then it all went into slow motion – Mrs Blue car decides, whilst half in the left, and half in the middle lane, that she actually doesn’t want to change lane after all and starts moving back into the middle lane. Mr Black BMW is now half in the middle and half in the outside lane, parallel with Mrs Blue car, and the motorcyclist has started his overtake them both. Mr BMW is forced back into the outside lane and the motorcyclist is forced out of the outside lane and into the filter lane, which unfortunately has a queue of traffic in it.
The motorbike hit the back of a stationary truck doing at least 90mph. Biker and bike went up int the air. He was thrown clear, 20 feet into the air, landed, and then slid up the carriageway, rolling over like a rag doll. He must have revolved ten times at the very least. Mrs TwickenhamCyclist was screaming at the children not to look, I was slowing down. The motorcyclist finished spinning along the tarmac and then actually stood up as we passed him – god knows what internal injuries he had sustained.
Our safety being paramount, I pulled into a lay-by a little further up the road, just in front of Mrs Blue car, who was shaking and white and calling the police/ambulance. Mrs TC checked Mrs Blue Car was OK and left our details, the motorcyclist was by now surrounded by a crowd a couple of hundred meters back down the road. Not wanting to hang around we left after about ten minutes, and passed the mangled bike up the road about a quarter of a mile after the initial impact.
It was a pretty shocking sight, and the image of the crash kept repeating in my mind for several days. I hope the motorcyclist was OK, but can’t help thinking he must have broken a few bones at the very least.
Called the local police an hour later to leave my details as a whiteness - it seemed to really annoy them, and the operator actually got pretty pissed off that I couldn’t pinpoint the accident to the nearest yard – FFS, how many motorcyclists were knocked off at 5.45pm at the beginning of the A380 that day? anyway they didn’t call back so I guess it wasn’t a fatal/serious injury.
Be careful out there all…
