Suspended term for 156mph motorbiker

[thomas]

Think of all the other times they probably caused mayhem, alarm and fear on the roads and weren't caught. Even though they had both been caught speeding excessively before. The 2 year suspended sentence handed to Bowden is a joke only granted as the family of the deceased claimed that they were both very good friends and had ridden a lot together. Ironically the family of the deceased rider said he would have done anything for anyone. Indeed they always do.

Would he wait patiently for anyone? Speeding punishments in these cases are always going to be a slap on the wrist...maybe his friend has taught him an invaluable lesson!

 

[very-near]

Would he wait patiently for anyone? Speeding punishments in these cases are always going to be a slap on the wrist...maybe his friend has taught him an invaluable lesson!

Like don't film yourself acting illegally on the road ?

 

[thomas]

Like don't film yourself acting illegally on the road ?

Well, hopefully stop riding like a dick head.

 

[Crankarm]

Like don't film yourself acting illegally on the road ?

Or post your views on a biker forum where they would be in similarly ignorant company.

 

[marinyork]

I find it disturbing that out of three idiots, one is still out on the roads and the other has a ten year ban, if he even keeps to it.

 

[very-near]

Well, hopefully stop riding like a dick head.

The ban should take care of that.

 

[MartinC]

If you freeze frame the footage the Astra car that was overtaking in front of the biker was well established in the over taking position when the biker made contact with the rear of the vehicle. When the car signals and begins to manoevre to overtake the vehicle in front of him the bike rider has plenty of time to brake and slow down. I think he didn't see him as he was focusing on the on coming traffic or was just accelerating so fast he could not stop. In any event his riding was extremely dangerous and pre-meditated.

Crankarm is right, this is the key point. When the Astra began its overtake the bike was still behind the car behind the Astra. At the Mirror part of a MSM sequence the bike would not have been in the picture. The situation was developing and predictable before the biker put himself in it. Entirely his fault. End of story. Literally.

 

[marinyork]

If the bike had its lights on the astra driver should have spotted the bike. If it didn't I perhaps could understand the poor judgement of the astra driver. Still should have spotted him though.

 

[thomas]

If the bike had its lights on the astra driver should have spotted the bike. If it didn't I perhaps could understand the poor judgement of the astra driver. Still should have spotted him though.

I thought mbikes had their lights on all the time...or at least with modern bikes you couldn't turn them off.

 

[marinyork]

Anyway the sad bit of that video for me was just when they get to the roundabout and are driving vaguely sanely and then Prowse sneaks ahead to give it a final blast.

 

[MartinC]

If the bike had its lights on the astra driver should have spotted the bike. If it didn't I perhaps could understand the poor judgement of the astra driver. Still should have spotted him though.

Spotting the prescence of the bike isn't enough. The Astra driver would have also had to be aware thet he intended to overtake. Not something easy to predict when the bike is not even yet behind you in the traffic stream, isn't indicating and about to accelerate to an inappropriate speed. The Astra driver may well have checked that the car behind wasn't about to overtake. As others have said - the Astra had started it's overtake way before the biker was committed to going past.

 

[Arch]

We were on holiday in Cornwall that week, staying not far away. We heard that the road had been closed. I'm glad that I wasn't unfortunate enough to have driven the family past a collection of body parts on the road.

I wouldn't wish it on your lot, but maybe more people should be exposed to body parts on the road. I really think a lot of people simply don't equate their actions with accurate results.

When I was about 7 or 8, I remember Mum and I walked past a local school and a girl had run out in front of a car, and was still lying in the road out cold, surrounded by people, waiting for an ambulance. It's an image I cn conjour up now.

Friend's have said, I'm the only person they know in their 30's who still follows the Green Cross Code...

Putting aside the why and wherefore of blame for a moment, I noticed this in the report:

"The prison sentence was suspended after the dead man's family asked the court to show lenience because he and Bowden had been close friends."

This, I don't get. So, the guy lost his buddy, and saw it happen. That doesn't make him any less guilty of being a twat for speeding like that. Did the court take into account the feelings of the people in the camper van? Not to mention anyone else who might have got killed if they'd carried on like that. I didn't think sentencing was about learning a leson, - he's hopefully done that. Isn't there also an element of punishment, which he seems to have avoided (I know he'll have other punishments, but he's avoided the prison bit).

I'm afraid I'm with the 'better off out of the gene pool' camp - the only pity being they have to wreck other people's lives along the way.

 

[asterix]

Even looking ahead the human vision is very poor at judging the speed of approaching objects. Looking in a mirror simply makes it harder to do so especially with a small object like a m/cycle.

IME it is commonplace for vehicles on multi-lane roads to pull into a lane in front of an oncoming faster vehicle, especially for HGVs to do so. Good driving is being prepared for that and being able to deal with it.

Any motorcyclist who depends on other drivers to keep them out of trouble in such a way is very likely to die. They are also quite likely to take others with them.

 

[marinyork]

That's an appalling piece of film, both in terms of the outcome, but also the speed.

What is clear is that the Astra was clearly moving to the right when the bike was a reasonable distance behind it. The bike approached quickly, so the speed differential was significant. He'd just undertaken his mate and dived to the right while accelerating. The following bike was braking heavily from 100mph when the previously discussed still was taken, so that's the kind of speed that the first bike was doing immmediately prior to the impact. It's awful, pathetic, dangerous riding.

Earlier on he was passing cars at an indicated 170mph. If one of these cars had moved right, would they have been partly to blame for being rear-ended? Where in the HC does it say that drivers should always consider and account for someone who might be approaching at up to a 100mph speed differential?

170mph is different from a 90-100mph for spotting someone in the mirror. At those sort of speeds it would be extremely difficult to spot, even were they driving on a wide 2 lane dual carriageway and the car pulled legitimately into the other lane. That's totally different from this set of circumstances. I don't frankly understand what people are on about, I've had motorbikes and other cars pull such moves on me undertaking/overtaking on slip roads them doing 90-100mph me doing 60-70 mph. I don't bloody well pull out like that astra. So the astra used it's indicator, it doesn't excuse the fact that it attempted an overtake where it shouldn't have. The hatch markings are their for a reason. Don't overtake unless it is necessary and safe! It wasn't necessary or safe for either of them. If they want to take a risk like that, fair dos, but due to the poor nature of the manuever and the road markings it's partly their fault and they should be doing a short stint in prison.

 

[ferret fur]

I'm sorry, but as an ex motorbike courier with 200k on the clock: You just cannot blame the Astra driver for his part in this tragedy. If you look carefully, the bike overtakes a car less than two seconds before the Astra begins his overtake. He could have quite easily have looked in his mirrors and seen nothing except the car behind and then concentrated on the overtake by looking ahead. He is even indicating for goodness sake! Granted it is a tight place for a car to overtake but I wouldn't say it was necessarily dangerous to do it. When you are on a motorbike you have to take into account that you are accelerating at speeds and getting into positions that even cautious and sensible drivers (and there are darned few of those) will not be expecting. If as a biker you are going to accelerate rapidly out of a slow junction up to three figure speeds on a narrow road (given the circumstances) with heavy traffic, you are taking a huge risk. You shouldn't be relying on someone spotting you doing a foolhardy manoeuvre which a normal car driver can't really be expecting. By all means blame a driver if they aren't paying attention while you are ridng sensibly. If you are being an idiot you have only yourself to blame.