Motorcyclist ‘serious’ in UK after rush-hour crash
Friday 24th April 2009, 2:30PM BST.
A MOTORCYCLIST is badly injured in a Plymouth hospital after an evening rush-hour accident.
Mike Fish’s crash on Wednesday left the 37-year-old Mercator Trust manager with back pain and a fractured pelvis and wrist.
And it realised the fears of Sausmarez Road, St Martin’s, residents, who said it had been only a matter of time before a serious accident there. They fear more.
Rob Steen, pictured, who runs the Ambassador Hotel, was one of the first on the scene, directing traffic away.
‘Suddenly the road went deathly silent,’ he said. ‘I went outside to see what had happened and a hotel resident said there had been a terrible accident.’
Mr Steen, himself a keen biker, said people needed to be more aware of motorcycles on the roads.
‘There’s a big campaign in England that you need to be more bike aware. It’s a great time to get out on a motorbike, but you need to be more careful. There have been far too many accidents on this road.’
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We are very aware of motorbikes as we regularly see them breaking the speed limit by significant margins. We also see them overtaking on the inside of us when we are driving. In their impatience to get to their destination they overtake queues of cars even when there is very little space for them to do so safely. We also have to endure the noise that a lot these machines make which the police don’t seem to do much about.
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To be fair not all motorcyclists are like that and i’ve no idea if this accident was due to speed or even if it was the riders fault.There are just as many car drivers that cause problems so you cant tar everyone with the same brush.
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Blogger, there are good bikers and bad bikers just as there are good and bad drivers.
Speaking as a driver and a biker (who rides considerately I like to think) I never ceased to be amazed by the poor quality of car driving on the Island. When you ride a bike in Guernsey you have to always assume that the car pulling out of a drive ahead of you hasn’t seen you – maybe one time in fifty you are going to be right and will need to brake hard or take evasive action.
Guernsey is full of drivers who simply cannot be bothered to use their indicators too. Indicators are not optional extras on a car, they are meant to signal you intentions to other road users. That piece of knowledge is particularly important if that other road user happens to be riding a motorbike – if failing to indicate causes an accident it is not just a bumper that is going to get dented, it could be the biker’s head.
And another thing – when will Guernsey drivers learn to use roundabouts? Stopping to wave someone through may be good etiquette at a filter in turn but it is positively dangerous at a roundabout. Give way to traffic approaching from the right, its that simple.
On top of all these hazards the terrible state of our roads makes biking significantly more risky than in the UK. Again, not the bikers fault.
I do not know whether this poor bloke who got injured was riding stupidly or sensibly, but it is wrong to assume it was his fault simply because he is a biker. I wish him a speedy recovery.
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Whilst it may be seen as informative for this article to be issued in the press / on the internet, it cannot be deemed an adaquate portrail of the event that occured. I am led to believe that the true account of what happened will be released in due course. It is ironic that people automatically assume that this has occured due to people not noticing bikes, a comment of which is strewn across papers.
In this case it is the unfortunate biker whom has suffered. I also wish him a speedy recovery!
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