It's Easy to Lay the Blame on Dead Bikers

[XLFD]

If you ride a motorcycle, chances are that if you get into an accident, it will be your fault according to the police and the media.  If you are not wearing a helmet, carrying something illegal, or presumed to have been driving at a high rate of speed, forget any presumption of innocence-- even when the facts point elsewhere.  Here is today's case that happened a little to the south of us:

BLUE LAKE TOWNSHIP, MI – One man was killed and a woman was being rushed to an area hospital in critical condition Tuesday evening after a car-motorcycle accident in Blue Lake Township.

Michigan State Police Trooper Matthew Demny said the motorcycle was traveling at a high rate of speed westbound on White Lake Drive just after 8:30 p.m. May 7 when a car heading eastbound turned in front of it onto Carmen Avenue. Both motorcyclists were thrown from the bike after the impact.

Demny said the man was pronounced dead at the scene while White Lake Area Ambulance transported the woman to Mercy Health Partners Hackley Campus for treatment. The female driving the car was not injured.

Demny said witnesses reported seeing the motorcycle traveling at a high rate of speed and the woman driving the car could not see it coming over a rise on White Lake Drive when she turned in front of it.

The motorcycle's speed was a "major factor" in the accident, Michigan State Police Trooper Nate Grant said.

Police also found narcotics on the motorcycle rider, but Demny could not say whether that played a role in the accident as well.

Demny said neither of the motorcycle riders was wearing a helmet. Police are still trying to determine whether the woman driving the car was wearing a seatbelt.

The Blue Lake Township Fire Department, Pro-Med Ambulance and Muskegon County Sheriff's Department also assisted at the scene.

http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2013/05/man_dead_woman...

On first reading, you may have glanced over:  "a car heading eastbound turned in front of (the motorcyclist)" and "the woman driving the car could not see it coming over a rise on White Lake Drive when she turned in front of it.", when you were reading about speed being called the primary factor, with a little bit of narcotics and helmet safety thrown in on the side.  But let's go beyond the story.

 

Most of you are probably not familiar with the area in question, the author does give the specifics of the incident very well:  it took place at the intersection of Carmen Road and White Lake Drive, biker headed west, driver headed east, a rise on White Lake to the east of Carmen.  Let's take a trip with Google maps.

 

From this map we see the red star is where the accident took place, and that Carmen Road exists only to the north of White Lake, so the car pulled out of Carmen to go east (right on map) where a motorcycle was headed west (coming from the right on the map).  Let's now go down to the intersection, and see what the motorist saw before she made her turn into the path of the biker.

 

The pink arrow points to the 'rise' spoken of, the red arrow shows the path of the 'speeding' motorcyclists, and the purple arrow shows the path of the motorist.   The rise looks as if it could be a factor, so I decide to walk backwards on the Google maps, backtracking the path of the biker, and found that I could still see the entrance to Carmen Road every increment back to about 600 feet; I only began losing sight of it at about Forest Road (as seen in map 1 above). 

Reasoning that if I could see the entrance of Carmen Road at those points, then someone at the entrance of Carmen Road should be able to see me, I did some calculations to figure out what it all meant, but first here is the view near Forest Road (the first orange arrow pointing to Columbia Rd, the second to Carmen Rd).

 

How long does it take a motorcycle to cover 600 feet?  It depends on its speed.  Lets say the bike travels 100 ft. per second which is just a little over 68 mph (speeding).  It would take 6 seconds to cover that area.  If the bikers were traveling 120 fps (81 + mph) it would only take 5 seconds. 

 

How long does it take to make a left turn from a stopped position?  This will vary with the driver of the car, the car's acceleration capabilities, and the situation.  I did some timing myself this morning of my local intersection, and found it was usually done within three seconds.  Did it take this driver over five seconds to cross over one lane of traffic (about 9 ft.)?  If so, was she unable to hear the speeding biker in that period, and not able to up her pace to clear the lane?

 

The biker had no helmet, maybe some narcotics, allegedly speeding.  No contest, even when there's no contesting the driver was at fault for this accident by violating the biker's right of way.  Dead motorcyclists tell no tales, and policeman are more concerned with whether the driver was wearing a seatbelt or not.  Life goes on for some reckless drivers.