Loss of Right of Way, Loss of Justice

[XLFD]

A weekend crash once again shows the vulnerability of motorcyclists travelling legally down the road, and the vulnerability of those biking victims to the whims and biases of the police and press.

OCEANA COUNTY, MI - Two Muskegon residents were seriously injured when their motorcycle collided with a pickup truck near Rothbury over the weekend.
The 57-year-old man and 41-year-old woman were thrown from the motorcycle when the pickup turned in front of them into a private driveway, according to a news release from the Michigan State Police.
The crash occurred at 4:15 p.m. Saturday on eastbound Winston Road east of U.S. 31, according to police. The motorcycle driver and passenger were not wearing helmets, according to the news release.
The motorcycle was traveling east on Winston when the pickup, driven by a 45-year-old Spring Lake man, turned in front of it and the motorcycle hit the truck, according to the news release.

https://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2018/07/motorcycle_ri...

The MSP 'news release' appears to have made its way around to other media reporting on the incident, including, TV 9&10, TV 7&4, and the top of page 3 in the July 30 COLDNews.  The language appears consistent in that it is clear that the pickup attempting to make a left turn into a driveway turned in the path of a motorcycle.  But the cause of the accident is almost lost in the language you often see accompanying such accidents, such as:

"their motorcycle collided with a pickup truck"

"The motorcycle driver and passenger were not wearing helmets"

"A motorcycle heading the other way was not able to stop in time."

And their variants.  Meanwhile, there is never given any reason why the motorist is given a free pass by the MSP for violating the biker's right of way, and critically injuring two people needlessly.  Are we supposed to pity them for needing some body work on their pickup in the future because they couldn't make sure the lane was clear?

Had they turned in front of a MSP motorcycle officer, you can bet they'd be trying to lock the driver up for life. Remember Trooper Chad Wolf whose careless riding led to the prosecution of a person for multiple felonies even though there wasn't any indication he had drove unlawfully.  Even when the driver was acquitted after a jury trial, the slanderous headlines were still calling out the driver with disproved theories, such as Motorist who ran over MSP Trooper Chad Wolf found not guilty.

Here, the fault would seem obvious, but just like practically every accident where a driver turns into the path of a non-police motorcyclist, with evidence and witnesses abounding to show wrongdoing, nothing is done.  Not only will police not move to prosecute the failure to yield the right-of-way, they will say the biker failed to stop in time and they were not wearing a helmet, both of which are irrelevant and infers blame belongs to the hapless road-user who is either dead or critically injured. 

The police and media will not do this language legerdemain when one driver turns into the path of another driver.  Consider just a small subset of these recent two vehicle accidents:

Willis had been driving a 1998 Ford Mustang south on U.S. Highway 71, when according to Ziegler's report, Vanness failed to yield and turned into the path of the Mustang. 

Six people were injured when an SUV driver turned into the path of a CTA bus...the driver of the SUV... was cited for failure to yield.

http://www.witn.com/content/news/Driver-in-overturned--484283901.html

It seems irrational that we hold drivers accountable for turning into the path of other drivers, yet not when they turn into the path of motorcyclists, when the damage done is often so much more.

[AQUAMAN]

You could also add loss of common sense media reporting/police report, and possible loss of lives. I hope the pickup truck driver wasn't intoxicated, nor drugged, nor half blind, and was tested for all afterward. Very sad incident that should have severe punishment for such a serious accident. But, so far the reporting and lack of charges suggest this too will just be shuffled aside with no tickets, sad, and disgusting for all us bikers.