First Motorcycle Accident of the Year, First Skewed Motorcycle Accident Reporting of the Year

[XLFD]

Some say March 3rd is too early to ride motorcycles.  Some say riding after dark with questionable road conditions is unsafe.  Those people tend to be ones who investigate and report on motorcycle accidents, who blatantly disregard the meaningful facts of the crash.  Those people also tend to offer insensitive comments on articles regarding such accidents.  Recent Kent County crash reporting highlights this phenomenon:

KENT COUNTY, Mich. -- A motorcyclist was hospitalized Sunday night after it was involved in a crash with a car.
It happened around 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of Cascade Road and Forest Hills Ave in Kent County.
The driver of the Chrysler 300 was heading east on Cascade Rd, attempting to turn north onto Forest Hills Ave, when the Suzuki, travelling west on Cascade Rd, collided with it.
The motorcyclist, a 39-year-old man from Grand Rapids, was hospitalized in stable condition and was wearing a helmet.
We're told the driver of the car, a 48-year-old female from Muskegon Heights, was not injured and alcohol is not believed to be a factor in the crash.
https://fox17online.com/2019/03/03/motorcyclist-hospitalized-after-...

We're told the driver of the car wasn't injured and doesn't appear to have been drinking; great.  We are told the rider of the motorcycle was wearing a helmet and is in stable condition at the local hospital.  Fair enough.  

But we aren't told that at this intersection controlled by traffic lights for both thoroughfares, that the driver turned in front of the rider while both ostensibly had green lights, and stole his right-of-way and could have very easily stole his life due to her negligence (as shown in the diagram above).  We aren't told that she was issued a ticket, because not only will this report effectively lay blame on the biker who 'collided' with the car when the car was attempting to turn north, but also because the Kent County Sheriff's Department, as usual for police agencies, will refuse to report fairly and hold the negligent driver to account. 

This isn't isolated to the Fox station's report:  WOOD TV reported "'The Kent County Sheriff's Department says the westbound motorcycle hit a car head-on as the car turned left from Cascade onto Forest Hills."  You are supposed to think:  "The motorcycle hit the car head on, that damn biker caused this.  Serves him right for driving after dark in early March."

Even radio station WGRD added to the sentiments:  "The 48-year-old female driver from Muskegon Heights was traveling east on Cascade Road and was going to try and head north onto Forest Hills Avenue, when the 39-year-old male motorcycle who was heading west on Cascade Road collided with the car."

That poor woman, having to cope with repairs on her vehicle and rising insurance, because that idiot on two wheels plowed into her.  Shaking my head.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration compiled a study known as the Hurt Report which found:  

“The most common motorcycle accident involves another vehicle causing the collision by violating the right-of-way of the motorcycle at an intersection, usually by turning left in front of the oncoming motorcycle because the car driver did not see the motorcycle.”

Yet, if you read each of the article's report and the comments from the links provided and were somehow moved by the mostly-baseless arguments and claims of the majority of respondents, you would probably believe most motorcycle accidents are caused by bikers driving their machines into the sides of cars because the bikers are reckless and care little for their safety.  Nope, give that attribute to the careless drivers who cause such needless accidents by their inattentiveness.

[AQUAMAN]

Technically speaking, given winter type weather in March, it really isn't a great idea to be bike riding in the first place, esp. near or after dark. But, I can also see where the car driver looks to be mostly at fault from the video. And it appears no ticket was issued to the woman. Was also very difficult to see what type of Suzuki that was, looked to be totaled out. It is a shame that most LE are  automatically assuming the biker is at fault too. Hope the man recovers okay and puts bike riding off in the future till May or longer.

[XLFD]

Every bike rider is accepting a level of risk, those risks increase significantly when the weather is not warm, the ground is not dry, and the lighting is not full daylight.  Nevertheless, they have the right to travel in the legal manner they see fit and other road-users have the duty to make sure they do not infringe on the rights of all other road users-- which includes not neglecting to make sure they can make a turn safely without causing a crash.  Police and media need to not blame the obvious victim just because they may believe he was taking more risks than he should have been in traveling legally on the roadway, and simultaneously absolve the neglectful driver of fault.