(I hate to see the “kid” in between the parents! I start cursing when I see a baby in between them. You think the kid will be well protected when a car hits them at 100 km/h? Poverty is one thing but stupidity is another. Image source: TV Smith’s Malaysia Truly Malaysia)
Ha, almost killed an old man on a bike this morning…
But it is not the first time that I almost killed someone on the road – on daily basis, I had to content with pesky motorcyclists who don’t give a damn when changing lanes without any indicators or without considering the traffic on the other side of the lane and who think that they are the king of the road when driving on the other side of the lane and who turn violent when we horn them to warn them and ride bikes at night without lights.
Damn, there is something wrong with the way we churn out the license for motorcyclists in this country (to think of it, there is something wrong the way we churn out license to all drivers in this country especially on the part of using the indicators before changing lanes). And despite having a section on defensive driving in the JPJ syllabus, there are too many idiots behind the wheels, posing too much danger to other road users.
According to MIROS, the statistics of motorcyclists killed over the years has been quite “impressive”. In 2009, about 4,067 motorcyclists were killed against total 6,745 whilst in 2008, it was 3,898 of them killed against a total 6,527. According to JPJ, there was about 8.9 million motorbikes registered in 2009 alone. Only God knows how many of these 8.9 million bikers are nothing but a pest on the road but based on the fatality rate, a wild guess may be about 60% of them. That is very disturbing.
I have been a motorcyclist for almost 15 years before I decided to buy a car just before I got married (it was easier to drive around for the wedding preparations). And during the whole 15 years, I made sure I kept away from the traffic’s way and always double checked before I cut into another lane. Sure, I made some silly mistakes when I was still young and just gotten my bike but it did not take me long before I realized that if I kept at this, I will end up dead.
And for the whole 15 years, I got into only one accident and that too was due to a stupid driver making a sudden illegal u-turn on the wrong side of the road (he stopped to look at me struggling to get up, then drove off without paying for my damages – I hoped he had died in some horrible accident). Between the moron who drive a car and the moron who ride a bike, the bigger moron would be the one who is riding the bike. This is because if he is involved in an accident on a 3 lane highway, his bike is not the only thing that will end up mangled.
If you driving a car or even better, if riding a bike, just how many times in a day that you would have seen a motorcyclist who endanger themselves and others?
Back to the story of the old man who I almost killed this morning. 3 lanes and the motorcyclist on the middle lane, without any tail lights. I was on the third lane, obviously faster than the motorcyclist. Just when I was about to pass him, I realized that the motorcyclist was cutting into my lane, without any indicators. I slammed my brakes and pressed on my horns, just in case, I could not stop in time. My twin Bosch horns worked wonders – the motorcyclist remained on his lane and as I passed him, I shouted at him.
The motorcyclist horn me back – the thing is I am not sure whether the horn was to thank me for saving his sorry ass early in the morning OR as usual, horn me in annoyance because they still think they are the king of the road?
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- Bike Rider Road Risks (motorcycleinsurance.org)
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I’ve had one incident where a car turned into a lane abruptly, only putting on his signal light seconds before he turned. Caused my friend his bike starter, a mangled toe and caused me a phone and pair of good denim.
The one I experienced did not even bothered to put up the indicators! Wham bam, RM300 in damages.
LOL!!!