Bad DJ. No donut.

[unixronin]

The inestimable motomuffin reports that John DePetro (depetro@wrko.com), a DJ at WRKO-AM in Boston, Massachusetts, said the following in a discussion about Ben Roethlisburger (pro footballer who suffered head injuries recently while riding his motorcycle without a helmet):

"Whenever there's an accident, the motorcycle is always at fault."

Here is the response I just emailed to him:

In a discussion of the accident involving footballer Ben Roethlisburger and the car driver who turned left in front of him, you said, and I quote:

"Whenever there's an accident, the motorcycle is always at fault."

Excuse the hell out of me?

You're telling me that when South Dakota Rep. Bill Janklow ran a motorcyclist off the road and killed him, then failed to stop, it was the motorcyclist's fault.

You're telling me that when Florida Senator Carl Koella made a left turn in front of an oncoming motorcyclist and killed him, then fled the scene and tried to deny being involved, it was the motorcyclist's fault.

And you're telling me that seven years ago, when a woman driving a full-size station wagon pulled an illegal left turn across a divided expressway, without signalling, in violation of lane markings, overhead signals and a no-left-or-U-turn sign, completely ignoring traffic islands and barrier poles set there to block people from doing exactly what she did, and T-boned me on my motorcycle before I even entered the intersection, that was my fault.

I have to ask:  WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION?

Well, I'll tell you what.  Purely hypothetically speaking, let's rewrite all legal codes in accordance with your maxim.  Then I can come and break into your house and steal everything that isn't bolted down, and it'll be OK, because as the victim, it'll be your fault.  Then your insurance company can cancel your policy on some technical pretext to avoid paying the claim, and that'll be OK, because it'll be your fault.  Then you can go take out your resulting frustration by going to a downtown bar and smashing up the place ... but that'll be OK, it'll be the bartender's fault.

A word to the wise:  Counter to your uninformed (I hesitate to say bigoted) assertion above, NHTSA accident statistics show that the single most common cause of ALL motorcycle accidents of ALL levels of severity, accounting for more than 50% of ALL motorcycle accidents and 80% of motorcycle fatalities, is that another driver operating a vehicle other than a motorcycle violated the motorcyclist's right of way (most commonly, by turning left in the path of an oncoming motorcycle).  Almost without exception, the other driver claims not to have seen the motorcyclist.  (Mine claimed not to have seen me, the sign, the lane markings, the traffic signals, the traffic islands, the barrier poles, or three lanes of oncoming traffic.  I respond that if she truly did not see all of those things, then she should never be allowed to operate a motor vehicle again, because she's clearly either so negligent or so visually impaired that she's a deadly hazard to everyone who has to share the road with her.)

In fairness, I'll willingly admit we have our idiots too; I wince every time I see some 20-year-old squid on the latest, hottest sportbike in T-shirt, shorts and sneakers, helmet his only concession to protective gear (if he's even wearing one), and doubly so when he has his even-more-scantily-dressed girlfriend on the pillion and is STILL riding like an idiot.  It should also be noted with regard to that "80% of motorcycle fatalities" number above, that 80% of the rest -- 16% of total fatalities -- are riders who have been drinking and are legally intoxicated when they crash.  But just the fact that we have our share of idiots doesn't make us fair game for anyone who's not paying attention.

Motorcycles are very agile, which gives motorcyclists a very good ability to dodge errant vehicles and drivers who simply aren't paying attention, and we become very skilled at spotting them simply as a survival skill.  But we can't spot, or dodge, everything. Please don't make our lives any harder by spreading misinformation like what you said about motorcycle accidents.  The last thing we need is for drivers to stop bothering to look out for motorcyclists at all because some DJ has convinced them that if they cause an accident and kill a motorcyclist, it's OK, because it's always the motorcyclist's fault.

Comments

[fatcook.livejournal.com]

I can't add a single thing that you have already covered perfectly. Other than let him ride around on motorcycle for week and see if that changes his tune.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

It such a fantastically idiotic statment on his part, that I have to wonder if he meant it ironically.

If, perhaps, he was expressing the maxim "When a motorcycle and a car have an accident, it doesn't matter whose 'fault' it is, because no matter what, the motorcycle loses." but in a not very effective way.

*shrug*

Or, maybe he's just an idiot.

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

It could have been an attempt at that, I suppose. I suppose it's also possible he meant everyone assumes the motorcycle was at fault.

But neither one is what he said, so ....

[darthgeek.livejournal.com]

I work with people who ride motorcycles. They *always* wear full gear. Helmet, leathers (or other applicable body protection), gloves, boots, etc.

I used to work for a guy who did motorcycle drag racing as a hobby. He wiped out once last year, and walked away with minor cuts, and bruises. He said that if he hadn't been wearing protective gear, he might actually be dead.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yup. Absolutely. I never ride without protective gear, and if it hadn't been for my gear, I'd undoubtedly have been a lot worse injured than I was on Splat Day.

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

I rode without my leathers *once*. And it was a special case (riding a buddies bike home, he'd gotten trashed, and we didn't trust the area the bike was parked in. Luckily, his helmet fit me). Never been so scared of crowning in my life, nor have I ever ridden that slowly since starting to ride.

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

The only accident that I've been involved in with me on the bike, and another vehicle involved that was my fault was when I passed out next to an SUV, and broke the drivers side mirror off with my helmet.

I decided that 108F was the hottest ambient temp that I could ride safely in after that.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Damn, yeah, that's hot. Mesh and lots of hydration, at minimum, if not an actual chiller vest.

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

Chiller vest?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

A vest that circulates water through tubes sewn into it, and through an ice reservoir in a backpack. Don't remember where I saw them. IIRC, the melt from the ice is available as drinking water, too.

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

...yeah, that would have been nice in Vegas.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

http://www.koolnsafe.com/cgi-bin/cart.cgi/item_list.html?cat=Water%20Circulation

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

I had a bike for a while. After working as a paramedic for a bit, I finally gave it up. Of course the place where my head was at the time made the bike ideal. (I called it either Fenris or Charon.)

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

very nice, well written and covers everything perfectly!