Monday, May 7, 2012

Anti motorcycle bias runs deep

A reader sent me a link to the video below last week and it just made my blood boil. The essence of this ad is that the reason the rider died is because he was going 8kmh above the speed limit. Watch the video and tell me how, in any way shape or form, the blame for this "reconstruction" cannot be placed squarely on the car driver? This accident wasn't caused by speed - speed wasn't even a factor.
In the distance they mention (30m), doing the physics of time and distance shows that even an 8kmh drop in the speed (down to the posted limit) wouldn't have prevented this accident. The motorcyclist would have arrived at the car 0.2 seconds later if he'd been doing 60kmh and at the speed the car was moving, it would have been the difference between hitting the centre of the door and the side of the door. Not hitting the centre of the door and missing the car entirely.
(For the curious, 68kmh is 18.8m/s and 60kmh is 16.6m/s. Over 30m, the time difference is 0.2 seconds)
This was caused by an idiot car driver who pulled out without looking yet no mention is made of that in the ad. Instead they choose to peddle the same tired old scratched record about "speed kills". That message is so passe and has been disproved so many times I'm surprised anyone can still say it with a straight face. When this sort of rampant bias is displayed by the police towards motorcyclists, it's not hard to understand why motorcyclists hate the police in return. I think it's shameful that the Victoria police force should put this ad out, and judging by the comments on the youtube video, I'm not the only one.
Here's what the ad should have said : "let's change one thing - let's make the driver of the car look before pulling out." Or alternatively "let's change one thing - let's send the driver to jail for manslaughter". This sort of crap makes my blood boil.