Does Biker Deserve Death Sentence?

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You may have seen the video below that documents a road rage incident which occurred the other day in California.

A motorcyclist is riding adjacent to a car. We don’t know why, exactly  – the video doesn’t show the lead up – but for some reason the biker attempts to kick the driver’s side of the car. There are reports that this was done because the car’s driver had previously swerved in the biker’s path, cutting him off. At any rate, the biker tries to kick the driver’s side door of the car.

Whereupon the car’s driver swerves hard to the left, directly into the path of the motorcycle.

The biker somehow manages to avoid going down – or into the concrete barrier. The driver does not. He loses control of his car, which spins violently out of control. It hits the concrete barrier to the left and then shears across several lanes, into the path of an SUV. Both cars are totaled; there were apparently injuries – some serious.

The motorcyclist was unhurt and – apparently – kept on going. Understandably. Someone just tried to kill him.

Again, we don’t know for sure why this altercation began. But we do know for sure what the car driver did to the biker, or at least tried to do. Which is attempted manslaughter at the least and arguably attempted pre-meditated murder. Yet the biker is the one being excoriated as the culprit.

Does kicking a car door warrant the death sentence?

Shouldn’t it be the car’s driver who’s facing extremely serious charges? And not only for trying to kill the biker but also for almost killing the driver of the SUV that he struck?

And given the known actions of the driver, it is not hard to imagine what his prior actions may have been.

He may have done something equally reckless – just as potentially murderous. Such as swerve into the path of the biker prior to what we see in the video – possibly on purpose. If you have ridden a bike for any length of time, you already know this story because it is likely it happened to you, too. 

I once had a car – a late model Camaro – roll right up on my ass (which was on a bike) as I was coming up a mountain road. Two lanes and I was in the right lane. Instead of passing me in the wide open left lane, the car was up my tailpipe. When I accelerated to get away from this maniac, he jerked his wheel hard to the right and tried to force me off the road – exactly like the homicidal driver in this video. He could easily have killed me. Luck and some skill kept me from going down, but the fact remains – the driver wanted me to go down.

You do not jerk your car into the path of a bike unless that is exactly what you want.

And that, arguably, does deserve the death sentence.

Or at the very least, a sentence for attempting to impose it.

. . .

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46 COMMENTS

  1. Necro post, but…

    That video doesn’t show enough to judge the car driver’s intent.

    If there had been a previous instance where the car had cut off the bike, one might presume the driver is inattentive.

    Is it so unreasonable to think that if the driver was not paying attention, wasn’t aware of his proximity to the bike, and was startled by the kick? And then jerked the wheel in panic?

    Sure, maybe they tried to run the bike into the barrier. But there’s no way to tell from the video.

    • Hi Kimmel,

      The only “rule” I’d like to see more of is awareness – and courtesy. People driving cars often use them to bully a motorcycle – for obvious reasons.

      I ride, so I can speak to this a bit. One is (obviously) very vulnerable on a motorcycle; what would be a fender bender if two cars were involved could easily be a broken leg – or much worse – if it’s a bike and a car. Most riders are especially vigilant for this very sound reason. However, many car drivers are not. The Rise of the Cell Phone (and in-car gadgets) has made things much more dangerous for motorcyclists.

      So when a car cuts off a bike, it’s serious business. If it’s done on purpose, it is understandable that the biker might get mad about it.

      In this case, the car driver appears to have resented the biker’s use of HOV lanes – legal in my state and I think in the state where this happened – and tried to use his car to make a point.

      Then the biker made his.

  2. I have had a number of incidents over the years where motor vehicle operators have compromised my safety on my motorcycle, but overall it was through inattention or negligence, not malice. I have the mindset that the road is a battlefield when I am on my motorcycle. I am an enemy combatant with no weapons or armor and I must survive by wits, agility and speed alone. I has worked well for me. I started riding on the street in 1978. I have never been involved in a major accident.

    When I was young (and hot headed) I took revenge on a couple of drivers for nearly killing me. But rather than attempt to fight a tank from “horseback”, I hung back and let them go. I followed them and waited for them to stop and get out of their vehicle. Then confronted them on equal footing. I scared the living shit out of one them. The other one obviously (and arrogantly) wasn’t scared. When I pointed out he’d just run me into two lanes of oncoming traffic, his response was “So what?” and walked away. It turned out he was the VP of the bank that held the loan on my motorcycle and had almost destroyed his collateral along with the customer, lol. My message in both cases was clear: in the future, look out for motorcyclists! In the first case I received an apology from the lady. In the case of the arrogant banker, my message was punctuated with a far amount of missing paint from the side of his Lincoln Town Car.

    Nowadays, living in a rural area, I don’t have to deal with traffic that much. I still employ various defensive riding techniques to avoid the idiots in four (or more) wheeled boxes when I do. I also ride a bike that will outperform practically everything else on the road: the Kawasaki ZX-14. So even if the average Angry Man decides to engage me in a round of road rage, he won’t be able to catch me unless he’s driving a Z06 Corvette at the very least. And I haven’t had too much trouble with Vette drivers over the years.

    I did have an issue with the occupants of a Chevy Nova back in the early 80s. It was apparently a case of mistaken identity. This scruffy looking couple chased me down through traffic, cussed me, cut me off, slowed in front of me and repeated this a couple of times. I kept changing lanes to avoid them. As we were coming up to a traffic light they got beside me again. The male passenger had his window down and let loose with a fresh barrage of profanity. I flipped up my face shield and spat a huge loogie right in his face! I had a half dozen cars lined up perfectly ahead of me and high-tailed it out of there. It was very satisfying and I can only imagine how pissed he was.

  3. Being an avid road cyclist (as in “push bike, two skinny wheels, two pedals on one shaft, twenty pounds all up) I’ve been assaulted and harrassed by numerous motorists. Most incidents took me by surprise as cars, travelling much faster, passed me and passengers threw things at me (rotten aim, in all but one case), opened doors into me (knocking me sideways, but good bike handling skills enabled me to retain balance, get a number plate at night as they sped away, and keep going, calling the coppers later. Who did… nothing. Which was MORE of an insult than the door crash. Punks being punks, it is only a matter of time they’ll pick a less skilled rider and he’s down, possibly run over as he skids along the macadam, helpless……) And that was in Seattle, a world famous bike crazy town. Nontheless, full of idiot coppers.

    Had a city bus (not in seattle) make a deliberate lane change and keep coming into MY space, at about 30mph for both of us, again knocking me seriously sideways, but again, serious bike skills enabled me to steer the bike back underneath me. Did not go down. I chased him down to his next stop, got his numbers, and repported him to the safety officer the next morning. The guy began to push back, the driver had had a supe look at the bus… of course, a soft shoulder covered in spandex will leave no mark on a clean bus’ flat side. Their conclusion? The driver did NOT contact me. Welll, I’d been out on a club ride, four other riders were half a block behind me, three had watched the bus hit me and were certain I’d go down… astounded Indid not. I knew who they were, and told the safety clown that Ihad three eye witnesses who would come into a courtroom and testify that the driver DID indeed swerve sharply to hit me. He changed his tune, and admitted this driver had had previous complaints from cyclists. He’d get after the guy. I told him I am a commercial driver, and that such conduct has NO PLACE mbehind the wheel of a commercial vehicle. Better let the guy go elsewhere before he dumps someone and seriously hurts him or makes him dead. Having a previous history puts YOU, the safety supe, in a position of responsibility. He admitted Iwas right…. dunno whether the clown was canned, bt he should have been.

    Some folks just get a burr under their saddle blanket for something, and go all aggressive in an instant. Immature, but yet real. Seems these two had some “bad blood” like that.. and the ying press trying to selectively edit the video record boils MY blood. They should be taken to task, confronted with the whole clip, and demand made they retell the story accurately. That footage needs to be made over to the coppers to they can charge the punk in the car for aggressing agaisnt the rider, and for violating California’s sacred car pool lanes.. $365 fine as of last summer for any car pool lane violation including entering/exiting outside the designated sections.

  4. Bunch of niggers in the concrete jungle.

    I try to avoid any interactions these days. Keep it purely logistical.

    I’m glad for the access, but have no desire to even acknowledge anyone.

    Be excessively polite to avoid conflict yet remain aloof is my credo.

  5. I can believe car drivers do wrong towards bikers. But I’ve never seen it happen. However I often see bikers passing in “wheelie” position at 90 plus MPH between autos where there’s not another lane, but the painted white lane guides only. I saw a band of upwards of 300 bikers take over a highway for over ten miles. One got in front of me and slowed to 30MPH, apparently daring me to hit him. Wrong takes place on both sides but considering the reputation of biker gangs, this poisons the well in the thinking of many non-bikers towards them.

    • I love too, how many bikers will outraged at how some inattentive or clueless driver will compromise their safety….and then go and risk their own life multiple times and engage in very dangerous actions just to “teach the driver to respect them”.

  6. We may not know the totality of what really happened here, as there may have been something that occurred prior to the video that we didn’t see. Nonetheless, what I do see is the motorcyclist as the aggressor. Even if the car cut him off, pulled in front of him, whatever. It’s unfortunate but very often you truly don’t see a motorcycle. I have accidentally cut them off or pulled in front of them many many times. Wasn’t out to get ‘em, just honestly didn’t see them. Right or wrong, drivers often just don’t see motorcycles, and whatever happened, this guy should have just been grateful he didn’t get hit and gone on his way. I’m sure many EP Autos readers will vehemently disagree, but I’ll tell ya what, you kick my door because of an honest mistake, then fuck you, I’m coming after you and I don’t give a shit if you die. If you’re stupid enough to fuck with my 6 thousand pound truck on your 400 pound motorcycle, don’t bitch when your ass gets squashed.

    • And, oh by the way, the biker is guilty of hit and run. He made the initial “contact “, with his foot on the car. He initiated the whole sequence of events, he “struck “ the car and he’s part of it, no matter who he thinks started it. If he was innocent, he’d likely stick around and make sure that his side of the story was clear. The fact that he kept going speaks volumes.

    • This is true. Youtube is littered with videos of bikers who get cut-off by clueless drivers, or have close calls, etc. because of bad/inattentive/etc drivers….and then chase down the offending car, and kick at it, or break off it’s mirror, or take some other act of revenge.

      For some reason, many bikers seem to feel that they have the right to initiate violence because of other drivers mistakes/bad behavior.

      • Had a biker kick my Jeep on the 1 in Malibu at night…The curves are dangerous enough. I didn’t see the guy, he was in my blind spot as I signaled a lane change, he braked, then sped up to get beside the Jeep to kick it. I thought he was insane. It never crossed my mind to swerve into or chase this imbecile. He raced ahead and I was glad i never saw him further up the road….

      • As regulars here know I am a bicyclist. It is at times difficult to tell idiocy from intent. I have been a victim of both. Those who do things with intent will often hide behind inattention when confronted. Some of course admit they did it deliberately.

        Also on two wheels having someone nearly kill you activities fighting circuits as if they attacked with a stone tipped spear.

    • so, let me get this straight. Kicking your car should invoke a potentially fatal response?
      Do you shoot people in the mall parking lot because the doored your vehicle or hit it with a shopping cart too?
      Dumbass

      • No, dirtybob, you do not have it straight. Conflating someone who accidentally dings my door in the parking lot with someone who pulls alongside at 60+ mph and then intentionally kicks my vehicle seriously misses the mark. No matter what I may have done to impede you, unintentional or otherwise, if you got away unscathed, a smart man thanks his lucky stars and continues on his merry way, avoiding further trouble. The real dumbass is the one who chases after in order to retaliate and escalate the situation. That also makes you the aggressor. That said, I absolutely do not wish to see anyone die over nonsensical traffic beefs, nor do I wish to hurt anyone. Nonetheless, as I said in my original post, if you’re the aggressor, and you’re dumb enough to play games with a vehicle that weighs 15 times more than you do, bad shit’s gonna happen. When it does, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself. Discretion truly is the better part of valor.

        • ” Conflating someone who accidentally dings my door in the parking lot with someone who pulls alongside at 60+ mph and then intentionally kicks my vehicle seriously misses the mark.”
          It’s called using hyperbole, i.e. using exaggeration to illustrate a point. The point being that kicking your vehicle (for whatever reason) does not merit a death sentence. My bad if it was taken too literally.
          Recall you said; “…I’ll tell ya what, you kick my door because of an honest mistake, then fuck you, I’m coming after you and I don’t give a shit if you die.” Pretty sure I understood what you said there, however it doesn’t jive with “I absolutely do not wish to see anyone die over nonsensical traffic beefs, nor do I wish to hurt anyone.” Bipolar much?
          You also said; “No matter what I may have done to impede you, unintentional or otherwise, if you got away unscathed, a smart man thanks his lucky stars and continues on his merry way, avoiding further trouble. The real dumbass is the one who chases after in order to retaliate and escalate the situation.”, to which I agree 100%

          • Nah, not bipolar, probably just had a few too many beers when I wrote the first comment. I truly don’t wish harm to anyone, especially over silly traffic stuff. We all make mistakes and do stupid things at one time or another when behind the wheel, and it’s unfortunate that there are too many whack jobs out who can’t just let it go and move on. I’m sure most of us have been the victim of road rage over minor incidents. I guess my point with regard to the motorcyclist is that regardless of what happened prior to the video, and whether the car swerved intentionally or not, the biker set off a chain of events that could have been deadly. He was lucky, and a skillful rider I might add, to have gotten way unharmed. It’s just very unfortunate and scary that there are people out there who choose to act that way in the first place. And I repeat, I do not wish harm to anyone, but man, if you’re gonna act crazy and go into a rage over every traffic slight, something bad is going to happen eventually. If nothing else, you’re gonna give yourself a heart attack from all the stress!

  7. It doesn’t take much to throw a car into a slide at highway speeds. Many years ago while driving a 67 Chevelle I was struck a glancing blow on the left rear quarter by a Chevy II as it passed me at about 70 MPH. My car went into a sideslide and I overcompensated in my attempt to steer out of it. I hit an embankment going sideways and rolled. It was a ragtop. My then girlfriend and I were lucky to walk away with minor injuries. No, we weren’t using seat belts. The Chevy II also went into a slide and hit a culvert. I’ve witnessed other slides and flips occur as cars have clipped one another at speeds of 60 and above.

  8. When you slow the video down you can see the whole drivers door dented in just before he hits the divider. A hit to make that dent would have sounded like a bomb going off in that car.

    The other thing I find scary is how unstable that SUV is, looks like an Escalade. The compact car had already lost momentum hitting the divider and inertia from changing direction would have also reduced its velocity. Just a hit at the rear wheel was enough to flip a much larger and heavier vehicle.

    • SUVs are unstable due to their high centre of gravity. One reason I would never drive or own an SUV. I laugh at all these fools who think because of their size and their sitting above the clouds that they are invincible. And yes TC that hit on the car door would have been really loud and would have sparked a panic in the most experienced motorist. I probably would have done the same as the car driver and reacted like that. And as a car driver, motorcycles are hard to see at times, especially when they travel well over the speed limit and hug the centreline of the road.

  9. Anyone think that the driver heard a loud crack against his door and panicked? In the split second it took to turn the wheel, he may have thought it was a gun shot or that he had hit something and swerved. It looks like the motorcycle was in the driver’s blindspot. People react out of instinct when they hear loud noises.

    Just a lesson in physics should have everyone asking what the motorcycle rider was thinking. He caused that accident as his actions were the immediate cause of the collision.

    After having a serial killer approach my drivers side window and try to get me to lower it, I have no hesitation to run a son of a bitch over if he comes near me. I’d prefer the more civilized option of exercising my Second Amendment rights but those are reserved to friends of the mayor who pay bribes.

  10. THE motorcycle is THE agressor in this video. He is trying to harm person in THE car. On top of that fleeing THE scen of a crime/accident which is an even worse crime. We DO not know what happened before this.
    I agree with the point of two really stupid persons.

    • I have to mostly agree with you here, and I am a life-long motorcycle rider. The thing that most amazes is that the biker remained upright. He, however, fled the scene of an accident that is very possibly his responsibility.

    • “…in this video.” are the operative words here. Just going by the tape, we don’t know who started this.

      I tend to believe it was the car, based on how much thoughtless behavior I see drivers commit when I’m out riding.

      • Ice Age, the car may have done something stupid or dangerous- intentionally or not- but we can pretty sure that the motorcyclist is the one who is the initiator of actual violance- because if the car had initiated violence, the biker probably would have been laying in the road a ways back, and not have been there to be able to perpetrate his violence against the car.

        By the motorcyclist doing what he did, I can’t help but to think that that guy plays fast and loose with his own safety (choosing to risk his life to exact revenge on the car), and that of others- including other innocent uninvolved users of the road.

        Whether you’re justified in doing something or not, at least pick your fights wisely. That biker is luck y he isn’t dead or crippled.

  11. I think we are pre-supposing that the car driver did something to the biker first- which may very well have been the case. But suppose the car driver had been in some type of altercation with the biker just prior to this incident, and was trying to get away from the guy? Or suppose the biker was the original instigator of the road rage? Suppose the car driver had just done something which the biker considered disrespectful, and the biker was attempting to even the score by kicking the car?

    Someone pulls up alongside me and kicks my vehicle, I’m probably fighting back with my vehicle, too!

    A statist would say “The car driver should not have done anything. He just should have called the police” [Bullies with guns and legal immunity always make things better, right?]

    But that same argument would have had the biker “calling the police” on the car driver first, for whatever impropriety he may have committed….

    I think a Libertarian view would be that unless the car driver had caused some actual harm from which he was fleeing, that the biker should not be kicking his car; and if he does, then he should expect the driver to take actions to protect his property/mitigate damages/prevent further infliction of damage. Expecting the driver’s actions to be well thought-out, or somehow a perfect match of “like force”, etc. is not realistic, in the real world on the spur of the moment.

    Be we right or wrong; be our reaction in scale to the threat, etc. I think we would all do much like what that driver did. This time, it just ended badly for the driver instead of the biker- but the biker was the instigator here, unless the driver had done something heinous- like kidnapping the biker’s daughter or something, and was attempting to flee.

    And I think that the biker exhibits a very reckless and violent attitude, not to mention a disregard for his own safety and that of those around him, by being willing to initiate a fight with a car while on his bike. It takes quite a temper to do that.

    All I know is, you mess with me on the road on your bike- you picked the fight, and I’m under no obligation to play fair, so you’re going down! No different than if the same guy were taking a sledgehammer to my truck. I’m not going to say “Would you please stop doing that?”, or call the police. I’m going to hurt the guy. Don’t want to get hurt? Then don’t initiate violence, because I never will either.

    Who initiated the violence? If the car had intentionally tried to run down the biker before, then the driver was the initiator. But if the biker just had an issue with the driver because maybe the driver accidentally cut him off or “disrespected” him or something, then the biker is the initiator of the violence.

    All I know is that that biker was damn lucky that he didn’t die, or even get injured!

    • You do know that the politicians and police would insist that you let the attacker continue striking your vehicle with a sledgehammer as it is “only property” – not theirs of course. Those same politicians would also insist that you allow your attacker to strike you repeatedly with that sledgehammer as well. We can’t have anyone taking the law into their own hands or endangering the safety of a voter in his day job.

      In the video it is clear regardless of the events leading up to the collision that the motorcycle caused the collision. Driving at highway speed and hearing a loud hit on your door would surely startle you and make your heart skip a beat. The driver’s action was likely reflexive at the loud thump.

      • Exactly, Thoughtcriminal. The biker was the initiator of violence. Even if we had the pleasure of living in a Libertarian world, under the NAP- if someone initiates violence, then we are justified in using violemce to seist/overcome/whatever.

        And if someone initiates violence, then why should we be obliged to worry about anything at that point, other than protecting our own interests? If someone is going to initiate violence, then they deserve what they get. Not that we should seek to kill somebody who just slaps our face….but neither should there be a burden on us to be ever so careful, or to refrain from doing anything, as the tyrants would like us to do today, so that we are effectively neutered.

        If we didn’t have those politicians and their idiotic laws, then we’d have LESS crime, because those laws more often restrain the innocent/victims rather than the aggressor. In the absence of those laws, the vast majority of people who would initiate violence, would be a lot more careful about doing so, because the immediate consequences in most situations would be a lot more severe in a Libertarian environment.

        • As the late, great Robert Heinlein put it:

          “An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.”

          • That, Jason, and “Good fences make good neighbors”. If those ideals were universally practiced, 90% of our problems would be solved.

      • Interesting factoid: lastI checked, California law actually allows for the presentation and use of lethal force to protect PROPERTY as well as life. Might have changed, its been a year or two since I checked…. but I KNOW that was the case back a couple years.

        Of course, for most denizens of that insane asylum (the instant case strengthens that characterisation…..) it takes somesort o bribe with the local Chief LE Officer to get one’s Mother May I Card in most counties…. so having the means with which to defend/protect one’s property is dicey in most parts of that place.

  12. Seems to be plenty of stupid to go around.

    Why would someone on a motorcycle try to kick a car while moving? Regardless of the jerk in the car, why not try to stay behind him and avoid contact? That’s rule #1, don’t ever get in front of an obviously deranged driver. They become the hammer, you are the nail.

    Without seeing what led up to the moment of the kick it’s hard to say who started this fracas. However, based on the vehicle control skills and actions of the drivers I’d have to say the car was the bigger of the two idiots.

  13. The smart thing in traffic is to try to deescalate and break contact with someone acting aggressively or foolishly, especially when they have two more wheels and a ton or more mass on you. Being dead or maimed but technically in the right – no thanks.

    Both drivers broke that rule, though the car driver did by far the greater escalation.

  14. I’ve seen all kinds of things from the cab of a big rig. I’ve even been involved, involuntarily, in an incident even prospectively more deadly than this. A car and a moving truck like a Ryder or Uhaul(can’t recall the brand and don’t care)were obviously at odds about something. They came on me at much higher speeds than I was driving(65). It was in the wee hours between Houston and Sealy on I 10. The car is trying to force the truck to stop and the truck is attempting to run the car into a skid or whatever damage can be done to stop it.

    Then the truck driver got the bright idea to use my rig as a shield since bullets may have been flying. It went on too long so I put on my flashers and finally came to a stop in the high speed traffic at night just to remove myself from the fracas. Last I saw they were continuing to off each other and I luckily went on making sure to not catch them. Seems like they both finally caught the same exit.

    You see shit like this when you’re on the road all the time and it can quite literally be a tiff between the opposite sexes or a drug deal gone bad or anything in between. I recall that one vividly since it was my first of that sort. Too bad it wasn’t my last. To be completely honest, I was hoping they’d both swerve off the road and end up in a big fire together. I’d report it later the next day as required…..by CB to another trucker seeing it happen too. FEFEFH’s.

  15. Remember that Simpsons episode where Homer’s accused of sexually harassing a girl, and when the TV crew interviews him, you can see the clock on the wall behind him jump around to wildly different times?

    I suspect the facts of the case are with the biker.

  16. For whatever my thoughts are worth, and I say this with 20+ years of street riding and hundreds of thousands of commuting miles, I’m really of two minds on this incident. In one, I recognize that motorcyclists must proactively protect themselves. I’ve had cars genuinely try to hit me. And I know that we don’t have the luxury of engaging in road rage, ever, so from a practical standpoint, if we decide to play that game, we have some responsibility for the outcome. In the other, while it’s possible that the driver swerved out of panic, I’m not buying it as a likely probability. But all of that aside, they’re both assholes: their nonsense dragged in and almost killed completely innocent third parties. So, in my mind, screw them both.

  17. If you can find the longer version, you need to put it up and change the title to “attempted homicide ends badly for perp in car, and innocent bystander in SUV.” I guarantee the courts would hold the biker responsible for the inverted SUV after watching this cleverly edited and annotated TV version!

  18. Thanks for putting this up, Eric,
    Because it is the most recent example of TV News intentionally broadcasting mis-leading video.
    There is a longer version on you tube. It does , in fact, show that the car crosses the double yellow from the right, and cuts off the bike in the HOV lane. The version seen here is the one edited for the TV news broadcast that was claiming a hit-and-run biker. The un-edited version starts before the bike even passes the cammer on the left, and the bike was already legally travelling in the HOV lane.
    Notice how often the TV news says “speeding motorcyclist”. They are editing with malice, in order to incite the public against bikers, as lesser human beings. This man shoves a foot towards an aggressive driver who has repeatedly attempted to lane change on top of him. In fact, what is still in this cut-version is the car driver’s attempt to hit the bike, not a “surprised reaction” to an aggressive biker, as the TV newscasters have claimed.
    The biker actually did get hit by the car, and did not lose control, and I’ll be damned if I would stop anywhere within sight of another vehicle that has purposely tried to crush and mutilate me against a concrete barrier.
    If the bastard survived the car-wreck, I might have been tempted to shoot him in self defense. So, is fleeing from a vehicular assault on your life a “hit-and-run”??? The TV news would like to convince us it is!
    You and I have both seen it, and will continue to do so, as long as the public keeps getting false information fed to them on TV and I-Net Vids.

    • This may have been going on previous to being caught on camera. You just never know what the story is and you damned sure won’t get the truth from the car driver. The SUV driver surely won’t get any truth except getting hit by an idiot.

    • gtc how is it that a motorcycle can ride in the HOV lane when it only has a single person on it? Doesn’t HOV mean high occupancy vehicle, as in more than 2?

      • Motorcycles are permitted in HOV lanes in nearly every State that has them. HOV lanes were instituted as a fuel-saving and traffic reduction matter, so MCs being both, are permitted to use them. Even with 1 rider, the MC is at 50% occupancy.

    • Do you have a link? I can’t find a longer version on youtube.

      In gradeschool I was taught that fighting back will get me punished. That’s how the whole damn society is these days. Those who fight back become the aggressors. Now for a driving incident that’s more of what I call the infinite tolerance model. This insane idea that people have infinite tolerance for stupidity, incompetence, selfishness, inattention, and malice. Nobody has infinite ability to tolerate that, not even Jesus Christ.

      • Well, grade school was indoctrination. Fighting back was self-defense, and was meant to discourage further aggression. Yes, it can escalate a situation, but so can being an easy target. I also remember in grade-school, if you want to put a stop to bullying, you give the bully a black eye, don’t take aggression from others, or you will be targeted again. Of course, that was grade-school. As an adult on the highway, it is difficult to say what is going to happen at any given moment. People in cars are generally ambivilent to their surroundings, as they are seemingly insulated in their steel cocoon.
        Part of motorcycling is developing non-violent survival skills out on the road with potentially lethal traffic all around you. Some bikers choose to lashout out at anyone who violates their “rights” to the road, and that is their choice, as well as to place themselves in traffic on a vulnerable vehicle. As a rider, myself, I would like other people to be respectful of my vulnerability, but many are not. Likewise, I adopt a hyper-awareness of what other drivers are doing around me, and respond accordingly, all “rights” not withstanding. Playground antics are not exactly life-threatening, but I would just as soon not risk being highway-hamburger.
        P.S. I can’t relocate the longer version either, but I frequently have trouble finding ones I looked at just days ago, let alone weeks or months, lol!

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