Motorcycle Forums

@coz69

Murder? Do you have evidence to back up that allegation?  You do know that "murder" has a very specific meaning, don't you?

And as for "If that van wasent there he would still be alive"; please, use your brain.  It could have been any hazard (tractor, open gate, broken down plumber van, off-duty cop vehicle) and the guy could have panic-braked with the same result.

It's still a tragedy and if the van was parked somewhere "odd" then as @Sora says, something is up with the guidelines.  The partnership did not state that the van was parked safely, merely in accordance with the guidlines.  Are these guidelines in the public domain I wonder?  They should be.

Know the road

I live a couple of miles down the road from the site.

Just to put a couple of things straight. The van was parked in a place that it often parks, alongside a busy dual carriageway but off the road. Leading to the site the road is straight, there are no corners but there is a flyover which I believe the rider was on at the time of the accident.

There is a 50MPH limit along the road which has been in operation for a few years with trials to reduce this to 40. There are static cameras also along this stretch.

Despite the fact that this is a busy road, (often there's no run off or hard shoulder for immobile vehicles to pull off onto) people still feel a need to exceed the speed limit between the cameras and as the road leaves town it has a busy junction which is joined by shoppers from the nearby superstores and shopping centres.

The area is dangerous. The footballer Aaron Flahavan was killed at roughly the same spot and a couple of miles up the road a recovery truck driver was also killed as was an air hostess. The limit is there for a very good reason.

my understanding is that the biker was travelling over the flyover at the time. You can't see the speedcamera (which is parked about half a mile up the road) until you crest the rise.

It's a tempting road. Riding my own 750 Gixer along there it is difficult to keep to the limit, but you have to be aware, as with any road that there are dangers and ride within yourself. The fact that there was a cameravan there is irrelevant. I've seen broken down cars, cyclists, tractors and even once a drunk wandering along the road. Once someone sat at the top of the flyover and threatened to throw themselves off and there were police and counsellors trying to persuade him not to jump.

If you can't see far enough to make sure you can stop safely then you need to slow down. If not for your sake then for the sake of the person you hit.

Why 50mph?

Well thats awful and condolences to his family.

The question I often have is why we have such needless speed limits? Dual carriageways with a 50mph limit?

Motorways restricted to 70mph?

It does seem the do gooders nanny state are making everyone so fed up with no risk whatsoever that people do speed quite often safely and not recklessly at all - other than being seen by the over protective do gooders as excessive.

I am fed up with a minority of these people telling us, the majority how to live our lives. If the road is clear, dry, good visibility and not in citys why are we being so restricted?

Its enough to make people go mad!

@COZ69

To follow your logic - the police van was there, it was the the fault of the police. If it had been a tractor, it would be the fault of the farmer.  If it had beena stpped plumber's van, it would be the fault of the plumber.  And so on.  It is never the fault of the rider?

78mph is fast on a dual carriageway, it's 8mph over the maxmimum legal speed (18mph over if towing, 28mph over if driving a heavy goods vehcile). 78mph is not fast on a race track, but a dual carriageway is not a race track si it?  I make no claims about being an angel (I have points) but I am not going to moan about them.  I knew what the limit was (or should have known) and I broke it.  End of discussion.

It's a tragedy that this rider is dead, but the police did not cause him to brake excessively and lose control.  That was all caused by the rider himself.  By the time he saw the van, the odds are good they were clocking him already, if he had come off the throttle he would still be alive and would simply have had to take responsibility for his own actions.

I agree that some speed limits in this country seem to be nuts and may be there for nothing more than filling the coffers of the Exchequer (that's where the fines end up, not with the police) but that does not absolve someone from reponsibility should they decide to break the posted limit.  @winton50 has also pointed out that this is a dangerous stretch of road.  Do you know any different?

all i can say its i will do 80 on dual carriageway and will sit at 70 with my girl on the back. 70 is  not fast on a dual carriaeway  and is only dangers if other drives at doing say 40 in a 70 in a car.

he should of just got the point but if he was only about 5mhp over the speed limet tthen he my not of got any.