Head-on collision between group cyclists and car (video)
 

"All the bikers were thrown to the ground, but luckily the vehicle stopped to call emergency services"

How is everyone?

Since it says " luckily the vehicle stopped to call...", sounds like the result was not too serious?

The phrase "too fast for conditions comes to mind", but in all cases of this kind, the devil is in the details.

Years ago a very good friend had a head-on collision with a motorcycle while riding on a twisty, hilly 2 lane road. He was descending through an S turn, and apparently both he and the oncoming MC were crowding the double yellow. All of us were shaking our heads in wonder, what are the odds?

Vol, "EMS" where I come from stands for emergency medical services. So that could mean no one was hurt and the call was precautionary to doa. Seeing that info was not provided, I asked. You could be very well be right but you are assuming.

I was thinking the same thing.

It doesn't hardly look like it should be a blind corner, but just enough of a rise on the right, and nothing is visible around the corner.

One thing about driving on a narrow unmarked road. Always drive as if you were in your own lane when going around corners. I.E. the car should have been about 5 feet to the right.

But, the bikes should also have had control of their bikes on the corners. Yes... fast descents can be fun, but if it isn't a closed course, expect the unexpected, and poor drivers.

Hopefully injuries weren't severe.

In all fairness, I don't think there's anyone who's been riding for a long time, who hasn't at some time (or many times) ridden in that zone where the only thing separating us from disaster is favorable alignment of the stars. (Note the "us" rather than "him")

We all take chances and make mistakes, but fortunately life is "organized" with plenty of forgiveness. In my experience the difference between disaster and "whew, that was close" is millimeters and microseconds, and not anything we can take credit for.

I totally agree, but with many people the problem is, is that they do take the credit when nothing bad happens.

I always attempt to learn from mistakes, even mistakes when there was no close call.


BTW, where did this happen?

It has been reported as this incident happened in California.

Thanks.

I only asked, because I got a quick ad that seemed to advertise a British newspaper, so I thought there was a small chance this happened over there, which, of course would dictate which side of the road is to be ridden on.

Narrow road. Fairly sharp turn. Not great visibility.

It's common for cyclists move to the outside. It's common for cars to move to the inside.

Neither cyclists or driver expected an opposing vehicle.

Thus, the result we saw.

typical cager thinking hes driving a bumpercar and just cuts into where he wants to go...

The newspaper concerned was the Daily Mail, one which has the usual right wing hatred of cyclists. To get a flavour of their intellectual ability, read the number of respondents who claimed that the cyclists deserved it because they were on the "wrong side of the road", in spite of readers repeatedly pointing out the collision happened in the USA, where, strangely enough, our ex-colonials ride on the right. :innocent:

Three of the four cyclist were on the right half of the road the entire time. One cyclist was slightly right of center. The first cyclist got sideswiped by the car front quarter panel and side mirror and went into the air. Two cyclist avoided contact with the car even though the car was on their side of the road; but one got hit by the first cyclist that was thrown in the air and the other looked to endo his bicycle over the first 2 cyclist. The fourth cyclist tried turning left to avoid the oncoming car as he was the most center of his lane and got hit in the rear wheel by the car bumper.

As a minimum, 3 of the cyclist had control of their cycles and were riding reasonably. They did not run into a stopped object in the road, the had a moving car heading at them in the wrong lane at speed.

It seems too many blame the cyclist first here would have blamed these cyclist even if they had been stopped in the right lane and a car came along and drove head on into them.

This video seems to have a clearer picture:

Just for those that must blame cyclist:

Wow
What a surprise-
a car cutting a somewhat blind curve
that never happens!
No way could they have expected that-slowed down-and hugged the right side of their lane-

Rural roads=most dangerous-
No freakin' shoulder-no place to bail-and they don't slow one bit coming on a blind curve
Lucked out -they could all be dead or maimed
Wonder what the speed limit is on a dangerous POS rural road like that- 40 mph maybe-
no SLOW FOR CURVE
Oh well-lucky

The motorist is 100% at fault since he was the one driving on the wrong side of the road. All of us have doubtless been in the same situation as those riders. Some of us didn't get hit because we were going a bit slower, some of us are just a bit quicker (probably because we expect motorists to behave badly), some of us have gotten whacked and some of us fit more than one category.

My favorite short loop to ride when I don't have a lot of time involves similarly narrow descents (for CliffordK: Fox Hollow and McBeth). I encounter cars on the wrong side all the time and I just deal with them. In fact, because poor driving is so common hereabouts, I expect every car to be on the wrong side of the road when the roadway curves to my right and I'm rarely disappointed.

Did this happen in England?

It is often helpful to read the thread first.

Google knows everything. It's hive hard drive knows you typed 'tea' at some point...I get ads in Spanish now and then for seemingly no real reason, especially with my webmail in the right column.

If there are multiple versions of the same video, which one is the original and sometimes you have to ask are YT videos all that pertinent?

Likely the video I linked to is closer to the original due to better quality, all the other YT post I saw were poorer quality. This particular video seems to be reposted on several channels.

Tight to the Right
not bad-sorta rhymes

Of course the motorist is at fault-
but the riders would be "dead right"-great for their heirs-not so good for them
Cars routinely cut curves and corners-
it should never be a surprise for an adult-riding or driving

Probably not so good for heirs-5 dead riders-$ 50,000 policy -dead young person worth $2,000,000 or so

Like Jim said
Tight to the Right- love that-I will steal it-forever