Originally Posted by
genec
I'm gonna posture a guess... driving too fast, failing to pay attention, and not planning ahead. Not a single failure, but three. And all three all too common.
I'd throw in following too closely too, but I doubt it was a factor.
I mention all four of these situations as frankly they are quite common... and really, anyone actually paying attention, and driving defensively, will readily observe these all too common situations.
I'm not a perfect driver, and won't claim to be, but when I observe those mentioned conditions... driving too fast, not paying attention, close following, and failing to plan ahead... I give those motorists lots of extra room.
Agreed. When I'm driving, I'm driving. I drive a stick, turn my phone off, and pay attention to what I'm doing. This applies when I'm on my bike, in one of my autos, or one of my motorcycles. (Especially on the motorcycles!)
As such, I often see other drivers who are obviously not driving...while they're driving. Some of the more common things I see are cars driving with the driver in the middle of the lane. This means the right wheels of the car are in the next lane (which is often the bike lane or shoulder) well over the fog line; drivers swerving sporadically, which is usually caused by doing other activities (cell phone/texting, eating, putting on makeup, reading a book/newspaper, trying to get the kids to sit down....); and then the most common these days: driving well under the speed limit, having difficulty maintaining the lane, almost inevitably caused by texting instead of driving.
The incident I witnessed a few years ago, I did not see what the driver was doing at the time, but he clearly wasn't paying attention. He, unfortunately, paid the price with his life, and the only fortunate part of that was that no one else was involved. He nearly rear ended another vehicle though.