Classic and dumbest mistake

[CHAPIN]

Yesterday afternoon I was hit by a dumb girl who decided that a 2 second warning with the blinker is enough time for anyone passing her to avoid crashing into her when she decides to make a left turn into a hidden driveway in the middle of nowhere. Of course she was on the phone and says she didn't see the bike until she clipped us. Result from the crash was: right cilinder cover split open, front fender broken, left mirror broken, crash bars badly bent, wunderlinch cylinder protector almost stripped off the bike and loss of front brake power, wife spent the night at the hospital for evaluation bur gladly nithing broken. I managed to avoid hitting her straight on but still got clipped by the front fender on her pickup truck. She has no insurance and no money to pay for damages. This happened on the island of Roatan, Honduras so now I have to ship the bike back to Guatemala. No fun. But gladly wife is OK. I got off with just a slightly bruised hip.

I would like to take the opportunity to highly recomend the olympia jacket, dragging jeans and knox gloves, neither of us have a single sign of road rash. The gear shows almost no sign of damage. I know there is better gear than dragging jeans and we wear it most of the time but none the less the jeans worked as advertised.

Bike is or was a 2007 BMW R1200GSA. Lets see if it is worth repairing it after the dealer checks the extent of the damage.

I do take some blame on the face plant as this is the classical crash story. I'm a seasoned rider and should have known better. It's my belief that we riders always have a degree of blame in crashes, except when a deer jumps right in front of us or we find some oil on the road, there is practically no chance of avoiding those types of accident but the rest... We need to keep in mind that we are invisible to cagers even while riding a big whale of a bike while wearing high visibility jackets and having a pair of HID lights plus some auxiliary PIIA lights on while blowing a loud nautilius horn.

Ride smart and ride safe my fellow bikers. There is nothing to prove out in the streets, high speed will eventually get you. Want to ride fast? That's what the track is for. I'm seriously thinking of really slowing down, I believe I'll be riding my ABS weestrom more from now on, enough power and speed on that bike to keep me entertained and perhaps a little safer.

Just to finish this report I would also like to highly recommend ABS for street riding, I really believe it helped me shed as much speed as possible on a safely controlled manner. I know some Valentino Rossi quality riders will call me off on this statement and perhaps you can outbreak an ABS equiped bike but for mere mortals as myself ABS will defenitelly help.

[CHAPIN]

My appologies for spelling errors, English is not my first language and typing on an iPad sucks.

[flyaway]

Good to hear you're ok, and your wife too. I never would guess English is your second language.

[CHAPIN]

Thanks! I ride about 40,000 miles a year and this is the first time I've been down while riding with a pillion. Makes one put into perspective the responsability we have towards our pillion. Watching my wife go down and not getting up is scary to say the least. Of course ruining a nice vacation also sucks.

[_cy_]

glad you both are OK... bikes can be replaced

getting to the point that I flat don't trust drivers getting ready to pull out.
a couple toots on the horn let's em know I'm there.

a good part of the time folks have a cell phone glued to their ear while pulling out.
when I give em a honk ... the look of surprise tells me how close I came to getting killed.

[CHAPIN]

I was blowing my nautilius cannon of a horn, I've had drivers actually look like they are about to have a heart attack when I blow that thing. Guess her conversation on her cellphone was really interesting.

[hardwaregrrl]

Whoa! Man, so glad you and your wife are ok! I think that senario scare me about as badly as deer and texting drivers, having your SO on the back and then crashing with them. Really happy you both are a-ok! And I think your english is better than mine, so no apologies needed!

[Wuwei]

Sounds like you are both OK, considering the circumstances, and whatever you did seems to have minimized the damage to you and your spouse, which is the important thing. Bikes and gear are replaceable. I hope the medical facilities on Roatan were up to the task. I have become so paranoid about vehicles not signalling or doing the unexpected that I now start out with the assumption they will do something that will endanger me. Quite frequently I have to dodge people not signalling at all, or signalling one way and then going the other with a jerk, or not stopping at a light or a stop sign, all while texting or on the phone. That is just routine traffic these days.

[WormShanks]

Originally Posted by _cy_

getting to the point that I flat don't trust drivers getting ready to pull out.
a couple toots on the horn let's em know I'm there.

Maybe I'm wrong but it sounds like the OP was trying to pass someone who ended up making a left turn.

Still good advice though - don't trust people to not pull out and also not turn while being passed.

[lakota]

Glad to hear you are okay.

[CHAPIN]

Originally Posted by WormShanks

Maybe I'm wrong but it sounds like the OP was trying to pass someone who ended up making a left turn.

Still good advice though - don't trust people to not pull out and also not turn while being passed.

Yes sir, that is exactly what happened.

I was attempting to pass the pickup truck on a 3/4 of a mile straight where passing is completely legal. I didn't noticed there was a little driveway or entrance into a house that was pretty much hidden by the vegetation, had I seen the driveway I wouldn't have had attempted the unsuccessful takeover.

Thank you all for your concernd and good wishes. My wife is feeling lots better today. I'm stucked in paradise without a bike though.

[NJ-Brett]

Glad you made it through without nasty stuff like broken bones.

Its great you take some responsability for the crash, many would just blame the girl.
High risk, people slow when they are about to turn, sometimes way ahead, and with cell phone use, you are lucky to get any turn signal at all.

Just bad luck you could not spot the driveway, which would have given you a reason to suspect she might turn.

So, very bad luck you had the crash, and very good luck you walked away intact, even if the bike did not.

With someone (the wife) on the back of my bike, I tend not to ever pass.
She likes it very mellow anyway...

[CHAPIN]

I can deal with broken bones, it's road rash that scares the hell out of me!

People, well actually fellow bikers get mad at me whenever I tell someone involved in an accident that no matter what he/she is also responsable. We are on the loosing end in any crash against a larger vehicle aren't we? So we need to take care of ourselves and our loved ones.

[Wuwei]

People, well actually fellow bikers get mad at me whenever I tell someone involved in an accident that no matter what he/she is also responsable. We are on the loosing end in any crash against a larger vehicle aren't we? So we need to take care of ourselves and our loved ones.

I agree with this^^ 100%.

[CHAPIN]

Bike has been delivered to the shipping company and tomorrow it starts its trip back home. I will hava to mail documents so the bike can actually cross the border. Crashing out of your country sucks!!

I need to document that my bike has already payed importation taxes into my country when it gets there even though the bike has a title issued by the Guatemalan government and the bike has a Guatemala license plate