Clip of the Month

This month’s clip is a reminder of the vital importance of the safety bubble and, in particular, of rear observation. The impact happens at the 11 second mark in the video with a very nasty collision between the nearside of the car and the rear of the bike. The good news is that the biker survived and lived to tell the tale.

Unfortunately, from a learning perspective, the video shows very little of what happened just before the impact, so it’s hard to say with any authority where fault could or should be placed – was the car following too closely, had the bike just overtaken and cut back in too closely?

Some further light is shed on the accident when it was featured in an episode of “Police, Camera, Action”  (02:50 into the video)

The biker said that he was slowing down to enter the layby, but (perhaps unsurprisingly), remembers very little of what happened. Since the accident he has decided to give up biking.

Whatever the detailed specifics of the accident, and precisely where blame lays, the horrific impact is a graphic and sobering reminder of why we need to always be aware of what is behind us and why maintaining the safety bubble makes us much safer.