Very sad, thoughts and prayers to those involved, their families and friends. Very sad day.

I watched this earlier today on our local news. I can't believe that a dump truck could not see 8 bikes sitting at a red light. It's unimaginable. I too hope they put this guy away forever. People may say I'm being crule and he made a mistake but his mistake has taken 3 lives so far and the number may go up and probably the others will have life long problems. I'm wondering if he was texting, or on his cell phone? Cause I just have not wrapped my brain around how someone could not see that many motorcycles..This is just tragic. It should scare the crap out of every motorcycle rider and make them think.

The report said he was diving for some papers in the cab and I guess he wasn't looking as he approached the intersection.

What a tragedy!!

God rest their souls... ...and heal broken bodies...

Those involved are in my thoughts and prayers. This is just too sad!!!

Being paranoid on a bike cannot be stressed enough. Taught my daughter a long time ago that everyone on the road is out to get you...they just don't realize it. Gotta be ready to bail in a heartbeat.

GP

Interesting that you would say that "always watch your mirrors".

Happened to a friend sitting at a light, was watching in mirror and saw a UPS sized truck barreling down, and knew he wasn't gonna be able to stop. He jumped off bike, one hand still on bars though, truck hits bike, bar twists around hitting him in hip area, impact caused him to kind of like run, smashes knee into fire hydrant. Lucky son of a gun! All he cares about is getting bike fixed asap, of course truck company bends over backwards to do this when they find out he's not gonna sue. He was banged up a bit, nothing even requiring a hospital visit, sore and bruised.

I've changed my habits somewhat, I always have my eye on the mirrors, and my head is positioned that the driver knows I'm watching them, for the most part. Yeah, sometimes I do have to give a full turn to give them an evil eye for their stupidity of coming to close. I still need to break the habit of putting it in neutral tho, I should be in gear with clutch pulled should I need to move quickly, kind of 50/50 that I put in neutral, need to break that. one time waiting at light, bout 5 cars in front, see this car coming, and I know he ain't gonna stop in time, fortunately did have it in gear, and no car in my right lane, managed to get over in nick of time, guy locks his brakes, and stops about 3 inches from the car, I would have been a pancake between the 2.

Any way, so sad, that being so inattentive while driving can cause something so horrific. My prayers go to those injured and to the families who lost loved ones.

Not only should you watch your mirrors and keep your bike in gear but always position yourself between cars not directly behind them. This way should a vehicle come up and you don't think they are going to stop you can split the lane and take off before you get smashed.

When all of our kids were learning to drive I told them to look around at all the other cars they saw and imagine the stupidist thing that driver could possibly do then assume they were going to do it.

hardone2get wrote:
Not only should you watch your mirrors and keep your bike in gear but always position yourself between cars not directly behind them. This way should a vehicle come up and you don't think they are going to stop you can split the lane and take off before you get smashed.

This is the same thing I do. I try to leave myself and my bike an escape route.

I do the same, I keep myself far to one side of the lane or the other and pointed up between the vehicles ahead of me. Then i watch the mirrors real closely. I figure either I will get out of the way or they will knock me up between a couple cars instead of being sandwiched.