Motorcyclist killed after collision with truck

[galapogos01]

AAP

October 01, 2008 08:37am

A 34-YEAR-OLD motorcyclist is dead after a collision with a truck on the Eastern Fwy near Balwyn North this morning.
The accident happened on the Eastern Freeway, close to Bulleen Rd, just after 6am.

Police understand a truck was travelling slowly in the centre lane due to a mechanical problem.

Another truck, travelling in the same lane, diverged right to overtake the slower truck and the motorcyclist that had been following both trucks collided with the rear of the slower vehicle.

The rider, from Templestowe, died at the scene.

Inbound lanes on the Eastern Fwy have reopened, but residual traffic is still causing significant delays in the area.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/ ... 62,00.html

happy with your decision to stick to the train Dan?

[Dansedgli]

I heard about that. If I was riding to work I'd have had 11ty missed calls from Mum when I got there.

Its easy to make that mistake though, Ive done it in the car. Drive close to some guy who you cant see passed, they change lanes and BAM! Random stopped traffic.

Its the freeway, if he was going that slow he shouldnt have been in the middle lane. Dirty kant.

[t1MMy]

Doesnt take much to pull a bike up, he shouldnt have been tailing the truck so close.

[wolf]

Doesnt take much to pull a bike up, he shouldnt have been tailing the truck so close.

How do you get that?

bike doing 80kmh traveling the safe distance of 2seconds behind the truck still isn't going to pull up in time if the truck in front suddenly swerves around the slow truck. At full lockup i would guesse he probably still hit the truck at 20-30kmh which would most likely snapped his neck.

[Dansedgli]

hit the truck at 20-30kmh which would most likely snapped his neck.

I did a superman off my bike into a tow bar with my head at 60km. No snapped neck.

[Steady]

Doesnt take much to pull a bike up, he shouldnt have been tailing the truck so close.

It does if you ...
a) aren't that good a rider
b) panic
or
c) all of the above.

Unlike cars, it actually takes some measure of skill to stop a bike as quickly as possible.

[t1MMy]

Doesnt take much to pull a bike up, he shouldnt have been tailing the truck so close.

How do you get that?

bike doing 80kmh traveling the safe distance of 2seconds behind the truck still isn't going to pull up in time if the truck in front suddenly swerves around the slow truck. At full lockup i would guesse he probably still hit the truck at 20-30kmh which would most likely snapped his neck.

If he was at a "safe" distance and he died.....it wasnt a safe distance.

[galapogos01]

Unlike cars, it actually takes some measure of skill to stop a bike as quickly as possible.

correk, its a lot harder to pull up a bike quickly.

[wolf]

hit the truck at 20-30kmh which would most likely snapped his neck.

I did a superman off my bike into a tow bar with my head at 60km. No snapped neck.

i am guessing you were extremely lucky..

[five point slow]

ITT; making assumptions without knowing all the facts.

[AaronEF8]

If he was at a safe distance (2sec @ 80kmh is 44m) and sitting towards the right side of his lane (the faster semi would have blocked his view of the slower one), he would have had less than 30m to stop from whatever speed he was doing. Now I'm no Stoner (Casey that is ) but it takes a fair bit of effort to stop a bike with any sort of urgency. There was no mention of what type of bike it was, so it might not have been a super dooper sports bike.

The fact of the matter is the truck shouldn't have been in the middle lane if he wasn't overtaking someone and especially should have been in the left lane if he had a mechanical problem, on this occasion it killed someone.

[TriymeD]

Can't believe someone would drive in middle lane with mechanical problems, thats shite!

What ever happened to common sense?

[someLS1]

Feel sorry for the bloke my work mate saw the covered body and the shattered bike..... took me an hour and 15 mins to get to work (usually 25mins) i get on at the Bulleen exit... oh well better be late then dead so cant complain

[redroo]

The 2 second rule is crap, maybe in a 40Kph zone it's ok but not in a 110Kph zone.
When i got my licence we were told to keep around 5 seconds distance between cars.

[EBOOST]

yeah its not good news when someone looses there life but r.i.p.
cheers josh.

[Steady]

The 2 second rule is crap, maybe in a 40Kph zone it's ok but not in a 110Kph zone.
When i got my licence we were told to keep around 5 seconds distance between cars.

5 seconds?!?!
At 110km/h that is 152m.
The thing about the 2 second rule is, the distance increases with speed
It's funny how that whole speeed = distance over time thing works.
It's all a moot point anyway, because there is no way to account for an almost stationary object suddenly appearing in front of you.
Blame the trucky for doing something stupid, which seems to be all too common amongst that profession.

[AaronEF8]

2 seconds is fine if the driver is switched on, which they always should be. If you can't handle it, just hop into the left lane and let everyone pass you.

As for motorcycle injuries, just watch MotoGP this weekend. I bet at least one rider (hope it's Lorenzo) comes off at about 10x faster than 20kmh and doesn't snap his neck.

[five point slow]

And then gets up and kicks his bike. That's always funny.

[t1MMy]

As for motorcycle injuries, just watch MotoGP this weekend. I bet at least one rider (hope it's Lorenzo) comes off at about 10x faster than 20kmh and doesn't snap his neck.

Also watch for broken down trucks on the track??

[AaronEF8]

Of course not. Broken down trucks belong on a motorbike racetrack about as much as they belong in the middle of a freeway at 6am.