Near Misses Volume 2 (So close you can feel it)

Be right back

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121919714#Comment_121919714

No,it seemed to me that he braked at the last minute. Why did he go in front of the scooter instead move behind? And lastly rtbi has full use of all limbs whereas the disabled man might not..

standardg60

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121919779#Comment_121919779

Had my near death one with a Guinness lorry too, over twenty years ago now but never left me. Heading into Terenure outbound from town he overtook closely on a left bend. Mid to rear of the lorry was in constant contact with my shoulder, just wasn't my time that i didn't catch in anything.

fatbhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121919954#Comment_121919954

Mine was with a sand lorry. Night time, had lights, quay pretty much deserted, me approaching this narrowing of the road, close to the path, so I had to move out as the road narrowed. I guess it was partly my fault, but the driver should have seen me and realised I had to move out to stay a foot or so parallel to the path. Anyway, he flew past me in the inside lane, hugging the path. If I hadn't have stopped and kept going, moving out, I was dead. He didn't try to avoid me at all, just kept going at a fair pace. I must have been about one foot away from death.

Dr_Colossus

I go through that section every day and always take the lane from O'Connell Bridge regardless of traffic, think it's the only safe option despite the odd taxi driver blasting the horn etc thinking they own the road. Road surface is brutal and regularly need to avoid buses pulling in and out of the inside land for most of it. Wouldn't have a car or other vehicle pass like that black Hyundai (I think) of the two cyclists in the street view. Also despite there being no left turn you often see it so quite a dangerous section and it doesn't improve until past the council offices further down where there is more space available and a proper cycle lane.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121919920#Comment_121919920

Did you watch his fingers on the brake lever?

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121919893#Comment_121919893

Imagine if we were as quick to point out the root cause of the danger as we were to criticise a cyclist?

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121920131#Comment_121920131

The root cause isn't always a blind spot Andrew. Sometimes, you know the root cause of danger is ones personal responsibility.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121920495#Comment_121920495

The post being discussed specifically mentioned the blind spot as an issue, but didn't point out the responsibility of the owner to ensure that their equipment is safe.

cletus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121921065#Comment_121921065

Blind spots are not the result of faulty machinery.

Blind spots occur through a combination of the position of the driver, and the location of things like A pillars in the vehicle.

In fairness, they're easily overcome by shifting position to check your surroundings, but it's the reason why it's not a good idea to cycle up the inside of a lorry or bus, etc. There are points where you won't be in the eyeline of the driver. Crossing right in front of an articulated lorry would be similarly hazardous, as the drivers position makes it harder to see you.

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121921065#Comment_121921065

You're failing to see that even if there wasn't a blind spot, the moronic behaviour by cyclist still would have been the cause of the incident.

IT's not always Vehicle = Bad andrew. You really need to stop trying to blame absolutely everything on anyone but the person on the bike sometimes. Because sometimes it's a two way street

JMcL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121920127#Comment_121920127

The wheelchair can be seen on the edge of the crossing a 1 second in - he starts pulling at 4 seconds. He's a dick - for doubling down on it more so than anything else

Be right back

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121920127#Comment_121920127

He should have started braking before that, never mind the fact he shouldn't have put this clip on X in the first place.

CatFromHue

I'm not really seeing anything wrong in the wheel chair video.

Maybe he could have braked a bit earlier but he also had a green light and was moving fairly quickly.

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121920131#Comment_121920131

Eh, we are. Witness the 214 pages of this thread. It doesn't mean that actively putting yourself in danger through a mixture of idiocy, lack of awareness and disregard for the ROTR shouldn't also be called out. Even if that truck had no blind spot (and I used that term loosely to describe the scene and without and actual evidence), there's a high chance the same sequence of events and near death experience would have resulted. Not many people driving vehicles in a straight-ahead-only lane, next to a dedicated right-turn-only lane, would think to look left and behind when travelling straight on with a green light.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121922916#Comment_121922916

We're not really though. We tend to accept blind spots as a fact of life, instead of recognising them as arising from skimping on mirrors or cameras or crew on watch.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121922461#Comment_121922461

So he should have assumed that the wheelchair user was going to try to cross on the red man without checking for traffic?

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121922934#Comment_121922934

They can be both.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121921065#Comment_121921065

There's nothing to suggest that their equipment wasn't safe? Maybe you misinterpreted my (i.e. a first-hand witness to the event, not the driver of the truck) post as suggesting that the truck driver did anything wrong. They did not. They'd have been entitled to have sat on the horn, rolled down the window and roared at the woman who nearly altered both of their lives for the worse. But they didn't. Instead, witnessing a cyclist try to execute a right hand turn in the worst conceivable manner, they jumped on the brakes and avoided a collision.

For avoidance of doubt - and apologies if it's confused anyone - by referring to the vehicle's blind spot I was simply referring to that area of the road, right next to the left hand side of HGV, that most people associate with being the area where a driver has most difficulty spotting you.

This incident was 100% down to almost criminally bad road craft by that cyclist. She ticked virtually every box in the "Don't do that if you want to stay alive" bingo card. I'm still struggling to figure out what her thinking was.

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121922938#Comment_121922938

Considering righttobikeiy has a long history of a) putting himself in position he shouldn't (b) being wrong and (c) doubling down and being a pillock he really should have been prepared to stop sooner

You should always be slowing at a pedestrian crossing, more so when you see a pedestrian at it or approach ir. You don't just carry on and hold your speed and hope your brakes are good enough.

If he were not a bike you'd be pillorying him

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121922934#Comment_121922934

And you're still ignoring personal responsibility there. Don't go the inside of large vehicles and don't turn right once you're immediately past them.

All the equipment in the world wouldn't stop that idiocy from being injured

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121922832#Comment_121922832

I just think if he's in any other vehicle we would expect them to approach such a crossing with greater caution. Righttobikeit is a special case who gets pissy when he's in the wrong.

He thinks his excellent bike handling and what look like great brakes excuse his often general lack of common sense and just being wrong.

CramCycle

The cyclist who pulled in front of a truck to make a right hand turn without looking was in the wrong, blind spot or not, a car would have struggled to stop in time if a bike swung across it liek that without warning.

As for RTBI, he needs to get his brakes checked or learn how to use them correctly as at that speed, and that distance, I don't know how he struggled to stop in time. Aside from that, yes, the wheelchair user shouldn't have come out but as vehicular traffic should always be ready to stop when passing pedestrians at the edge of the pavement, whether they are about to cross or not.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121923052#Comment_121923052

What makes you think that he struggled to stop in time?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121921333#Comment_121921333

The location of things like A pillars, and the absence of appropriate mirrors or cameras to compensate IS faulty machinery - faulty design, that allows a fundamentally unsafe vehicle to be operating in a public space, sharing with pedestrians, cyclists, older ones, little ones, deaf ones.

Any equipment operated on a public road should be safe for use on the public road. Drivers of heavy equipment in particular should be able to see when they are near people, and take appropriate actions to make sure that they don't squish people.

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925515#Comment_121925515

The fact that he had to swerve a bit shows you he didn't stop on time.

People walking or cycling near heavy machinery should have the common sense to not do really dumb **** around them

Yes it would be brilliant if the world was perfect and everything was designed flawlessly but it's not, and personal accountability plays a part, especially in busy urban settings and it works both ways.

Allinall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925515#Comment_121925515

You appear to be ignoring the point that people need to make sure they don't get squished.

CramCycle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925515#Comment_121925515

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121920127#Comment_121920127

Because he was braking here

And he stopped here

At 30kmph, with brakes in good condition, the braking distance, for me at least is half that, and that isn't emergency braking. So either his brakes need work, he needs to learn how to use his brakes correctly or he intentionally didn't brake sufficiently for the sake of a youtube video and caused unnecessary stress to another person. I would expect an observant cyclist to have managed to stop before the white line, or realigned themselves while slowing and just go behind the mobility scooter.

secman

Went for a spin on my commute home last night, back roads to blessington to get some shelter from wind. Plan was to come back main road and avail of tailwind. Tipping along nicely coming towards the left turn where the grotto is, happened to look at Garmin, 45kph grand....notice black BMW jeep passing me closer than they should, pulled in front of me , braked to take left turn at Grotto...had to brake hard to avoid collision, a complete and utter cnt of a dangerous maneuver, didn't get reg number, too busy trying to stay upright.I can honesty say if I had a rock I'd have planted it in his rear window, i was hopping mad. Utterly dangerous driving.

secman

On the commute this morning, a lady driver coming from a side road turned left on to main road right in front of me, I had to brake to avoid " cyclist in collision with car" scenario, she never looked right before she turned, as I passed her in stopped traffic, I looked at her and shook my head side to side. She caught up with me, and shouted out to me " No idea why you were shaking your head at me" !

I replied " that's the sad part, you've no idea that you blindly pulled out on to main road without visually checking it was safe to do so " and it wasn't.

Her response was " **** off" ...charming lady. Her shiny 241D VW won't stay shiny for too long if she continues to drive in that fashion.

I even had a flashing front light under the Garmin

Paddigol

"I even had a flashing front light under the Garmin"

I don't think they actually work unless you're wearing a builders vest.

Pawwed Rig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121681607#Comment_121681607

Just in case anyone is interested.

I heard nothing back from the Gardaí as expected.

I popped back into the Garda station today to ask about it and apparently they have no record of a report. Now it seems like it is up to me to trace the Garda who took the report as they all have their own notebooks they write things down in. I was told that the shift I need is in on Tuesday and to drop back then to determine which person it was.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122018455#Comment_122018455

A cynical person might think that they didn't actually want to do anything about it.