On the news sounded like they were trying to lay the blame on a vehicle pulled clean off the road.
Supposedly the bus driver never even seen the SEMI and SUV stopped in the road!
Sounded to me like the bus driver wasnt paying attention and needs her arse tossed in jail for manslaughter.
There was NOTHING on the highway between her and the suv she ran over but empty space. And she didnt see it or the semi, and was it construction or another accident, cant remember now.

Driving a motorcycle or car is little like playing a sport some people just aren't good at it no matter how much they practice.

Charon wrote on 08/08/10 at 06:35:56:

My 1st thought was, what made the semi stop?  and can he be at fault for stopping well short rather than slowing?  Stopping well short of traffic means there was no surrounding lights to indicate an all lanes slowing or stoppage.  A young man wouldn't have the experience to be on the alert for a stoppage so I can easily see him ramming the semi w/o regard to how well the brake lites shown.  But the 75 yr old bus driver hit him at near full speed.  That pickup couldn't have been better smashed than in a car compactor.  Insult to injury was the second bus finishing the job.  Which btw shouldn't be held at fault.  If the 1st bus had pulled over would've completely obscured his view.  If the 1st bus made a safe stop, he could've done the same.  But the 2 second rule (which probably is much more for buses) only allows enough time to react to the 1st cars actions, and requires that the 1st actions are safe.  In such events with minimal spacing, whatever happens to the 1st vehicle will happen the 2nd.

The older I get the less accidents I have.

Another thing is those that have been through physical therapy for things such as strokes.
The docs rely on the therapist to tell them if they think their safe to drive.
Test is if they can get in and out of a car by themselves????
After a major injury they should have to retake the test but they dont.
Dad gave up his keys after a gal rear ended him and blamed him(was HER fault!)
Mom i had to take her keys away from her. I still get greif for that as she thinks shes fine to drive. I wouldnt ride with her before her stroke as she scared the HE!! out of me.

Id be fine with everyone haveing to retake the written and driveing test every 3rd renewal or so untill 60 then every renewal after that.
Yeah most are still good at 60 but some arent and it would save some lives.

Standard procedure is 1 car length for every 10 miles an hour your traveling. Thats fine for passanger cars and pickups with good brakes. On a loaded 10 wheeler, bus or semi it just aint enough.

Youngsters have the reflexs but not the skills or experiance. They overdrive their 'perceived skills'.
Oldsters have the experiance and skills but reflexs are'nt what they used to be. Eyesight is another hinderance.
As with firearms and hunter safety the older crowd gets complacent. They have done something a thousand times and it gets to where they do it by rote(habit). This can and does lead to accidents with firearms and in/on vehicles. They expect the results to be the same as it always has before.

So far three riders have went down on the road to sturgis so far this year. Youngest was 57, oldest was 67 i think it was.
All three according to the state patrol was rear tire failure due to overloading and probably underinflation(blowouts).
Youd think they would of known better at that age.

Got to remember there are generaly more younger drivers percentage wise if you go by age groups then the older group. So you see more youngsters in accidents.
Percentage wise the over 50 crowd has more accidents per their age group though.

On that note of the half dozen bike accidents localy the last couple months ALL have been over 50 except for one 47 year old. And sounded like he overrode his bike and highsided and the bike rolled over him.

All of us have to admit we're not the young bucks/buckettes we were 10/20 years ago. Reflexs have slowed, strength aint the same, eyesight has dimmed, and theres a LOT of things we do just as we have done a thousand times before without even thinking about it. And sometimes that gets us in trouble.

The issues surrounding older drivers are only going to get worse, as we baby boomers, who are the largest bulge in the population curve, grow into our senior years.

I have no problem being re-tested, or better, required to take a safety course every few years once past, say, age 70.  I'm now 63, and quite frankly, haven't lost much yet.  Once in a blue moon I can tell that I've lost just a little bit of what I once had as a driver, but I'm talking about the top end of my skill level, as I once raced many eons ago, and had a national level competition license.

What Charon mentioned about pilots is true - we take what is called a "flight review" every two years, administered by a licensed flight instructor.  That's better than a re-test, because the instructor tailors the review to the kind of flying each pilot does.  For instance, one guy may have a light sport plane that he only flies locally on nice days at rural airports, while another guy may be using a 200 mph business type aircraft for long distance travel and who flies in less ideal weather.  The skills needed to be safe in each of those two environments are quite different.

Same for cars - the problem is that the auto world doesn't have the same set of instructors.  Going to the typical driving teacher is worthless - I recently was talking with one who didn't even know how to drift thru a curve, and who, herself, could not drive a manual transmission car.  The typical driving school that kids attend to get their licenses is a joke.  Just don't exceed the speed limit, signal every turn and lane change, and don't knock over the cones in the parkling test - then you are deemed a good driver.  What crap.

Common sense or lack there of and impatiance seem to be a big factor in accidents anymore regardless of age.
Our society has got to the point everyone is in a hurry anymore. Need their food faster, the need to be first in line, and cell phones, I-phones ect all contribute. Wouldnt bother me a bit if they had motion sensors in the stupid things that disabled them if you were going over 5 or 10 miles an hour.

I had two different jerks pull right out in front of me yesterday in the wal-mart parking lot. I was'nt watching for that kind of nonsense i would of easily T-boned them. Had my youngest on the back so i just had to behave myself and NOT let them know what i thought of them.
BOTH looked right at me before pulling out right in front of me.

I honestly think more drivers would be respectfull of bikers IF they thought they were more of a danger to them like another car is or a semi. They think bikes can stop on a dime and their safe in their cages. Where as getting broadsided by a semi or car might HURT them.
Maybe if we put stickers on our bikes and did a few adds saying (Caution-explodes on impact) they might give us a lil more room/respect.


Bill, no argument here, most kids aint got a clue now days compared to how we grew up. 5 mile ride to town on a bicycle to a ballgame or the fair was'nt even an afterthought for us.
Can you imagen trying to get enough guys together now days in 90+ degree heat to haul in 2000 or more bales a day everyday for the first few weeks of summer???? For 3-5 cnts a bale? Not happening.
Getting them to walk anywhere? Getting them to work and earn anything they get?(McDonalds and Taco Bell dont count in my book).
Its gimme gimme and set on their arse for most of them now days.
Cars, cell phones, x-box's, computers ect just fall in their laps for the asking. We had to earn most everything we got.

I saw a lot of 'giveaways' when working as a firearms and hunter safety instructor. Some instructors just pushed em through like an assembly line so they could get their points and awards, really ticked me off. I didnt care squat about the awards or points.
When they went through my classes they earned everything they got. Passed or failed on their own merits, no gimmies here.(I got to hunt around these knotheads.)
Scariest thing was the adults(some of them) takeing the classes to hunt out west. Folks that had hunted for 15 or 20 years. Or the odd hunter you ran into afield. I spend as much time watching for other hunters anymore as i do watching for deer or turkeys. Spooky!

Society has gotten soft, from the bottom of the age group to the top. Everyone is in a hurry, has no patiance and their attention span is usualy in seconds not minutes.
As for drivers ed its a bad joke, same deal. Push em through like an assembly line and help em pass if they cant do it on theirn own.

Course we had an edge. We usualy started driveing when we were 10 or 12 in the hay fields or around the farm doing chores. (Running the roads to...lol)
By the time we were old enough to 'legaly' drive we usualy had 4 or 5 years experiance when we took the test.

Biggest problem now days with the younger crowd and bikes is over confidance. "Yeah an R6R or 900RR is a good starter bike, or take it easy and that 1000cc cruiser is a good starter bike".
Nimrods with no common sense, maybe 6 months in the saddle(and even some old timers) telling beginners those types are good starters 'if your carefull'.
Its like giveing a 10 year old a full auto and half a dozen mags and saying go shoot something. Someones going to get hurt eventualy.
I think britain has it right. Have to start under a certain cc level and ride for so long before you can move up. They have like 3 or 4 different levels you have to go through.

Need something on that order for new drivers here, limit the HP on vehicles they can drive. Make the driveing tests harder and retest EVERYONE on some kind of schedule. Might not make a BIG differance but it would make a differance. The life it saved might be yours(or MINE!)