On Monday I witnessed a classic case of not taking responsibility for your own actions. Although Monday was a holiday I offered to open the shop for a 2:30 appointment. It being a much needed day off, I was winging it pretty close to that time and upon leaving the house, I was finding it difficult to navigate through traffic with the amount of cars and people weaving in and out in front of me. Mahone Bay was abuzz with people. As I approached the government wharf, there was bicycle in front of me so I had to slow down to a snail’s pace. This allows me to vouch for the declarations of the biker following a mishap.
The left side of the road was a string of cars along the curb, all the way to the center of town, except of course for the driveways. All of a sudden an SUV pulled out of one of the driveways into traffic, not looking my way at all and was well out past the car to his left that was parked along the curb. The biker in front of me screamed something to the tune of stop and the car immediately halted but it was pretty close. Not only had the driver pulled out in front of the biker but my vehicle as well. Luckily there weren’t any cars behind me when I slammed on the brakes. With a potentially bad scene abated, I politely allowed the SUV to pull out the rest of the way and I followed him into town.
It remained a slow process to get through town with all the people jaywalking and bottle necking the road. By the time we made it to the center of town I noticed the biker guy was in front of Eli’s Cafe chatting with people on the deck. The SUV driver also saw him and stopped right in the road and hollered something out of the window to the biker. I really can’t say what was said, but the biker responded by saying, "I wasn’t speeding", Then following another comment from the driver said, "I wasn't speeding, I was only going 25 clicks".
I gathered from that answer that the chap in the SUV was accusing the biker of speeding and therefore responsible for almost causing an accident. The biker crossed the road and was standing at the driver’s window and the shouting match ensued. Knowing the truth of what had happened it was interesting to hear the conversation evolve as the decibel level swiftly rose. Soon the voices were booming and all eyes were on the commotion.
The biker guy hollered, “You didn’t even check to see what was coming, I saw you looking the other way!”. The man in the car kept insisting the biker was speeding and on it went until not being able to win and shout the biker into a confession, he zoomed away. As I pulled up to the biker walking back to his friends I called out to him and said that I saw the entire mishap and that the SUV pulled out on us both, I too saw that he didn’t looked our way and that the biker was right. The guy said thank-you, but I could hear the exasperation in his voice for what had just happened. When an SUV and bike collide, you don’t have to be a brain surgeon to know which one takes the fall, literally. When riding a bike or motorcycle, you have to be super vigilant about your surroundings. Both the SUV driver and passenger’s heads were looking to the left, making sure they wouldn’t hit an oncoming car as they veered out around the parked car. Not a thought to what might be approaching from the right. That split second of error could have cost that biker his life.
I’m happy nothing serious happened. No one got hurt and I wasn’t delayed as a witness to an accident. I made it to the shop with a minute to spare to open for the visitors that came from away. I never thought to take pictures of their smiling faces.
We seem to live in a world where no one makes mistakes. It’s always the other guy’s fault. If only SUV guy had shouted out the window an embarrassed “I’m sorry”. For the life of me I can’t understand why he could be so arrogant to think this wasn’t his fault. Near misses happen to us all and should be rejoiced and used as a chance to reflect and show more care and caution in the future. It was good that everyone involved got to walk or drive away, thanking their lucky stars, instead of almost seeing them.
The left side of the road was a string of cars along the curb, all the way to the center of town, except of course for the driveways. All of a sudden an SUV pulled out of one of the driveways into traffic, not looking my way at all and was well out past the car to his left that was parked along the curb. The biker in front of me screamed something to the tune of stop and the car immediately halted but it was pretty close. Not only had the driver pulled out in front of the biker but my vehicle as well. Luckily there weren’t any cars behind me when I slammed on the brakes. With a potentially bad scene abated, I politely allowed the SUV to pull out the rest of the way and I followed him into town.
It remained a slow process to get through town with all the people jaywalking and bottle necking the road. By the time we made it to the center of town I noticed the biker guy was in front of Eli’s Cafe chatting with people on the deck. The SUV driver also saw him and stopped right in the road and hollered something out of the window to the biker. I really can’t say what was said, but the biker responded by saying, "I wasn’t speeding", Then following another comment from the driver said, "I wasn't speeding, I was only going 25 clicks".
I gathered from that answer that the chap in the SUV was accusing the biker of speeding and therefore responsible for almost causing an accident. The biker crossed the road and was standing at the driver’s window and the shouting match ensued. Knowing the truth of what had happened it was interesting to hear the conversation evolve as the decibel level swiftly rose. Soon the voices were booming and all eyes were on the commotion.
The biker guy hollered, “You didn’t even check to see what was coming, I saw you looking the other way!”. The man in the car kept insisting the biker was speeding and on it went until not being able to win and shout the biker into a confession, he zoomed away. As I pulled up to the biker walking back to his friends I called out to him and said that I saw the entire mishap and that the SUV pulled out on us both, I too saw that he didn’t looked our way and that the biker was right. The guy said thank-you, but I could hear the exasperation in his voice for what had just happened. When an SUV and bike collide, you don’t have to be a brain surgeon to know which one takes the fall, literally. When riding a bike or motorcycle, you have to be super vigilant about your surroundings. Both the SUV driver and passenger’s heads were looking to the left, making sure they wouldn’t hit an oncoming car as they veered out around the parked car. Not a thought to what might be approaching from the right. That split second of error could have cost that biker his life.
I’m happy nothing serious happened. No one got hurt and I wasn’t delayed as a witness to an accident. I made it to the shop with a minute to spare to open for the visitors that came from away. I never thought to take pictures of their smiling faces.
We seem to live in a world where no one makes mistakes. It’s always the other guy’s fault. If only SUV guy had shouted out the window an embarrassed “I’m sorry”. For the life of me I can’t understand why he could be so arrogant to think this wasn’t his fault. Near misses happen to us all and should be rejoiced and used as a chance to reflect and show more care and caution in the future. It was good that everyone involved got to walk or drive away, thanking their lucky stars, instead of almost seeing them.
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