4 ms·

Fully agreed. I t-boned a car that cut me off, doing approximately 60-80 km/h. My shoulder dented the car's roof through the door frame. I went flying through t

by slau 1y ago

Fully agreed. I t-boned a car that cut me off, doing approximately 60-80 km/h. My shoulder dented the car's roof through the door frame. I went flying through the air and landed on my back, on cement-cast stones protruding slightly from the cement (the decorative edge of the roundabout). I walked out of the hospital a couple of days later. I wouldn't have been walking then, nor today, if it wasn't for the protective shoulder pads and spine protection in my jacket. It took about 18 months of physiotherapy to stand and walk normally again, but still. Edit: I realise this is a POV with n=1, but it convinced me.

Mawr 1y ago
[flagged]
- DiggyJohnson 1y ago
  The tone of this reply and the accusation of dishonesty is out of line with the HN guidelines. You could have easily edited this comment to be inquisitive and conversational. The last sentence is ridiculous. You don’t know any of these things.
- unaindz 1y ago
  I agree with you on the "Your story doesn't prove armor saved you?" But your second argument about him being to blame for the accident... Like sure, you can always be more safe, more alert. But eventually you are gonna make a mistake no matter how much you try not to. And even if you do everything perfectly any number of unexpected things could happen. "You only got to fuck up once. Be a little slow, be a little late. Just once. And how you ain’t gonna never be slow, never be late? You can’t plan for no shit like this, man. It’s life."
bartvk 1y ago
Please disregard user mawr. Fact is, the body armor protected you. I’m happy you’re able to stand and walk again. One of my buddies also got hit by a car and had a similar story. Nowadays I ride with a jacket with integrated airbag. Fantastic stuff. Also, check out the new Diablo armor from D3O.
UltraSane 1y ago
I really don't understand why anybody rides motorcycles. The severity of injuries from crashes is just so high.
- 0_____0 1y ago
  My commute from Oakland to SF was 20-25 minutes in rush hour (1hr in a car), without having to do anything particularly sketchy, just by filtering/lane splitting. If you're looking at USA stats, you should know that there are many, many people in this country that will regularly get on their Harley, which they've never bothered improving technical handling skill on, after five or six beers, wearing a small plastic hat that resembles a WWI infantry helmet more than a proper ECE/DOT/Snell rated helmet, with jeans and a cutoff leather jacket, and wrap themselves around the nearest telephone pole trying to impress some chick. If you ride with technical skill, good protective gear, and a respect for the machine and the unpredictability of drivers, you have much better prospects than the stats would suggest.
  - UltraSane 1y ago
    But you are fundamentally at the mercy of a single driver turning left with or stopping in front of you with no warning.
    - 7402 1y ago
      When I learned to ride, I was to taught to assume that I was invisible, particularly when at a stop light and an oncoming car was turning left. And proper following distance - for both cars and motorcycles - is to leave enough room to stop if the person in front slams on the brakes.
    - 0_____0 1y ago
      Yes, and. You always leave yourself an out. Oncoming unprotected lefts are the most dangerous feature of city streets, and good motorcyclists learn to be extremely wary of their users. Re: stopping in front of you - this is one reason why lanesplitting can actually be safer. If a car in front of you does an emergency braking maneuver, you're not pointed at the back of them. Additionally, you're not in the way of the car behind you who was watching Harry Potter on his phone and hasn't yet noticed what's happened. We call the longitudinal gap between cars the "squish zone."

by slau 1y ago

Mawr 1y ago

[flagged]

DiggyJohnson 1y ago
The tone of this reply and the accusation of dishonesty is out of line with the HN guidelines. You could have easily edited this comment to be inquisitive and conversational. The last sentence is ridiculous. You don’t know any of these things.
unaindz 1y ago
I agree with you on the "Your story doesn't prove armor saved you?" But your second argument about him being to blame for the accident... Like sure, you can always be more safe, more alert. But eventually you are gonna make a mistake no matter how much you try not to. And even if you do everything perfectly any number of unexpected things could happen. "You only got to fuck up once. Be a little slow, be a little late. Just once. And how you ain’t gonna never be slow, never be late? You can’t plan for no shit like this, man. It’s life."

bartvk 1y ago

Please disregard user mawr. Fact is, the body armor protected you. I’m happy you’re able to stand and walk again. One of my buddies also got hit by a car and had a similar story. Nowadays I ride with a jacket with integrated airbag. Fantastic stuff. Also, check out the new Diablo armor from D3O.

UltraSane 1y ago

I really don't understand why anybody rides motorcycles. The severity of injuries from crashes is just so high.

0_____0 1y ago
My commute from Oakland to SF was 20-25 minutes in rush hour (1hr in a car), without having to do anything particularly sketchy, just by filtering/lane splitting. If you're looking at USA stats, you should know that there are many, many people in this country that will regularly get on their Harley, which they've never bothered improving technical handling skill on, after five or six beers, wearing a small plastic hat that resembles a WWI infantry helmet more than a proper ECE/DOT/Snell rated helmet, with jeans and a cutoff leather jacket, and wrap themselves around the nearest telephone pole trying to impress some chick. If you ride with technical skill, good protective gear, and a respect for the machine and the unpredictability of drivers, you have much better prospects than the stats would suggest.
- UltraSane 1y ago
  But you are fundamentally at the mercy of a single driver turning left with or stopping in front of you with no warning.
  - 7402 1y ago
    When I learned to ride, I was to taught to assume that I was invisible, particularly when at a stop light and an oncoming car was turning left. And proper following distance - for both cars and motorcycles - is to leave enough room to stop if the person in front slams on the brakes.
  - 0_____0 1y ago
    Yes, and. You always leave yourself an out. Oncoming unprotected lefts are the most dangerous feature of city streets, and good motorcyclists learn to be extremely wary of their users. Re: stopping in front of you - this is one reason why lanesplitting can actually be safer. If a car in front of you does an emergency braking maneuver, you're not pointed at the back of them. Additionally, you're not in the way of the car behind you who was watching Harry Potter on his phone and hasn't yet noticed what's happened. We call the longitudinal gap between cars the "squish zone."