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Smith117 -> RE: the biker (4/24/2008 8:39:15 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Zensee
I heard you, roaring past my home at three AM, sitting at the intersection, gunning your deliberately un-muffled motor.
You didn't see me sleeping peacefully or awake with a start or lay there for the rest of the night, trying to get back to sleep.
You didn't see me wondering what sort of thoughtless person would consider their desire to make as much as a small plane, right outside my house, more important than someone else's need for a good night of rest.
You didn't see me finally drag my ass out of bed, all bleary eyed and hoping I could make it through the day.
You didn't care that I was a school bus driver and that many young lives, possibly your own children's, depend on me being alert at all times.
You did see my big yellow bus and you knew that I'd be obliged to give way if you squeezed me out with your bike, so when you decided to use me as a way of gaining some small advantage on the road you didn't hesitate using your faster, more agile machine to take it.
You didn't see the street racer entering the freeway on the ramp to my right or realise he was thinking the same thing that you were, and gunning his engine to accomplish it.
You did hear me honk and wave a warning and you did take the time to salute me with your middle finger.
You didn't see me trying to calm a bus full of horrified children while calling for an ambulance and dealing with my own shock.
I wonder if you recognised me as I watched your life bleed out on the road, helpless to save you?
I wonder if a good night's sleep would have allowed me the extra margin of attention I needed to avert this disaster?
I live with that. You don't.
Rest In Peace.
Oh very nice. [sm=applause.gif][sm=applause.gif][sm=applause.gif][sm=applause.gif]
A shame that it's true, but very well done.
I can add a few as well, though mine pertain to the "sport bikes" more popular today.
I saw you and your friends as they screamed down the freeway, dodging in and out of heavy traffic "just because you could."
I heard about you driving alongside a family's car, kicking it and throwing things at it, terrorizing them beyond belief.....all while screaming down the freeway.
I heard about you running from the cops for nothing more than you thought you could get away. (You didn't, and your passenger spent months in the hospital for your stupidity while you blamed the cops for chasing you)
And I heard about you, so excited to get your new way-too-powerful sportbike as you gunned the engine down a stretch of freeway less than an 8th of a mile long. But you didn't see the sharp, 45 mph turn, before you hit it going way too fast, flipping yourself and your brand new bike over a 3-foot concrete barrier and killing yourself instantly, destroying your precious new toy in the process.
You see folks, motorcycles are MOTOR vehicles as well. And while car drivers should keep a better eye out for them (as well as everything else on the road), the bike riders really need to learn they are MOTOR vehicles. They are not a bicycle one minute and a car the next. They can't just expect to dodge in and out of heavy traffic with no consequence. They can't demand we watch for them, and then suddenly change which way we need to watch 3 times a second.
If you expect car drivers to keep an eye out for you, you can't dodge around them. You can't weave in and out of them in heavy traffic or ride on the lane-divider lines. No matter how good a person watches for bikes and everything else, there's only so much area behind us that we can see at once. And I don't mind telling your....in a tense heavy traffic situation....my eyes ALWAYS go to the semi next to me that can crush me in a moment before trying to look for the tiny bike that might be screaming around me, impatient that I am being so cautious around the semi.
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