Triumphrat

Major Kong

I had an incident last night. I was going through a residential area near my home that has some nice turns. I noticed some kids walking on the side walk. This triggered the mental "where there is one there are more" caution. I slackened my pace, came into a turn. I saw a boy on a bicycle at the curb in the left lane. I rolled off, just as he darted into my lane at a 90 degree angle.

I applied brakes and horn and clutch, and came to a stop about 3 feet from where he was.

No one was hurt, no bent metal. I was really rattled by the whole thing. The take-away for me is that it would have been easy for me to have been going faster. It would have been an accident where a boy was seriously injured.

It's just not worth it trying to enjoy riding in a residential area. Maybe someone else in here can benefit from my experience too.

Godspeed,
Kong

__________________
"Only by challenging and questioning our beliefs can we come to the point of ownership of those beliefs."

LoVel

Nice post Kong. I almost hit a child one time in my cage. It scared the crap out of me and made me think about what if. I don't know how I would have lived with myself if I had to feel that child going under the car. Even though I was going the speed limit and he came flying out of a partially hidden driveway. The partial part is what saved his a$$. Just saw a flash of brigh color out of the corner of my eye and slammed on the brakes.

mistermellow001

Way to be alert, Kong. I like your adage "where there is one there are more" - I'll add that to my collection of caution flags.

We all know of some kind of saying to warn ourselves to be cautious, like "everyone's mission in life, whether they know it or not, is to try to kill me." That one works for me.

It occurred to me while reading your post that the mission of every little kid is to run into something. It's a wonder any of us are still alive. Thanks for the cautionary tale.

__________________
Guy

"Always be yourself... unless you suck"
~ Joss Whedon

seumas

Along the lines of the 'if there's one there's more', if the dog is out the kids usually aren't too far behind either.

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"We fight not for glory, nor for wealth, nor honor but only and alone
we fight for freedom, which no good man surrenders but with his life."

Tbirdnz

Definitely kids and animals around should trigger a mental 'hazard' warning.

Of course the list is endless, women in 4-WD's on corners or should I say over the line on corners, white panel vans which appear to driven by maniacs in a hurry, so on and so on ....


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Ride on !

Weasel Pete

You did the right thing and you shouldn't lose sleep over it.

DaveM

Nice post Kong.

I have the unfortunate privilige of having once run down an adult (although he was mentally handicapped) whislt riding at night about 20 years ago on my GSX 400, that I commuted on at the time.

I was ok, but I broke the poor fellows leg and after had a bit of an argument with a not very nice Police Seargant who accused me of doing it on purpose.

It was not a pleasant experience and one I do not want to ever repeat.

It was a very poorly lit pedestrian crossing, the position was just over a slight rise and so not visible also the only street sign had an untrimmed tree overgrown and obscuring the sign completely from view.

I was on a portion of road I did not know and the poor fellow I hit was wearing all black clothes late at night, I never saw him until about 3 metres away and never even braked. I hit him below the knee with my foot peg and naturally he went down and so did I.

I wasn't speeding fortunately which the kind Mustang driver behind me explained to the nasty tempered copper.

So Kong good advice, have your riding fun in the less populated hills.

DaveM:

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Nochicanes

Two blind guys share a house down the street from me. These guys come and go at all hours (well, as long as the bus is running). These two can hear the Thrux coming but can't hear a blink'n thing with cars it seems. They have a proclivity to make rather abrupt turns which has provoked me to make sharp steering changes and brake applications.

I feel bad for the guys and admire their independance...they drive me nuts though...

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Whisperinsmith

major kong,
nice post and thanks for the reminder.

and nochicanes, ha! i love it when blind guys drive people nuts. man, what a world they must life in. puts things in perspective, doesn't it. no riding. man that sucks.

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Life. Fill 'er up. It's all we got.

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Bennington, VT May 31, June 01 2008

Tbirdnz

Well I once hit a blind man who was totally deaf, armless and legless playing a one-man band on stage. Didn't like his music !

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Ride on !