Why do we motorcyclists want to blame cages for our accidents?

I agree 100% but it's natural for people to want to blame someone else. The young people blame the elderly. The old blame the young. One race blames another, etc.

The bottom line is the average driver thinks they have above average skills.

People don't want to admit their limitations and so they never improve on their weaknesses. Both motorcycle rider and car driver would be better off admiting they're not perfect and striving to get better.

In truth many of these people defending the motorcyclist are not admitting the truth. As some one is is too old to race a bike, but has logged a lot of miles on the road I can tell you many people think being on a motorcycle is a license to speed.

Read how many people here want to know how fast a bike is. They all want to move up in size to a bigger faster bike. Truth is a 500 will easily take anyone well over the speed limit. While my car's speed is limited to somewhere between 95-102 ( I have never driven fast enough to find out the exact speed). My motorcycle is not governed like that. Most motorcyclist in a wreck have been riding less than 6 months.

It is true police will often take the easy way out and accept it was the dead motorcyclist fault rather than going to the expense and hassle of recreating the accident. Hey when it is my word against no ones, I am right.

This is a numbers trick.

They take a large number and give you a percentage(4%). This 4% number now becomes 100% for the next part which now rockets up to 72%.

Under injuries we start out at the same 4%. Push that number up to 100% and we are FOUND at fault 53% of the time. That is just over half of the time.

In the Team Oregon report of the 88% that were found to be the motorcyclists fault 60% were single vehicle accidents of course there is no one else to blame. Take out that 60% and the at fault rate is 28%.

Statistics are just numbers and can be made to look any way you want them to.

The numbers don't look good but if you can translate them they are not bad either.

In Phoenix about 2 months ago, there was an experienced rider riding on I-17 at 02:30am, going home from work. He was rear-ended by an off-duty highway patrol officer in his own personal car with no insurance. The back end of the bike was imbedded up to the engine in the hood of the mustang. The rider was thrown forward off his bike about 50-60 feet. The rider was then run over by a tractor trailer. The guy on the bike was in a coma for 4 weeks and lost one of his legs. The off-duty office retired a week later, and last week they said he had alcohol in his system, but refused a breathalyzer test and it took 4 hours to get a search warrant to obtain blood for testing. By that time, his BAC was slightly below .08%. The officer still has not been charged in the accident.

Of course, nothing the rider could have done would have prevented this, except stay home. This is why cagers get the blame.

IMHO alot of times in fatal collisions the rider is impaired, so rightfully the rider is considered "at fault". But I think the cagers are to blame, for example in the classic "left turn/didn't see ya" accident. Had the rider not been impaired "maybe" they could have avoided the accident, maybe not. But the rider gets the blame either way, which on a personal level I have no problem with for some reason.

Actually, your stats are off too. In actuality the majority of m/c deaths are the cause of the other driver "I never saw him".

But, you are right that the overall majority of m/c accidents involve some rider error. Either some yahoo on a crotch rocket screaming thru traffic, with little or no safety gear while riding in his t shirt and short pants, or a rider who doesn't understand lane placement and where to ride , how much space to leave so on coming traffic can see you etc. If we required more riding experience before turning these people loose on the highways, we'd see a reduction in accidents. Although there really are only two types of riders. Those who have been knocked off, and those who will be knocked off. In fact, an accident occurred here last evening. A man and woman on a motorcycle riding on the highway. A guy in a pickup entered the highway right in front of them, the m/c clipped the front of the truck. One dead, one in critical. The guy in the truck uttered those imortal words....." I never saw him".

specific blindness is a psychological phenomenon that means if people are looking for cars or trucks & dont see any then the road is clear.this was demonstrated in a extensive series of experiments involving hundreds of people a few years ago where people were shown a film of a group of people passing different colored basket balls to each other. the groups of people watching were told to count how many times each ball changed hands. while the people were passing the balls a 6 ft tall man in a gorilla suit walked across the room & between the ball players. about 30%to 45% of the people in each group watching did not see the 6 ft gorilla walk across the small room & when shown the film again most said it was a different film because the gorilla was'nt in the first one. anyone who has ridden very many years has had people look straight at them & not see them. most of us have been hit at least once because of it & all can tell of many close calls. its a very real but not widely understood phenomenon. it will happen to YOU someday lets hope you survive to tell the tale. if you dont then you will be blamed for the accident & will become a statistic.

the only statistic i ever worry about is me...or my passenger if there is 1. i never assume a cage is going to see me. i assume all cagers are homicidal maniacs out on a day pass, and i assume the bike becomes cloaked to invisibility every time i leave the drive just for starters. no1 is responsible for me but me.

some bikers practically beg to get squished. they ride either just off the shoulder of a cager instead of doing a quick pass, or they tailgate. i've seen others become impatient over 3 seconds of wait, try to flick around a cage at the same time a cage decides to do the exact same thing and was waiting for an opening. then u get the morons that lane split at 90 mph when the law is very clear that that nullifies the lane split rule at that speed.

using city streets to 'better' the 0-90 time is also beggin to get squished...and i've seen this being done alot. he who disrespects their machine will 1 day see the road from a much different angle...the angle of pain.

Since you, obviously, don't know anything about the Hurt report, it was a study done in 1982. The Hurt Report is still valid. The study was done by a researcher and not someone with an ax to grind or some govt flunkie trying to make a few bucks off a new helmet law. The cops are hardly a valid source.

"I didn't see the bike" is an old saw.

I still feel that a loud pipe with consideration is needed.That means not ripping throttle at 2am or just for the heck of it.It is hard enough to see a bike.If you cant hear it then you are 2 strikes down.If you investigate a little farther let me know how many of those wrecks were kids under the age of 25 doing stunts in a place were it is flat out stupid.You cant fear the bike but you must respect the bike