[Wayne Maybury]

I was out for a ride in my Cobra last week and accidentally cut out in front of a bike. Firstly, the mirrors in a Cobra are not the greatest so that could have contributed to the situation. Here is how it happened. I was the 3rd car in the right hand lane sitting at a red light. There were also 3 or 4 cars in the left lane. The light goes green and the traffic starts to move. The left lane began to move a bit more quickly so I looked in the mirror, saw nothing, then changed lanes. Once I was in the left lane, I glanced in the mirror again and was surprised to see a bike right on my tail.

At first I thought that I had made an error by not seeing the bike sooner. However, it then became very clear that the bike was not there when I changed lanes. We were in a 70 kmh (45 mph) zone and within seconds after I had pulled back into the right lane, that bike was doing at least 200 kmh (120 mph). I never saw him because he just wasn't there when I pulled out. He must have been approaching the slow moving traffic at triple the speed limit.

If I had pulled out a few second later, I could have caused a major accident but was I really to blame? How the heck can you be expected to see a bike going over 100 mph when you are in slow moving traffic?

Far too many of these super bikes are driven on the street, as if they are on a race track. I knew am EMT who told me that many ambalance technicians call these bikes "donor bikes". She said that in many accidents the only things that are usable are some of the riders organs.

Wayne