[novascotia]

from the cbc news

this women stopped for the ducks. had her drivers side door open and was walking up to the ducks. she was parked completly in her lane. no signals.

 

[echo]

If the car in front of me stopped for animals (or any reason) I would immediately be concerned about being rear ended. I never stop in the middle of the road for any reason. Bad idea esp on a mc.

 

[V-Strom Ry]

Tragic but unless the driver locked up her brakes right in front of the rider the rider should have been able to avoid any collision. Wrong is wrong, however, and the driver should be held accountable for any violations she may have committed that lead up to the collision. Stopping on a highway is stupid unless there is no option (traffic jam, etc.).

I'm not exactly what the highway in question is like (the numbers suggest it is a major Autoroute) but around here, at certain times of day in particular, coming to a hard stop in the traffic lanes of the highway when they're moving would be practically guaranteed to cause a chain reaction collision. People just don't expect other people to come to a sudden, unexpected stop for no apparent reason on the highway. Should they be able to deal with such a situation? Yes, but it's still a damn fool thing to do.

 

[V-Strom Ry]

If the car in front of me stopped for animals (or any reason) I would immediately be concerned about being rear ended. I never stop in the middle of the road for any reason. Bad idea esp on a mc.

Yeah, that's what I always worry about when I have to stop hard because of vehicles in front of me braking suddenly - I have never really had any worries about my ability to stop in time, since I pay attention and have good brakes and reaction times, but I never know about the person behind me.

 

[OydnaR]

Damage to your vehicle isn't a reason to stop. It's easy to repair a vehicle, and hitting something as small as a duck wouldn't even leave much of a dent.
.

and I've seen a chicken go thru a radiator necessatating the vehicle be towed

anything that can disable you it reason to stop

I've also seen a car hit a turkey go off the road into a ditch and get totaled cause it splattered all over the windshield causeing the driver to lose visibility

 

[Dirt_Dad]

Women are also good for surrendering the right of way. They wave the other person right into YOU!

It doesn't have to be a woman doing this, but in my experience it usually is.

I've trained my daughter that when someone is "being nice" and waving you out instead of taking their own right of way you should be very worried and extra cautious. It is one of the more dangerous situations you will experience on the road. The "nice" person rarely has the full traffic picture in mind. When it happens you can feel pressure to not make the "nice" person wait any longer than necessary and you can make a move without making a full survey of the traffic situation. That's how a friend of ours and her 16 year old daughter got T-boned at 40 mph. Some nice lady was waving her out right into the path of anther car. At least the nice lady stuck around to say "I'm sorry."

Please don't be "nice." Please take your own right of way. People expect it and know how to deal with it. Being nice causes accident and deaths.

 

[JoWhee]

and I've seen a chicken go thru a radiator necessatating the vehicle be towed

anything that can disable you it reason to stop

I've also seen a car hit a turkey go off the road into a ditch and get totaled cause it splattered all over the windshield causeing the driver to lose visibility

Someones life is always more important chicken thru your radiator, you can drive a few meters/km to safety even with a blown radiator. I'd still rather see a car totaled, than someone get hurt.
Just because you lose visibility you don't have to go off the road, it's all about the driver, ever hear of a white-out?
If you have ever driven in Montreal (you may have, NH isn't that far away), you know the drivers around there are nuts. Stopping on a highway reduces your life expectancy to minutes.

 

[OydnaR]

Someones life is always more important chicken thru your radiator, you can drive a few meters/km to safety even with a blown radiator. I'd still rather see a car totaled, than someone get hurt.
Just because you lose visibility you don't have to go off the road, it's all about the driver, ever hear of a white-out?
If you have ever driven in Montreal (you may have, NH isn't that far away), you know the drivers around there are nuts. Stopping on a highway reduces your life expectancy to minutes.

when you emergency brake, do you check your rear view mirror first ?

 

[JoWhee]

when you emergency brake, do you check your rear view mirror first ?

I am always aware of what is around me, including my mirrors.
I should also add: I've been rear-ended twice on a motorcycle, once in a car, neither time while stopped or braking. I'm not taking sides here, this was a tragic accident. But if it comes between an animal or putting yourself in danger why stop? You're in a cage probably with airbags, crumple zones etc.. not to mention about the only thing that would stand a chance against a car is a moose, a 15 pound duck is going to be "foie gras".

 

[OydnaR]

But if it comes between an animal or putting yourself in danger why stop?

I guess you just don't get it,

by not stopping, you are putting yourself in danger.

the risk of injury from the known collision is greater than the risk of injury from the maybe, but probably not danger from behind

as for the vehicle from behind, if you follow the 3 second rule, you should never have to worry about what someone does in front of you

 

[Dirt_Dad]

... coming to a hard stop in the traffic lanes of the highway when they're moving would be practically guaranteed to cause a chain reaction collision. People just don't expect other people to come to a sudden, unexpected stop for no apparent reason on the highway.

You just gave an excellent explanation of why I removed the headlight modulator from my bike.

 

[ozart]

The crown is deciding if they are going to lay charges of criminal negligence causing death to the car driver. The mother/wife (on the 2nd bike) has asked that no charges be laid, that the driver of the car has suffered enough by witnessing her husband and child die in front of her.

I would not be in favor of criminal charges against the driver. It's obvious there was no malicious intent, actually quite the opposite. She should not be put in the same category as drug dealers, burglars, muggers, and etc. At most, I'd just suspend her license for a year.

This would be my ruling if I were the "crown".

 

[TheWall]

I guess you just don't get it,

by not stopping, you are putting yourself in danger.

the risk of injury from the known collision is greater than the risk of injury from the maybe, but probably not danger from behind

as for the vehicle from behind, if you follow the 3 second rule, you should never have to worry about what someone does in front of you

+1

It is tragic that a rider got killed. However, when there is an obstacle in front of you on the roadway - especially at highway speeds, you do what is necessary to avoid hitting it. That might mean swerving, slowing, speeding up, or (gasp!) yes, even coming to a complete stop. The motorcycle riders were not paying attention, and their complacence is what ultimately caused the accident, sorry. Is a duck's life worth a rider's life? Absolutely not, but as Randyo said, the *possibility* of being rear-ended is far preferable than the *certainty* of an accident, even if the object you hit is rather small and light. Think of it this way...ever been hit by one of those really big bugs while doing 50+ mph? You know, the ones that knock your head back a bit and make you go "WTF was THAT?!?!" How much do you think one of those weighs compared to a duck?

Sorry, I'm with SittingDuck on this one. If you drive or ride based only on what you *expect* people around you to do, well, I want to take out a life insurance policy on you because it's only a matter of time...

 

[SCraig]

If it had been the bikes who stopped for the ducks and then got hit from behind by the car there are a lot of people here who would STILL be saying it's the car driver's fault.

 

[SCUBA]

We are talking about a highway, multiple lanes...legal speed 60mph, commonly to 70mph ! Dead stop on her lane (not on the side), door open for ducks ! We are talking human life for ducks !!!! Hello is there any body home ? This is a tragedy for everyone involve. Its is illegal to stop on a highway here in Québec and probably elsewhere. It's totally different when you stop and go on a morning jam. On that kind of highway completly stop on a lane..yours and/others life expectancy is counted in minutes... Had it been a truck instead of a bike and that driver would be... gone.

 

[bogfro]

I somewhat disagree. If you stop just out of sight in a blind corner or just after a rise, there's a good chance that a driver behind will rearend you or have to take evasive action, even though they are alert and adhering to the speed limits & following distances. It's never a good choice to stop in a traffic lane.

I agree it's never a good choice to stop in a traffic lane, but it's still the fault of the person behind for not taking into account the whole scene (blind corner, rise, whatever). In other words, don't outrun your sightline to where you can't come to a complete stop within the distance you can see. But from the description of this, it sounds like this was on a straight, flat road where you could obviously see that the car was stopped, if you were paying attention.

This analogy doesn't even come close to the OP. In the case of a stop sign coming up, it's expected and you prepare. In the case of an open highway with only one vehicle in front of you, there is no indication to slow, and especialy stop. - completely unexpected.

Expect the unexpected. Pay attention. Etc. Should be pretty obvious that the car in front had stopped. People don't use turn signals all the time, and you have to rely on looking at their brake lights, or if their brake lights are burned out, judging their speed by watching them. Then as you are stopping, pay attention to the guy behind you to make sure he also stops. If it doesn't look like he's going to stop, that's when you jump to your pre-planned escape route. You had an escape route pre-planned, didn't you?

 

[OydnaR]

We are talking about a highway, multiple lanes...legal speed 60mph, commonly to 70mph ! Dead stop on her lane (not on the side), door open for ducks ! We are talking human life for ducks !!!! Hello is there any body home ? This is a tragedy for everyone involve. Its is illegal to stop on a highway here in Québec and probably elsewhere. It's totally different when you stop and go on a morning jam. On that kind of highway completly stop on a lane..yours and/others life expectancy is counted in minutes... Had it been a truck instead of a bike and that driver would be... gone.

so, when you see some kids dropping objects from a highway overpass,


what do you do,

I agree what the lady did in that particular case was obnoxious, still, you have to be prepared for ANY thing. people will stop regardless of where they are if they think they are in emminent danger of collision, its natural instinct

 

[LordSmoke]

Interesting that this came up today as traffic was stopped on my commute this morning by half a dozen Canadian geese waddling across (at least) six lanes heading into town.

No accidents. Just some degree of consternation.

 

[SittingDuck]

I can assure you those would be dead ducks unless I KNEW there wasn't any traffic behind me, not just think it....

You can never know anything for sure, only believe it with a varying degrees of accuracy. Looking merely gives you the impression that you didn't see anything there; it doesn't mean there isn't anything there.

Yeah, I'm a skeptic; sue me. I used the word think for that reason. I don't mean to pick an argument, I know what you meant by your post. Im just contextualizing my choice of "to think" where you would have used "to know".

The more I look into the brain and how it works, the more certain I become that we do in fact "know" very little about anything.

 

[SittingDuck]

The ducks were clearly in the road illegally, jaywalking! If the ducks hadn't have committed the first crime, the rest of the tragic events would never have occured.

Those f'ing ducks are nothing but trouble. There used to be a crowd of nasty Muscovy ducks that wandered around just beyond a blind corner on the River Road in Cocoa. I was innocently driving my Austin Healey Sprite to school one morning, when one of the f'ers hurled it's body into my car's grill. Luckily I was only going 45 or 50, else the radiator might have been damaged. The impact looked like a matress factory explosion. Apparently, Muscovy ducks spend their lives with 8lbs of crap in their bodies at all times. By the time I got to school, the duckshit and innards had heated up and my car REEKED! There were duck turds and flesh in the radiator, on the windshield, spattered on the fenders and hood. This was a traumatic experience for a young lad...

F THE DUCKS!!

Brilliant, Bravo!