By Steve Aikens
Becky "The Woman" Nufer - my SO - and I, blasted out of Clovis, NM with a vengeance, headed for the National rally in Michigan, on Saturday July 7th in an effort to skirt the storms brewing in our area. I was on my R11RSL, she on her Yamaha Seca II. We followed the back roads, our front wheels and the Weather Channels' storm maps around literally everything bad that nature could toss at us, making a couple of early "weather prudent" stops at motels along the way. Our final destination was the "Holiday Inn" in Saginaw, where we had reservations for the duration of our stay for the rally, in Midland. We did well on the way out and never rode in bad weather the entire trip out, opting for some "wandering" in the wrong direction to miss the bad stuff.
On arriving in Saginaw, I had trouble finding the street the Holiday Inn was on and, spotting a Crowne Plaza Hotel (the upscale property of Holiday Inns) from the by-pass, I pulled off the by-pass and went in and asked the Desk Clerk for directions to the hotel. She gave me directions to the other side of town and told me to go to the light at the intersection and turn left. That was to go back where we just came from, and re-enter the by-pass to avoid the traffic and were told we could see the Holiday Inn from the by-pass, but get off on (whatever the name of the street was) and it was right at the off-ramp.
We rode over to the light and sat - roasting - until it changed. The street we are on is a 4 lane divided, N-S street, the street we are trying to get to is a 4 lane also, but not divided, E-W. Caddy-corner across from the Crowne Plaza Hotel, is a city bus station. Saginaw uses those smaller, more agile buses - like oversized and extended vans - instead of the big Greyhound type. When the light changed we found ourselves waiting for all the buses to make their way through the intersection. Finally, on-coming traffic seemingly stopped, though I noticed that one of the buses sitting in the (on coming) left lane but up at the intersection put on his 4-way flashers. The intersection was blind around the right side of the bus. I presumed the bus was not going anywhere, at least until the lights changed for him again, and seeing no other traffic, decided to cautiously proceed through my left turn.
I pull away and keep looking; the best I can around the stopped bus and suddenly, another even smaller bus appears from behind and on the right of the stopped bus. He's moving much too fast for me to clear the intersection before he hits me, if he doesn't see me and brake hard - VERY HARD. I take the only rational action at this point and simply stop. The stop was short, but not moving that fast, it was to me not much more than fairly normal "evasive actions" stop. "The Woman", at the light, was controlling her normal position behind me in the right center of the turn lane. She apparently decided that she could make the light with me, in front of the stopped bus. She pulled into the intersection behind me, crossing my path, without leaving my safety zone from the rear clear enough for the situation and suddenly found herself careening off my left saddlebag and through the intersection. Fortunately for us, the bus driver DID see us, DID brake hard and most importantly, DID avoid hitting "The Woman" as she violated his right of way. Additionally, seeing that I was stuck in the center of the intersection with an obviously damaged motorcycle, waved me through so I could make it over to where "The Woman" stopped, safely. Though the motorcycle itself sustained no damage, the saddlebag went up like the bomb I was smuggling into Saginaw went off pre-maturely, sending shrapnel and the junk I was carrying in it (heh-heh, it was "The Woman's" trip bag) wildly tumbling in all directions. No question about it - it was on Hell-of-a hit!
Surveying the situation and the damage, the cause of the accident was clearly the bus driver in the on-coming lane that turned on his 4-way flashers. It turns out he did so to allow the other bus to come around and proceed before him. The bus driver that came around him, did so at much to fast a speed to be safe under the blind conditions of the intersection and the stopped bus.
The secondary cause of the accident was "The Woman" violating my safety zone from the rear and not having enough time to react and either stop or turn her bike more sharply to avoid hitting me. She also failed to clear her path, relying instead on my clearing it for her.
I am a (no longer teaching) MSF Chief instructor and have taught numerous riders and MSF Instructors about riding and rider safety, especially when riding with another rider or in groups.
A few years ago, "The Woman" and I decided it was time for her to learn to ride. We bought her a bike and she spent a year mastering it before she needed to move up to something more competent and that better suited to our riding style. Until she moved up to a bigger bike, we didn't really spend much riding time together. During the National in Missoula, my good friend and dealer from Deming Cycle Center, Don Cameron, took this Yamaha Seca II in as a trade and offered it to me at a price too good to pass on. I snapped it up and "The Woman" had a new ride. As soon as she had the new bike, we spent some time going over the differences in the old bike, the new bike and the differences in how they are ridden.
Slowly at first, she learned well, how to handle this new, faster, more powerful steed. She soon became more and more independent and willing to venture out alone on her bike. She looked forward more and more to the rides we would take together. Each ride more of an adventure, each ride more of a learning experience.
We are fortunate to have some good friends, Jack and Jill (Michele) Kirkland, in Farwell, TX, that got bitten by the motorcycle bug last September. They drove up to spend the weekend with us and enjoying the Golden Aspen Rally in Ruidoso, NM, where Jack bought a bike at the rally, with my promise that I would teach him how to ride it safely. That was the beginning of a lot of time with both he and his wife, who now was getting the bug for her own bike, teaching them how to ride. "The Woman" spent most of the time I was teaching them, with us and added to her arsenal of my "do this, do that, don't ever do that" riding safety crap, listening in as I taught them. "Jill" soon got her own bike, they both smoked their way through the Texas DPS motorcycle test and became qualified, licensed riders, and the four of us spent a fair amount of time riding together, both short day rides and a couple overnighters to rally's and IBMWR gatherings. Each ride we took was a continuation of the learning experience to ride safely in groups, with a lot of emphasis on riding speeds, keeping traffic at a safe distance behind (or in front of) you and following distances. We spent a good deal of time talking about lane positioning, protection of that safety zone around you and your bike and particularly the safety zone from the rear - the area of your motorcycle that is the least controllable by the rider.
This incident certainly had its negative aspect; my left saddlebag was destroyed and had to be replaced before we could get out of the area and "The Woman" nursed a pretty nasty bruise on her right leg for a while. More importantly, it had one major positive aspect.
As a qualified MSF Instructor, one aspect of riding instruction where you can't ever teach or observe a student is how they will react in an emergency situation that will require using the skills you only use 100 percent of, in that situation. Every student I have taught has always left me with the question of how well did I do my job. Not the question of "can they master the skills to learn to ride safely?" I already know that or they didn't pass. Rather, the question in my mind has always been whether I put someone on a motorcycle that is going to use it to commit suicide because they didn't learn quite enough to handle emergency situations and their motorcycling sense isn't fine-tuned enough to take over and save them. One of the reasons I stopped teaching is because in my opinion, many of the students stopped listening. Obviously, a 14 or 15 year old kid knows more about riding safety than some old fart that has over a million and a half miles on motorcycles - in some 44 years. That may or may not be true, but it's just not my style to pass some cocky kid that knows it all, if I determine he doesn't know enough to stay alive after he leaves me. Somehow they fail to understand - nor do the parents of the students that you require to repeat to pass - there is a serious responsibility when the MSF Instructor signs off on a student. Here in New Mexico as with many other states with training and licensing regulations governing motorcycles, the MSF Instructor is the Certifying Official, that, that student can safely operate a two-wheeled motor vehicle safely - in traffic situations. When you have a student that generally doesn't handle everyday "urgencies" well, especially the unknown when driving in a car or on a bike (like hitting a bump too hard or catching unexpected movement around the vehicle) the feeling is very uneasy.
"The Woman" is one such person. She often over-reacts to the unexpected when driving or riding. I have always been concerned over just how well she would handle an emergency situation when she has to provide control of her bike. She proved to me that under such conditions, she would completely control her machine following an impact, if it was possible, and she wouldn't lose her cool or riding skills and dump the bike, getting hurt in the process. She performed admirably under this situation. I am at ease with her riding skills now and am confident that she will handle herself properly in any situation she is confronted with on her bike.
One last note of interest: There is no "Holiday Inn" at Saginaw, Michigan any longer. It turns out that it has been sold to Ramada Inns. Our reservation was for the Crowne Plaza! Yep, the one where the accident occurred. Once we arrived at the former Holiday Inn (now Ramada), I used the phone to call the reservations center and find out just where the Holiday Inn my reservation was for was located. I was told it was the Holiday Inn at 400 Johnson Street. We got directions to Johnson Street from the desk clerk at the Ramada, and were surprised to learn it was where we had just come from. Calling the reservation clerk back again, she confirmed that though my reservation was booked as a "Holiday Inn" reservation, it was for the Crowne Plaza! Bottom line here is if the desk clerk at the Crowne Plaza had known **they were** the Holiday Inn property in Saginaw when I first went in to find the Holiday Inn, it's very probable this accident would never have occurred.Ironic, isn't it……..
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