Terrifying crash between motorcyclist and a black sedan divides Australians over who’s in the wrong – and you might change your mind after hearing both sides
- Motorbike slams into car in heavy traffic
- Collision happened near Redfern train station
- Video post split opinion about who’s fault was
Australians are divided over who was at fault in a terrifying collision between a motorcyclist and a car in heavy Sydney traffic.
Video of the crash shows the motorcyclist slamming into the passenger door of a black sedan on Gibbons Street, Redfern at the edge of the CBD at 5.35pm on February 28.
The clip shows initially shows the motorcyclist brought to a standstill as a bus pulls in front of him while the outside lane is blocked.
He gestures to the right, as if out of frustration at another driver or the heavy traffic.
As the bus pulls away and changes lanes to the right, the biker sees a gap and zips between it an a stationary bus, then moves into the kerbside lane.
But he’s knocked flying by the sedan, which is headed for the same lane.
Australians are divided over who was at fault in a terrifying collision between a motorcyclist and a car in heavy Sydney traffic
Video of the crash shows the motorcyclist slamming into the passenger door of a black sedan on Gibbons Street, Redfern at the edge of the CBD at 5.35pm on February 28
The impact is heavy, throwing the rider over the front left of the car like a rag doll and and dropping him on the ground.
The condition of the rider wasn’t known, but pedestrians quickly gathered to see if he was alright.
The rider’s bike is tossed off the road completely, landing on a bone dry nature strip.
While the black car was indicating left, the driver did not appear to see the motorcyclist coming as they were concentrating on crossing ahead of a gold car behind it.
Whether it had enough time to see the motorcyclist is difficult to determine from the video, which looks to be captured from the camera of another motorcyclist well back from the impact site.
The clip was uploaded to Facebook where opinion was divided.
Many blamed the motorcyclist, who seemed in a hurry to get ahead of the traffic.
The impact is heavy, throwing the rider over the front left of the car like a rag doll and and dropping him on the ground
‘I’m a rider, and agree he wasn’t riding to those (obviously peak hour) conditions,’ a Brisbane rider said.
‘I assume he just left-lane bolted and has got his ‘blinkers on’.
Another commenter said the issue wasn’t so much the speed of the motorcyclist as the fact that his speed wasn’t right for the situation.
‘It’s not your speed that you should watch, but the difference of speed between you and the other traffic,’ the man said.
‘Meaning that one should not ride fast when traffic is slow or stopped, nor ride slow when traffic is fast.’
But not all agreed.
‘Not a bike crash, a car crash,’ a Victorian man said.
‘Car failed to give way when changing lanes and crashed into the bike.’
Another viewer agreed, saying he saw the issue as the driver failing to allow for what might be in the inside lane.
‘The car driver assumed every one was giving way to him and failed to give way himself.
‘The bike rider did nothing wrong. His only fault was assuming that a car driver would actually look before changing lanes.’
One woman said she disagreed the bike was going too fast and pointed out the rider indicated.
But she also noted the accident was down to ‘bad timing all round’.
