Someone on BCsportbikes witnessed the whole thing



was Eastbound on Broadway, stopped right @ the intersection when it happened. Was at about 9:45-ish

Motorcycle was I *think* a CBR600 F4i yellow with black graphics.

Motorcycle was Northbound on Granville, Car Southbound on Granville, turning left to go Eastbound on Broadway. Small silver 4-door, maybe a Kia or Nissan/Toyota (to be honest they all look alike to me...)

Rider and passenger wearing full face helmets, rider may have been wearing a leather or textile jacket, but shorts and running shoes.

Female passenger may have been wearing at best, a light wind-breaker. Shorts and flip flops. Didn't see any gloves if they were worn, but I don't think so.

I was just looking up from my instruments, and heard the unmistakeable sound of high rpm motorcycle engine and the sudden stop/BANG! of car impact. I saw the female passenger completely upside down, arcing high enough up in the air to clear a transit bus.

They both went about 30' or 40' distance, impact was right about dead centre of the intersection, they ended up about 10' and 20' past the north side of the Granville st. crosswalk.

Both were knocked out, and didn't start moving until the Ambulances arrived and there were 5 at my count, at least three within the first 5 minutes, plus big fire truck, small fire truck, and at least 4 cop cars.


The girl passenger was screaming/moaning something fierce while the paramedics were working on her, the guy was quiet.

The cops taped off the entire intersection, (from lamp post to lamp post!!!) completely stopping traffic from going through.

There were a zillion witnesses, the streets were just crazy crowded with people, and so many moved in to go to the bikers aid, that I couldn't even see them within 30 seconds of it happening!


The car definately turned left in front of the bike, but I can't honestly say if the bike was going the speed limit or 60-70 kph etc., (absolutely not slower than that)

The light was still red for me Eastbound, I can't say if it was possibly going from yellow to red, or red for the bike.

I think we gotta lay off on the whole "hate left turners thing" unless you guys say u honestly make all right turns your whole life.

my opinion careless on both parts. if that guy heard the bike rev then he probably tried to run the yellow. considering he had a passenger def wasn't thinking safety first.
that being said, lefty shoulda made better checks.
Who knows maybe someone will come forward and say the bike ran a full red.

The people who are hating on left turners are hating on DANGEROUS left turners, who are making left turns when they shouldn't be, not ALL left turners or else that would make no sense.

And as for the bike revving, he COULD have been downshifting hard to brake and stop. Just because it was revving doesn't mean that he was gunning it.

Hope everyone comes out of this alive and smarter.
I'm always watching for obstacles just waiting to take me out when riding, hope every rider is doing the same.

You'd have to be a real idiot to not ride in a pack with all these olympic lookie loos in their rental cars.

fucking cagers

pardon my stupidity, but what's "olympic lookie loos"

One of the biggest scares I ever had on my bike was when my buddy was riding behind me, and I braked for a yellow light (in time to stop), while my buddy who was behind me gunned the late yellow RIGHT IN FRONT OF A LEFT-TURNER. The left turner saw me brake, and was about to complete the left-turn, but thank god the driver was smart enough to see my dumbass friend gun the late yellow.

wait so the driver DIDNT flee the scene did he/she? None of the news articles mentioned that, except for that one post in this topic.

I'd imagine it'd be pretty hard to flee since there were a billion witnesses.

Anyway, so THAT's what happened there. I was driving westbound on W Broadway on my way to pick up my gf from work when I was cutoff at Hemlock because of the police. This was around 11:45ish so I guess they were still investigating and combing the area.


As for fault, I would DEFINITELY put the blame on the driver. If the eastbound light was still red, then North/south Granville was at worst, yellow-red (making the assumption that westbound Broadway did not have the advance green which was why the witness reported eastbound being red). In this case, the driver should never make the left turn unless he/she is absolutely certain oncoming traffic has stopped or slowed significantly to stop. Some left turning drivers are morons who can't fuckin wait and be absolutely sure before turning.

you knwo what i think is, because north bound granville around broadway is on a hill, and a bike can go pretty fast, the left turner probably didnt see the bike until it started turning left, and then the bike ran into the car?

just a possibility. or the driver was just a druken idiot?

i dont know but i was there around 10ish and saw one of the guy's leg was twisted wrong way... hope they are alright

ohh shit thats why they had a roadblock there...i thought it was an unusual spot for alcohol check that night...we need pics

Although I'm likely going to offend many of the motorcyclists on RS, I have to interject with the idea that nothing is known for sure at this point and blaming this on "cagers" and blind left-turners is not fair.

I'm sure most of you here ride responsibly, however, as a "cager" I can't begin to tell you the number of near-incidents I've been in from aggressive motorcyclists. Splitting lanes, passing on shoulders or flying through city traffic at completely unreasonable speeds. Twice this season, I've been in an intersection on a yellow, ready to go and have had motorcyclists blow through in an otherwise unsafe situation because they have enough power to do so. Would ICBC deem it my fault? Possibly. However, the situation is preventable if the riders are able to keep their egos in check.

Inevitably, all the leathers, helmets and gloves in the world aren't going to save you when your body parts are crushed against my fender.

I wish the best to these two who were injured. Regardless of fault, no one deserves to get hurt. But please keep in mind none of us know the whole story before we jump to the knee-jerk "poor victimized rider" perspective I see so often here.

My $0.02. Flame Away!

Kev

I actually somewhat agree with you. Whenever a Motorcycle/Car accident occurs everyone blames the car. Not saying this scenario is entirely one side's fault, but still.

so which idiot that cant drive shit

nothing about fleeing

sometimes, it's safer to blow through an intersection (definitely NOT at a highspeed) but why?
-bike's brake a lot faster and can be rearended (my buddy almost creamed me once)
-if there's something slippery on the floor such as debris, oil, even light rain running over that shit will make you lowside and slide out into the intersection. (i've witnessed it first hand on a group ride)

so you're saying it's the rider's fault because he wasn't riding with a pack of bikers? thumbs fing down, buddy.

I agree, there are just as many people on bikes riding like they have a fucking death wish.

Shorts + severe motorcycle accident = :cry:

Oh wow, I hope you smacked your friend back into line. That's deep in suicide territory.

Hope the bikers are ok...

I somewhat witnessed the accident,

i was going southbound on Granville the vehicle that was involved was in front of me and we were both signaling left, at the last moment i decided to continue going southbound on Granville instead of eastbound onto broadway, good thing i had stopped because if i was going to turn left guaranteed that bike would have hit me.

i didn't see the accident because i tend to stop looking when my foots on the brake at the lights but the car turned left in front of me, i thought it was a Yaris, but it was silver.

all i know is that when the yaris turned i saw a poof of smoke two bodies flung into the air and the bike just in debris. the silver car was at the left lane facing east on broadway.

the driver landed in the right hand lane of broadway and the passenger just 3-4 feet from my door. I ran outside to try and talk to the passenger not knowing what to do and i starting calling the police and begging for an answer from the female passenger. within 10 seconds there were like 5 nurses in the surrounding area off duty trying to help.

before my 911 call even came through there was 3 ambulances on scene. the girl was in rough shape and landed oddly. and the guy went into shock. he was put a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance. the girl was a different story.

because of the way she landed, they couldnt' touch her but she woke up and starting screaming, i think she may have broken her neck/spine. and the paramedics needed more help, i asked them to help but since i wasn't really helpful i just sat in my car like a helpless moron.

eventually a fire truck came and 2 more ambulances show up and they ask me whether or not i witness the accident, truthfully i didn't because i zoned out. so the police asked me to leave because the female passenger started to scream and it was making the situation very tense.

Now i had seen the car involved in the accident stop and i thought they came out to help. and i was happy to see so many people willing to help, albeit i wish the situation never arose.


it just upset me that i couldn't do anything even though she was less than a car length from me. i really hope they're okay and pull through, even as a person who saw the aftermath it really unnerved me.

i won't comment on the who i thought was in the wrong, but the bike t-boned the car and the impact was quite hard.

Good job doing your best to help!

Did you give the police your statement?

damn

that's wrong...