Where exactly is highway 9?
Any google maps links?
Looking at the above youtube link led to this footage of a truck being sliced in half by a train.
youtube.com/watch?v=r-K3trgr … re=related
As always, I had no idea this happened.
I dont have maps but it is not highway 9(my bad)…just route 9. It runs from xindian to Pinglin. Roosevelt becomes Beishin road…that becomes Beiyi road. Beiyi sec 1 ~5 is the road i love.
[quote=“tommy525”]I wont ride a two wheeler in taiwan again ever. Because there are just too many idiots like this guy. Riding on the other side of the road. The other guys are lucky not to be killed by this idiot.
youtube.com/watch?v=1sSuHE5yVF4
Was looking for another clip of a pair on a scooter rounding a bend on the beiyi and slid into a truck. Apparently they lived, although banged up. Couldnt find it yet.[/quote]
Both riders are at fault in that video. Fault is probably 60/40 for the guy in the oncoming lane.
There were two deaths on the 9 in Oct on the same day…I think the 20th? I think in both cases it was a car passing a car on a blind corner.
I went that weekend to Yilan by this road (two weeks ago? yes :P) and I saw two different accidents plus another scooter crashed. One was one guy in a scooter that lost the control while taking a curve and end up crashing his scooter against a wall. Then a car hit the scooter. The guy was visibly emotially affected and bleeding from the chin, but he was still OK. Another one was just a motorbike that destroyed the front part of a scooter that was crossing the road wihout paying the necessary attention. Fuck them.
Now I´m in Yilan again and I saw on the road a badly crashed scooter. Don´t know what happened to the ridder, and I start to hope that all these brainless guy who put others´ lifes at risk die soon and taking nobody with them. I ride kinda fast (well, may be Mordeth wouldn´t consider me fast), I really enjoy speed, but I try to keep distances and not to make silly things whereas other people do the contrary thing.
I will upload a couple of pictures I took from the car “eating” that scooter. Also I´m trying to upload now a video I just record coming here, but it seems I need a life long to get it uploaded…
Sorry for the bad quality of the video, which is pityfully shaky, and for the most interesting part of the road was just after it… but my camera decided to leave this world before saving the second part of the road…
Normally I take these curves better, with more self confidence… dunno what happened this time. In addition, it happened about three times that the rear wheel slippered on a curve. That´s weird, last time I had no such problem. Time to change tire?
You really enjoy speed?
I for one hope I never meet you in public space.
[quote=“TheGingerMan”]You really enjoy speed?
I for one hope I never meet you in public space.[/quote]
What you mean? Speed itself is good. The problem is to go fast when it´s not advisable 
The 9 is a known killer road. Its a challenging road made very dangerous by many insane (no other word to put it) drivers and riders.
There is a similar road known as Deal’s Gap…or “the tail of the dragon” in America. They have a shrine made out of parts of the motorbikes that riders have died on.
Every country has curvy roads…and every country has people who will go to those roads for a bit of adventure. Oh…and every country will have pathetic people with nothing better to do then sit and bitch in front of a computer about how other people are doing something interesting.
Come on man, recant that.
Some of the folk who go out and do ‘something interesting’ are incapable of safely handling the bike at the speeds they reach.
Those people put innocent road users at risk of injury or death.
My wife’s uncle is in a permanent vegetative state, with part of his skull removed. That was caused by ‘a bit of adventure’.
Want adventure’? Go to the fucking track.
That covers about 99% of motorcycle riders in Taiwan. 
I’m sorry but if that motorcyclist destroyed that scooter it was probably because it was going way too fast. The roads in Taiwan are full of known hazards and by going fast you don’t give yourself any room for error even if someone else is technically at fault. Just because you can handle your motorcycle at high speeds doesn’t make it safe.
How long have you been riding in Taiwan? Two weeks or something? So you already know the attitude- fuck them. Nice. You picked up the local motorcycle culture already.
Do you think the roads belong to idiot weekend speeding motorcyclists only?
How long have you been riding in Taiwan? Two weeks or something? So you already know the attitude- fuck them. Nice. You picked up the local motorcycle culture already.
Do you think the roads belong to idiot weekend speeding motorcyclists only?[/quote]
May be I didn´t express myself correctly. What I come to mean is that if somebody is going to kill himself, I prefer if he kills himself alone without killing somebody else. I´ve been ridding here since I arrive Taiwan, almost 2 years, so considering the say you sound, it´s nothing compared with the 30 years you must been here. I don´t think that there´s anything wrong with my attitude, because even though sometimes I ride fast, I do mind other people around me, I do mind about visibility, and I do keep distances. And also I was very close to die 2 months ago because some stupid guy didn´t mind the things I mind.
As for your last question, no, for me it´s so clear that roads don´t belong to motorbike riders. I´ve been a bicycle rider myself forall my life, so when I´m taking a curve, a bicycle rider is always in there, at least on my mind.
I’m sorry but if that motorcyclist destroyed that scooter it was probably because it was going way too fast. The roads in Taiwan are full of known hazards and by going fast you don’t give yourself any room for error even if someone else is technically at fault. Just because you can handle your motorcycle at high speeds doesn’t make it safe.[/quote]
I totally agree.
I hate Highway 9 on weekends. Big bike riders have become like a pest of sorts. The more there are, the worse it gets. There were times when only a handful of rich and older guys would take their Harleys for a relaxed ride, but now you have all those young guns with extra-loud bikes and no regard for traffic rules or their own and other’s safety. Big trucks, big bikes, racing cars, and the bicyclists on a windy mountain road. That’s a recipe for disaster. I am glad that big bikes are not allowed on freeways. Too many riders just can’t handle the speed.
The 9 is a beautiful road and iv always enjoyed being on it, but Lord knows theres been some close calls.
And I can still remember an incident that didnt put me in danger so much as someone else. This blue truck was going across the double yellow to pass me, but what did I do? I sped up and the poor bugger was left on the wrong side of the road going into a blind curve. I said to myself. That will teach him.
But in hindsight i am very glad nobody was going around the bend on the other side because there couldve been fatalities. It couldve been a scooter or some such that this blue truck creams or it couldve been a bigger truck that killed the blue truck driver. Which wouldve been preferable to the first instance. But in both cases i wouldve contributed to the accident by speeding up and not allowing the guy to pass.
I think I didnt do the right thing. I shouldve let him in, let him pass and let him in.
Always try to keep everyone safe best you can. Leave the road rage out. Especially if someone is driving like an idiot. Lord knows some of us have made bad moves out on the road too.
I’m sorry but if that motorcyclist destroyed that scooter it was probably because it was going way too fast. The roads in Taiwan are full of known hazards and by going fast you don’t give yourself any room for error even if someone else is technically at fault. Just because you can handle your motorcycle at high speeds doesn’t make it safe.[/quote]
I totally agree.[/quote]
The video you posted and your earlier comments that I quoted say otherwise.
Walked a few hundred meters along the highway today to get from a bus stop to a trailhead. Its seems every time I go there the situation gets worse. More bike riders, more dangerous riding. Unbelievable how fast some are, how deep they go down in the bends (especially the tuned-up scooter riders), risking losing control and sliding under a bus, how dangerously close they get into oncoming traffic. There must be serious accidents every weekend. Anyone has statistics on that? Talked briefly to an old man standing in the doorway of his house close to the road. Sounded bitter. Every weekend the same, he said. People living along the road have send numerous petitions to the government to do something against this craziness. Here’s what I would do. Speed bumps every 100 meters, central dividers at any stretch where overtaking is not allowed. Speed traps all over the place. Heavy fines for offenders. I think this has gotten way out of hand. I can sympathize with bike riders wishing to have fun on the weekends, but somewhere you have to draw a line and protect the people living there, and protect those idiots from themselves.