Motorcycle Wrecks of the Week in Taiwan -

Life Cars & Motorcycles
1

Some of these photos are a little bloody so PLEASE do not scroll down if you are squeamish.

It’s dangerous out there, this was my Sunday ride down the Bei Yi Gong and Monday afternoon on the 106 both of the roads at the time had very light traffic.

Think carefully before running out and buying a big bike guys and gals.

I’d like to keep posting the accidents I see to remind everyone and myself how dangerous it is on the country roads in Taiwan. I’m not going for the gore affect and won’t post pics of the corpses I have seen, (One this month) or victims or their plates. Appreciate any other pics from other posters.

I’m happy that there has been talk on this forum of opening motorcycle safety classes as well.

Here are two of the finest Japanese motorcycles ever made for the market a Honda CBR 1000RR 2006, and an R-1 Suzuki believed to also be a 2006 but rider was unable to speak at the time.

The CBR was 100 m down from ANOTHER accident we saw with a sports car-rice-burner-tail-fin vs. heavy truck (truck won) who was racing his friends in their “club” of identically colored Nissans and went in the oncoming lane around a blind turn. This is one of Taiwan’s favorite gambling games second only to Mah Jong and well… he lost.

Mr. CBR 1000RR was down but not out he got clipped while going down hill in a steep turn, the car was well over the line. He didn’t even brake just dumped it. This is on the Bei Yi Gong before Ping Lin.

I also own a CBR (954) and can tell you from personal experience after my friend crashed my bike (after being forced off the road) that he’s looking at around $100,000NT. in damages.

We stopped to help. His buddy following him on an R-1 who was also pretty shaken up. The car fled the scene and the guy on the R-1 turned around and chased them down. It was an old couple, looked like a few mouth breathers to me. We saw them later riding by so his bike was rideable.

          [img]http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/4007/cbr1000rrdownxb8.jpg[/img]

From the front with Stinky Rodriquez inspecting.

               [img]http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/5760/jandj010ck7.jpg[/img]

This nice R-1 was seen right down from the Monet Cafe in Ping Xi at the first turn heading back to Taipei where Stinky crashed my bike–killer turn.

There was a lot of blood on the ground. An R-1 reportedly over shot the turn and clipped a blue truck. We talked with the blue truck driver’s wife and she said the R-1 rider was in bad shape, there stilll were CHUNKS OF HIS FLESH still embedded in the side of their truck --no, I didn’t take pics of that.

             [img]http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/3078/r1downck8.jpg[/img]

Another closer shot, that used to be a $1,000,000NT. bike.

Next photo is bad;

     Blood on the Highway.

       [img]http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/5600/bloodonthehwycm8.jpg[/img]

Don’t know what happened to the rider.

2

thanks for the pics… this kind of stuff happens all the time… but yeah… umm… what to say? while your advice about thinking first before buying is important, perhaps it should be pointed out that it is STILL the rider’s fault, not the bike’s… they didn’t have to ride so fast… if they were smart and stayed at sane speeds (as in speeds that are ok on that road and they can handle it) they should have been fine…

btw, r1 is a yamaha… and it only costs just over 1/2 a million…

3

scary, again. we’ve been on these roads last sunday in thick traffic and tons of bikes, millions of scooters. looked like a door has opened somewhere and they came spilling out…

as most riders i always focus on the traffic around me and try to figure the moves of the other cars and bikes but sometimes there is just this impossible freak accident lurking in the next corner or intersection that you just can’t foresee…
that is the real scary part, that you don’t see it coming. at least to me. i have pictures like these posted here in my head all the time. sure they spoil the fun of riding a bit, but better i have another chance of riding again than forgetting about them and not having fun anymore…

4

Also, no matter how careful a driver YOU are, there are always idiots who will surprise you at your expense.

Like this one car I saw in Taichung. Stopped first in line at a stop light. Across the way, another car tried to run the red light making a super-fast left turn; the car couldn’t turn left at such a speed, so it skidded and skidded and SMACK - ran head-on into the driver’s seat of the nice car which had stopped at the traffic light; the front end of the speeder’s car was just buried into the driver’s seat. And I don’t think the careful driver survived.

5

it’s been a crazy month or two recently… in addition to these and other well documented crashes, a local guy from ZhongLi know to me only indirectly was killed on the #3 somewhere up North of XinZhu 2 weeks ago… Seems that the bike riding population as a whole is getting more comfortable with their machines and starting to test their limits without developing advanced skills, meaning that when accidents happen, the repercussions are that much more serious… Also when riding on roads like the 3 which is favoured by the sportsbikers for it’s easier, faster corners, when things go wrong it’s at higher speeds with plenty of fast moving traffic in both directions… I know of 2 riders who were killed when they ran wide into oncoming traffic on the 3…

even though it’s a bit :flog: already, the sad part is that the blazing, follow the leader, macho bike teams and all the messy, dangerous riding and recently, bloody crashing they are doing is just adding fuel to the already bigotted anti bike public’s fire… I expect, and would welcome, legislation to limit bike teams to max 4 or so riders per group, or something similar, since a lot of the danger and wreckless behaviour is caused by the “follow the leader at all costs, don’t loose face” mentality of the often huge bike “teams” that rove the island… Unfortunately other less logical anti bike, knee jerk legislation will undoubtedly be ushered in as well… personally I would welcome the death penalty for any car/truck driver crossing the center line on mountain roads, but we all know how likely that is…

6

I agree wholeheartedly with this cautionary tale, but didn’t ole Mordeth get suspended for doing much the same once? I thought that sucked.

HG

7

I think he got banned for posting gore…I thought Mordeth’s post was a valuable post. Riders need to know what can happen to them if they ride stupidly and Mordeths post was a good illustration of this.
Unfortunately, admin obviously viewed things differently.

The 106 is a lethal road, as is the 9 to Yilan. I saw a nasty smash up the a few weeeks ago - not a big bike, but a boy racer who came around the corner on the wrong side of the road and ploughed into an 80ish year old farmer on a Sanyang.

The 106 has absolutely senseless and illogical double yellow lines. There is even a corner where there are no lines at all - the lines just disappear on the bend. On the other side of the road is a small lane so it looks like the road just continues on.
I’ve seen a couple of smashes there where a bike carried straight on across the road, and where a car carried on across the road and smashed into a bus.
All it takes is to put a couple of lines down and a warning sign, but no. They’d rather remove all the scooter parking boxes near my house and put red lines down and then 2 months later scrub out the red lines and re-draw the boxes. Then they came back last week and removed the boxes again :unamused:

8

a few lines and signs yes… but what do you make as the percentage of taiwanese people who pay attention to signs? i got hit once by a woman who claimed “oh, i didn’t see the traffic light there” and “i don’t know how fast i was going” - yes, she ran straight through a red, at full speed… i did my best to get out of her way, but she still ended up clipping my tail…

the only sign i know most taiwanese people pay attention to is the “speed camera ahead” sign… as there was a big news report about people complaining that they couldn’t see the sign warning them of an impending fine-making machine around the corner… so of course the government obliged and promised to make the warning signs more visible :noway: just tell them not to speed if they’re so worried about fines…

9

[quote=“Dangermouse”]
I think he (Mordeth) got banned for posting gore…I thought Mordeth’s post was a valuable post. Riders need to know what can happen to them if they ride stupidly and Mordeths post was a good illustration of this.[/quote]IIRC, he got it for posting links to very gory material without any NSFW warnings. Also, IIRC, he’d been warned about that before. Bubba 2 Guns posted pix of some busted bikes, which while disturbing to those us with mechanical sympathies, are unlikely to bother anyone else.
Can we try to stay on-topic? :notworthy:

10

[quote]IIRC, he got it for posting links to very gory material without any NSFW warnings. Also, IIRC, he’d been warned about that before. Bubba 2 Guns posted pix of some busted bikes, which while disturbing to those us with mechanical sympathies, are unlikely to bother anyone else.
Can we try to stay on-topic?[/quote]

How more on topic do you want to get?

Busted bikes, IMHO, are simply not enough. Pictures of dead and bleeding people do make more of an impact. Shocking pictures like this have been used as government ads in some countries before and while not very pleasant to see, I’d rather be reminded of peoples’ bacon smeared all over the tarmac than have mine treated in the same fashion.

11

[quote=“Dangermouse”][quote]IIRC, he got it for posting links to very gory material without any NSFW warnings. Also, IIRC, he’d been warned about that before. Bubba 2 Guns posted pix of some busted bikes, which while disturbing to those us with mechanical sympathies, are unlikely to bother anyone else.
Can we try to stay on-topic?[/quote]

How more on topic do you want to get?

Busted bikes, IMHO, are simply not enough. Pictures of dead and bleeding people do make more of an impact. Shocking pictures like this have been used as government ads in some countries before and while not very pleasant to see, I’d rather be reminded of peoples’ bacon smeared all over the tarmac than have mine treated in the same fashion.[/quote]
It’s the lack of warning that got Mordeth suspended, I think, wasn’t it?
Not everyone looking at the thread might want to see dismembered accident victims. Not everyone might NEED to see them – I certainly don’t. I’ve seen plenty. Not everyone reading the thread might even drive a car or a motorcycle, so why should they be subjected to pics like that?

12

I think he got banned for posting gore…I thought Mordeth’s post was a valuable post. Riders need to know what can happen to them if they ride stupidly and Mordeths post was a good illustration of this.
Unfortunately, admin obviously viewed things differently.
[/quote]

I don’t see why he should get suspended for doing this. Papers that show the dead in a war wouldn’t be reprimanded would they?? And how about cigarrette ads that show on TV those dying from cancer and pictures of deformed babies on the packets? I agree that showing real situations of the dangers of recklesness should be a must. Simply blinding the inocent from reality is nosensicle dreaming. The only argument I see against showing death from recklesness is that it could be disrespecting the dead; but then I might also argue in response that it was damn disrespectful to die of being reckless and an endangerment to others in the first place so let’s take a lesson from that.

13

[quote=“Dangermouse”]
Busted bikes, IMHO, are simply not enough. Pictures of dead and bleeding people do make more of an impact. Shocking pictures like this have been used as government ads in some countries before and while not very pleasant to see, I’d rather be reminded of peoples’ bacon smeared all over the tarmac than have mine treated in the same fashion.[/quote]While I agree with you on the use of shocking images for road safety awareness programs, forum rules do not:

Personally, I think posting links to very graphic images here is preaching to the choir, but you’re prefectly free to do so, provided you play nice and warn would-be clickers. If you want to discuss this rule, perhaps the Feedback Forum would be a better venue?

14

plasmatron,

Good point about how some folks push the limits before having acquired the necessary skills. I view riding as a sport. Something that can be mastered the same as doing 12 foot airs off a ramp on a BMX or a skateboard. Same as skiing and snowboarding, etc.

I remember reading statistics, and the majority of fatal crashes were from riders on their second bike. First bike you learn a lot and take it easy, and when you get your second bike (often bigger and faster)you think you know it all and you end up smashing your skull.

Snowboarding is a good comparison, I think, seeing how easy it is to “catch an edge” and do a face plant. It happens a lot at first. (every twenty feet) After a while you start getting it and you slide faster, and faster, and faster. Then you catch an edge again and wham! And a little while later you’re getting really good at it and you’re cruising and 40mph… Then WHAM! Broken ribs, wrist, teeth, you name it. It’s extremely common.

I guess my point is that the better you are at it, the harder you might end up hurting yourself.

While I agree that lack of skills can, and does cause accidents, I think that riding in Taiwan simply is dangerous. Too much traffic, too little enforcement, and hardly any foresight in the way people ride, and drive. You can be as experienced and skilled as you want… “It’s not a matter of if, but when.”

I think that riding skills “on the race track” can help you stay alive, but there has to be something to be said about the importance of foresight and caution which in my opinion are some of the first skills you want to have here, in order to ride half-safely.

Man, if that bloke is signaling “right” you’d better expect him to turn left. :wink:

15

The thing is, to get the very most out of a sporty bike you really have to be sitting on that limit which is where you are comfortably in control, but only a fraction away from losing it. On the road there are just too many damned variables that can throw you well over that boundary into areas where you are completely at the mercy of fate.

I did that for years, and all the while had relatives, friends and even the guys at the bike shops where I scraped my fucked up beasts back in for repairs screeching at me to do it on a race track. I was also offered considerable sponsorship deals. I didn’t listen, but mercifully I was incredibly lucky enough to walk away in the end without any serious or lasting injury. To this day I shake my head wondering how that was possible.

Now I flinch in horror at the thought of the roads being used for sport. They are basic infrastructure for people obeying the rules and sitting on the speed limit. That’s what they’re designed for and anything else is stupid, inconsiderate and potentially lethal.

Just do it on a track, I say.

HG

16

[quote=“x08”
btw, r1 is a yamaha… and it only costs just over 1/2 a million…[/quote]

Sorry was rushing to work when I wrote this :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush:

Thanks X08.

I think I just got sick of seeing all these wrecks and watching people drive like idiots.

17

[quote=“sandman”]It’s the lack of warning that got Mordeth suspended, I think, wasn’t it?
Not everyone looking at the thread might want to see dismembered accident victims. Not everyone might NEED to see them – I certainly don’t. I’ve seen plenty. Not everyone reading the thread might even drive a car or a motorcycle, so why should they be subjected to pics like that?[/quote]Right.

[quote=“redwagon”][quote=“Dangermouse”]
Busted bikes, IMHO, are simply not enough. Pictures of dead and bleeding people do make more of an impact. Shocking pictures like this have been used as government ads in some countries before and while not very pleasant to see, I’d rather be reminded of peoples’ bacon smeared all over the tarmac than have mine treated in the same fashion.[/quote]While I agree with you on the use of shocking images for road safety awareness programs, forum rules do not:

Personally, I think posting links to very graphic images here is preaching to the choir, but you’re prefectly free to do so, provided you play nice and warn would-be clickers. If you want to discuss this rule, perhaps the Feedback Forum would be a better venue?[/quote]Agreed absolutely.

18

[quote=“bobepine”]plasmatron,

Good point about how some folks push the limits before having acquired the necessary skills. I view riding as a sport. Something that can be mastered the same as doing 12 foot airs off a ramp on a BMX or a skateboard. Same as skiing and snowboarding, etc.

I remember reading statistics, and the majority of fatal crashes were from riders on their second bike. First bike you learn a lot and take it easy, and when you get your second bike (often bigger and faster)you think you know it all and you end up smashing your skull.

Snowboarding is a good comparison, I think, seeing how easy it is to “catch an edge” and do a face plant. It happens a lot at first. (every twenty feet) After a while you start getting it and you slide faster, and faster, and faster. Then you catch an edge again and wham! And a little while later you’re getting really good at it and you’re cruising and 40mph… Then WHAM! Broken ribs, wrist, teeth, you name it. It’s extremely common.

I guess my point is that the better you are at it, the harder you might end up hurting yourself.

While I agree that lack of skills can, and does cause accidents, I think that riding in Taiwan simply is dangerous. Too much traffic, too little enforcement, and hardly any foresight in the way people ride, and drive. You can be as experienced and skilled as you want… “It’s not a matter of if, but when.”

I think that riding skills “on the race track” can help you stay alive, but there has to be something to be said about the importance of foresight and caution which in my opinion are some of the first skills you want to have here, in order to ride half-safely.

Man, if that bloke is signaling “right” you’d better expect him to turn left. :wink:[/quote]

Totally agreed on this Bobepine…I used to ride my CBR pretty hard, and then took a more relaxed stanced on the Z1000…and ended up going for even more relaxed with the BMW so I could improve the ride quality, comfort and range all the while getting a power reduction and a much less focused bike…I’ve always put safety as the most important factor in my decision making while out on rides and as much as I’ve applied this rule, many other road users have demonstrated that they have no such thoughts, nor will they ever in the foreseable future…

This makes “smart” road manners and communication nearly impossible in Taiwan and I’ve often compared the driving conditions here to the old school classic mid-summer town fair bumper cars…Turn left, turn right…bump…bump…go forward, look at the guy coming at you dead in the eyes and proceed to smash straight into him…then, do it again until each bumper car comes crashing together in the middle as a grand fiasco.

19

I posted a link…with many warnings to a site that promotes rider saftey by showing many facts…as well as pictures…the post was taken down by the mods. But that wasn’t what I was suspended for…I was suspended for a joke post…which had many many many warnings not to click on it…and led to a pic of a guy with a badly busted leg. The post was on topic as the thread was about a broken…uhh, something.

I have a question about this thread though in the pic of the blood…are those bloody gloves/towels from the EMTs in the background?

20

Yes… they are.

I’m trying to get my friend to send me the pics of the head on collision with the car and truck but she’s too scared to look at them. Sure to post more pics next week.