Mountain Road Closed, Accident At The Verandah.

[VinnieK]

Actually the roads in Yorkshire are pretty similar to the island.

 

The point is one of population and urban density, not of the nature of the roads. You're comparing chalk and cheese by trying to use figures from one of the world's biggest cities and a huge county that itself features large densly packed urban areas to analyse the Island's figures for road saftey.

 

In any case, the roads in Leeds aren't "pretty similar" to the Island, nor are those of Sheffield - and which parts of Yorkshire do you think account for the bulk of road accidents: Sheffield, York, and Leeds, or Harrogate?

[puddy]

I was at the scene of an accident recently (not this accident) and it has changed me as a person in many ways. Seeing bad things on the telly and hearing about them on the radio didn't prepare me for the shock of seeing something so outside of the scope of ordinary life happening. You realise how fragile life is, I know everyone likes to use the phrase, "you might get run over by a bus tomorrow", but for a while you really do believe this and you see the danger in everything. The feeling has subsided now but it hasn't left me completely (which is a good thing, because being too scared to cross the road is not nice for anyone).

 

I can no longer distance myself enough to see this man's death as just another statistic and my thoughts are with all of those involved. A terrible tragedy.

[Lonan3]

Thank you, Puddy, for returning the thread to it's original subject.

 

There are already many older threads discussing general safety issues/speed limits/ the TT etc without hijacking one about a tragedy such as this. If posters have issues to discuss on those subjects, I'd suggest using the search facility and taking them up on the existing ones.

[Chinahand]

I really feel for the many individuals caught up in this tragedy.

 

But they are unconnected with me personally - people are discussing elsewhere on the site the Media mawkishness over Madeliene McCann - I feel there is very much a place for uninvolved individuals to try to formulate ideas to reduce road deaths on this Island - rather than just expressing sorrow about the loss of a life.

 

I strongly agree with France's posts about the additional deaths we tolerate due to deliberately subsidizing and encouraging our roads to be a race track.

 

I also am unconvinced about the argument that the people knew the risks and were happy doing it so anyone who wishes to criticize can F-Off and go and live a little.

 

I've seen families ripped apart due to young kids underestimating the risks and overestimating their skills and dying as a result. For a TT rider, fine, if you enter the TT then you know the risks - if they want to do it let them.

 

But when its not a race day and when the road is open I think the Island has a public duty to ensure its roads are safe. That is manefestly not happening - from cats eyes, to traffic calming the TT route is not up to modern standards of road safety and the result is that people die.

 

To just shrug your shoulders at that and go they knew the risks is a derogation of a duty of care - If people who love the TT continue to not understand that it will not continue for another 100 years.

 

We cannot continue to regard road safety and the TT as mutually exclusive things and for too long the emphasis has been on the TT - that has to change.

[Max Power]

This is a terrible thing to happen at any time, but put things into perspective. TT road deaths recently have been pretty low. It is just possible that they will be this year due to congestion and the initiatives of the DOT and police.

 

It's all too easy to be sucked into arguments about risks and congestion. As I said before, this is a once in a lifetime event, enjoy it if you can and take care!

[rallybug]

According to the report on IOMToday:

 

"A BIKER killed in a crash at the Verandah on the Mountain Course has been named as Alan Ronald Osborne, from Kent.

 

Mr Osborne, 59, who lived in Rochester, had been travelling towards Douglas when his motorcycle was in collision with a Peugeot car travelling in the opposite direction.

 

Police said Mr Osborne's bike went 'out of control' continuing in the Douglas direction before having a collision with the rear of a stationary Fiat van and trailer.

 

The van had been stopped at roadworks.

 

Mr Osborne died as a result of the injuries he received in the latter collision."

 

At no point in the information released so far today does it say that the rider was going at a high speed, where the motorcycle and car were in relation to each other and their positions on the road at the point of impact, whether the rider knew that there were road works ahead etc etc.

 

When I went out on my bike over the last two weekends I had two vehicles (a car and a Transit van) coming towards me with a third to half their vehicle over the centre line. The van was coming from Kirk Michael and was straight-lining the bridge at the bottom of Barregarrow? (I always forget the corner names - I was braking for the s-bend) and the car was heading north over the Mountain, and cut the corner at the 33rd? where there are currently no lines although you can still see the crown of the road - in that case I was rolling off the throttle for the left-hander and was only about 1/3rd across my lane, luckily.

[wideload]

i came around the verandah last tt to find a que of stationary traffic in front of me because of the single lane cones set up, not one fucking sign to warn of this and i know a few people had some close call because of this stupidity.

[Frances]

a few people had some close call because of this stupidity

exactly

[thesultanofsheight]

Its pretty common sense that if you have traffic lights and road works on a very fast stretch of road you need to put signs up well in advance. I to have come around bends to be confronted by a queue of traffic backed up just off the apex of the bend. Its bloody dangerous. Any traffic lights or single file stretches should be coned off at least quarter of a mile in advance, and you want warning signs up for half a mile.

[RC-Drift.com]

Just proves the old adage, 'don't travel faster than the visible braking distance allows you to'

[sausage]

Was informed today of a colleague who had a hospital visit with some broken bones and gravel rash because he was riding his motorbike over here and was ran off the road by a twat thrashing the life out of a porsche.

 

Although bikes by definition put you more at risk its plain old bad driving that is so often the cause of serious accidents.

 

Always sad to hear of a death on manx roads.

[hboy]

he was riding his motorbike over here and was ran off the road by a twat thrashing the life out of a porsche.

 

There is no life in a Porsche.

[wideload]

just knobs

[copycat]

would there be this thread if the fatality had been on say Circular Road?

[mojomonkey]

would there be this thread if the fatality had been on say Circular Road?

 

A road death would still make the news but I doubt there would be a thread on here about, but I don't see many bikers pushing their machines to the limit along Circular Road. Would there be this thread if the fatality had been in Tesco car park?