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Thanks for the location (TN). This practice is called "lanesplitting". Legal in some
states. It is NOT legal in TN. [/quote]

FYI, it was supposed to be somewhere around Dallas.

jocat54 wrote: So it's their fault and not the driver who pulled into the gap?

The point is anyone who says they don't follow closer than they should is probably lying.

Hmm... why is that motorcycle where he is? (I just grabbed a photo and happened to notice it)

RX8er wrote: I know a couple people that follow this, no matter how much traffic there is. And, I can say that these folks have never rear ended anyone.

Yeah, those are the ones that people always pull in front of because of the gap, which in turn causes them to slow down more to re-establish the gap causing traffic to snarl even more, and having everyone going as they pass them.
In other words road rage instigators.

RX8er wrote:

poppo wrote:However, the driver did not have to stop (especially the way he did).

Maybe I missed it. How do we know the driver did or didn't stop in a reasonable manner? Do we know how close the biker was? It really doesn't matter though because I learned about the 2 second follow rule. If the biker was following the 2 second rule, I don't care how fast the car stopped, the bike would have had plenty of time to avoid a rear-end collision.

Yeah, yeah, we all know about the 2 second rule. But how many people actually follow that? I guarantee if I slam on my brakes on 410 any time there is a lot of traffic, I will get rear ended.

How do we know he didn't stop in a reasonable manner? We don't. But we also don't know that he didn't intentionally try to run the motorcycle off the road to begin with either. As already noted, since this is purely a one sided story, we don't and will probably never know what really happened. However, based on what was stated, I would give more odds to him slamming on the brakes than just gently slowing down.

There are also some other things about the story that I am skeptical about. It stated that the motorcycle driver came up to the car screaming and banging on the window. Well, what was he screaming? I envision it was something like "You f'in [abbreviated profanity deleted.], you nearly killed me back there. Are you f'in bind?", or something to that effect. The story conveniently leaves out what was being shouted. Also, all we have is the story teller's word that the guy tried to open the door. Equally plausible was the car driver just decided to flash his gun as soon as the guy walked up.

Jumping Frog wrote:Also, remember that I may have initiated the encounter when I originally cut you off. However, when you catch up with me a mile down the road, I have obviously "abandoned the encounter".

But when you intentionally brake slam, and create a second assault.....

I'm not disagreeing with all of what you said. However, the driver did not have to stop (especially the way he did). For all we know the motorcycle just happened to be going the same way.

I wonder if the driver would have acted the same way had he not been armed. Unfortunately some people seem to look for encounters (or don't try to avoid them) just because they are carrying.

I'm also interested to hear the stories behind the person who said they had to pull their gun 4 or 5 times.

In any case, I still think this is a case where both parties were at fault.

I don't text or talk on the phone when I drive. I consider myself a "good" driver and have not had an accident in nearly 40 years. As I mentioned earlier, I have been guilty of changing lanes when there was a motorcycle there. It has nothing to do with a motorcycle not "registering" in the brain. I have checked my mirror, had it clear, and in the second or two that I look forward again and start to change lanes, had a motorcycle dart over to that side, or come screaming up from behind the car that was behind me where I would not have been able to see it. The point is that often motorcycle drivers either intentionally or not, put themselves in an unavoidable situation. BTW, I rode a motorcycle for quite a few years in the 70s & 80s, and have had my fair share of close calls. Some which I will admit were more my fault than the car.

A lot has been said about no excuse for the bike rider acting the way he did by "assaulting" the car driver. But what if the car driver had cut off the bike driver and nearly killed him? Why can the bike rider not consider himself being assaulted and then defend himself? And how should he do it? If a car cuts off a motorcycle and the motorcycle driver feels that his life is in danger, can he pull out his gun and start shooting at the car, or point it at the car driver? Going by the arguments people have used to justify what the car driver did, then that should also be ok.

The bottom line is we don't know both sides of the story, but I seriously doubt the bike driver just randomly decided to chase down this particular car for no reason. If he was nearly hit and killed, what was he supposed to do? And if anyone says he could/should have called and reported the car driver, well, the car driver could/should have done the same thing instead of doing the brake slam thing, which only further escalated the situation. IMO there is plenty of blame to go around on BOTH sides.

SewTexas wrote: I see nothing wrong. maybe she could have called the cops, but she was focused on the task at hand.

Per the original story, he called 911 after he pulled the gun. I fail to see how calling 911 could not have been the "task at hand" prior to stopping in the first place. As long as the vehicle was in motion, there was little if any threat.

The problem, with these stories is we always only hear one side of the story. For all we know the driver just slammed on his brakes when he saw a motorcycle closer than he liked with no prior encounter. Then when the bike driver comes over to ask what the heck, the driver pulls a gun while calling 911 to get his story in first. Not saying it didn't happen the way it was posted, but people have a way of posting things in the best light (for themselves). Personally, I would have just kept driving (not done the brake slam thing) and called 911 if things were really going down the way described.

alvins wrote:technically what happened you can be arrested for it. you cannot just pull your gun out to scare someone.that "brandishing" can get you put in jail. And their is no such thing as brandishing; its called aggravated assault which is a felony.

I tend to agree with this. Given the scenario, he could have just driven away while calling 911. Where is the imminent threat with car vs motorcycle (while they are in motion)?

If you pull a gun, you better be getting ready to use it. And have a good reason for doing so.