While it's true if you rear-end someone, it's pretty much automatically your fault. A vehicle should be able to stop for any reason and not be hit.

That said, the motorcycle was driving pretty erratically. I'm with the (asshole) copper on this one.

A cop friend once told me that if your vehicle strikes the back of another vehicle, the only way you're not at fault is if they were backing up, and even in that case you'd better have a witness. It doesn't matter what the biker was doing, the cop is guilty of driving too close or driving without due care and possibly making an unsafe lane change. I once rear ended someone and a cop asked me if I was driving too close. Being a genius I said no so he ticketed me for driving without due care. $368 and 6 points vs $109 and 3 points.

All of that is true. The motorcyclist is inexperienced. But none of that changes the fact that legally the cop is at fault for rear-ending. Then he abused his authority to get himself out of it by threatening the victim with "a shitload of tickets". I fucking hate abusive cops.

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@Asmo

There's a SHIT load that the guy on the motorcycle did wrong, only one of the things being braking, and we'll cover that in a minute, but let me ask you, did you not happen to notice that the guy on the bike revs up before slamming on his brakes? He gets up to about 15-20 km and then decided to just stop flat. What people who don't ride motorcycles don't seem to realize is, you're literally THOUSANDS of pounds lighter than every other car around you. You can accelerate quicker, and brake quicker.

And when you jack-rabbit and put some distance between the person behind you, they'll likely speed up a bit. And when you decide you want to stop NOW! and they're still slightly accelerating because you decided to start doing so yourself a second ago, they still have a couple tons to stop, too.

Now, when you get trained to ride a motorcycle, you're specifically told: DO NOT ride the center line, or the pavement line when on a two or more lane road. You're supposed to drive defensively, I.e. Guarding your maneuvering area.

The car is trying to merge, he wants to be a nice guy and let him in, okay, cool. But at the end of the day, if the car can't make it in, tough shit for the car. You DO NOT ride the pavement line because it encourages other drivers to A) Cut you off, B) Pull around you, and C) Can lead to you being pushed off the road. The only exception to this rule is riding in a 3+ man formation, where the first and third rider are still (in a right lane) riding the middle line, while the second rider is at the pavement line, thus allowing all three riders a space cushion while maintaining their defensive positions.

And.. just, lastly, lets go ahead and put you in the cops shoes. Don't even imagine you're a cop, just think of this situation:

-Traffic is flowing nicely
-Motorcyclist is in front of you
-Motorcyclist pulls over to the wrong side of the lane
-Now having a clear line of sight, you see a car in the distance that wants to merge
-Car appears to have enough space, but won't turn in
-Motorcyclist revs up and starts to accelerate
-Motorcyclist slams on his brakes.

If that were in my shoes, I'd be screaming too. There's been local stories of people scamming insurance any way they can (deliberately getting hit in 4 way stops by waving at someone else to go first) so a person trying to get rear ended isn't out of the question. The motorcyclist is lucky to be alive, however. He seems to have completely disregarded EVERYTHING he was taught.

Nope. Anyone who rear-ends someone else, is ALWAYS at fault. Always.
You should leave enough room between you and the person in front that if they slam on their breaks, EVEN for something you dont see, you should have enough space to not hit them.

The cops in the wrong, end of story. You should never rear end someone if youre driving at the right distance.

It's been a thing. My Grandpa was the victim (~1988) of someone that pulls in front of old people and claims they rear ended them taking advantage of old peoples deteriorating motor skills / reaction time. It's typically the person that rams into the other one that gets faulted for not leaving enough room. Fortunately, the Sheriff recognized the con artist and told him to beat it and let my Grandpa off with nothing (except a smashed up front end).

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As a car driver, I support it. Gets more people out of my way.
I like bikes getting to the front of traffic while I'm sitting at lights because they get off the line quicker than most cars do, and I'm not basing that on machine capability, I'm basing it on my observation that bikes appear to pay more attention and are usually ready the instant the light goes green (possibly because they don't want to get rear ended)

As for lane splitting being dangerous, yeah of course there's a potential for a very negative situation if/when people aren't paying attention or staying in control of their vehicle.. but then so is having nothing but a painted line separating you from oncoming traffic at 100km/h.
For any reason why lane splitting is bad, consider other driving situations by the same logic, if you have one that is notable (other than due to the lack of a crumple zone, as this is a trump card), then let me know.

I pay attention when merging lanes and use the indicator to signal before I start merging as it is intended, and have never had an issue or impact with bikes (or anyone for that matter). I also position my car either closer to the side of the road or middle of my lane in traffic to make it easier for bikes to get past, and it appears a decent amount of others do this as well.
Not sure if it's legal in Aus (I don't think it is), but I've never seen cops pull a biker over for it. Besides, it's efficient and if everyone is doing what they're supposed to (i.e. paying attention to their surroundings + controlling their vehicle well), then there shouldn't be an issue.

I'm interested in the reasons why it's bad or shouldn't be done, as I may be missing something from a bikes perspective.

@Sagemind, sounds like you may have other solid points, like the drifting and merging. I see these as issues, but my points are based on people supposed to be paying attention, controlling their vehicles (easier for some) and bikes picking their moments to dive through while not being rash about it.
Side note, I do see lots of cars and bikes behavior as being hard to judge and thus dangerous, if this is your main point, then I agree.

I await your rant...and I wonder as a motorcyclist, how do you protect yourself from being rear ended?

The life he take will be his own. I seriously doubt there are going to be people walking on those highways. If a motorcycle rear-ends your car you're car will get damaged but you're not gonna die

To be released on the 12-12-12 - A Madness Shared by Two, is not only the true untold story about the lives of Sabina and Ursula Eriksson, alongside the murder of Glenn Hollinshead, based on a critique re-examination of the BBC’s Madness in the Fast Lane documentary that had 7 million viewers [with a conservative estimate of around a further 15 million people having since watched this film via the internet and on websites such as YouTube],glued to their TV screens watching the twin sisters propelling themselves into the fast lane of the oncoming traffic on the UK’s-M6 motorway, as Ursula manages to throw herself under the wheels of a 40ft articulated lorry travelling at 60mph, that seems to swallow her up and spit her lifeless looking body back out of its rear end. It is also the result of a thorough investigation into what might have really happened on those fateful days that led up to this tragic slaying of an innocent man. We challenge the “Official Storyline” and expose what really occurred just hours before M6 dash, for it is here for the first time we expose the Eriksson sisters were “arrested” under the Mental Health Act, though this vital caught on film evidence was edited out of the original BBC films. This will come as a great surprise to many people who questioned; ‘...how was it possible Sabina could have been released from hospital after only five hours’ following their ‘suicide attempt’ on the M6? We also reveal that the coroner’s report shows that the injuries inflicted on Glenn, indicate more than one person probably killed him and that Sabina could be totally innocent. Yet this obvious evidence seems to have been brushed under the carpet, or at the very least, it was never challenged. We explain how these twins were very likely embroiled in a major drugs smuggling ring and that they had been under “Obbo” [police observation] prior to the M6 incident, and was probably so for quite some period of time. As a result of our findings, legal action is now being sought and brought against the police and other related authoritative bodies by the Hollinshead family. ​

Hi, I see you commented, but I don't seem to be able to leave a independent comment, so don't hope you don't mind me replying to yours. To be released on the 12-12-12 - A Madness Shared by Two, is not only the true untold story about the lives of Sabina and Ursula Eriksson, alongside the murder of Glenn Hollinshead, based on a critique re-examination of the BBC’s Madness in the Fast Lane documentary that had 7 million viewers [with a conservative estimate of around a further 15 million people having since watched this film via the internet and on websites such as YouTube],glued to their TV screens watching the twin sisters propelling themselves into the fast lane of the oncoming traffic on the UK’s-M6 motorway, as Ursula manages to throw herself under the wheels of a 40ft articulated lorry travelling at 60mph, that seems to swallow her up and spit her lifeless looking body back out of its rear end. It is also the result of a thorough investigation into what might have really happened on those fateful days that led up to this tragic slaying of an innocent man. We challenge the “Official Storyline” and expose what really occurred just hours before M6 dash, for it is here for the first time we expose the Eriksson sisters were “arrested” under the Mental Health Act, though this vital caught on film evidence was edited out of the original BBC films. This will come as a great surprise to many people who questioned; ‘...how was it possible Sabina could have been released from hospital after only five hours’ following their ‘suicide attempt’ on the M6? We also reveal that the coroner’s report shows that the injuries inflicted on Glenn, indicate more than one person probably killed him and that Sabina could be totally innocent. Yet this obvious evidence seems to have been brushed under the carpet, or at the very least, it was never challenged. We explain how these twins were very likely embroiled in a major drugs smuggling ring and that they had been under “Obbo” [police observation] prior to the M6 incident, and was probably so for quite some period of time. As a result of our findings, legal action is now being sought and brought against the police and other related authoritative bodies by the Hollinshead family. ​
In reply to this comment by LarsaruS:
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Tags for this video have been changed from 'greddy1331, vlog, ride, ups, van, back' to 'greddy1331, vlog, ride, ups, van, back, motorcycle, rear end, collision' - edited by calvados