Plights of the Motorcyclist.

Recently while driving, I saw a courier sitting on the road kerb beside his fallen motorcycle, looking a bit dazed, with scraped knees and elbows. I think of the injuries he had to carry home, and probably to work the next day.

Again even more recent, it was traffic crawling, during peak hour on the way home, wondering which poor chap's car has broken down again; and when drawing near to the blinking police lights on the opposide side of the road, saw the blue tent on the tarmac; not far away another fallen motorcycle near to the wheel of a passenger bus. I think of the family at home, waiting for him to return home as usual for dinner.

This morning I saw a car which purposely swung left near to the line just so that the motorcyclist could't cut pass him. Which nearly cause the motorcyclist to crash or be sandwiched by another car on his left. I think of the sudden flashes of life which the motorcyclist see flashing before him.

Which brought me to this time at least 5 years ago. I was returning to office with another colleauge along the expressway, when we came across a bus with and a fallen bike behind it, and a man lying face down. The bus had stalled suddenly, the and poor guy who was behind the bus of course couldn't break in time and smashed totally into the back of the bus. Needless to say...I'll never forgot the face which totally lost its contour on impact. I think of his family,with kids probably, not knowing what their futures holds for them without the main breadwinner.

Yes, sometimes it can be irritating when riders come up from your blind spots, or just assume that the line is their rightful claim to a motorcycle lane. But I am sure that if they can, they wouldn't have chosen that cheaper mode of transport. Especially the malaysian bikers, who I admit are super irritating with the haphazrd way they ride, zipping and out of lanes and you cant really see them coming from behind. They have to endure the long ride and causeway jams daily to get that little bit of extra.

Maybe it comes from having been a rider, who had a near death experience, should the lorry driver behind me not slow down after he spotted the stupid MPV on my right switching lane without checking blind spot nor signalling. He could had crashed into me when I skidded, fell off the bike, slidded along the tarmac looking at my bike flying away amidst sparks. I escaped with major bruises, shell-shocked but still living.

Live and let live.