Already buried one close family member after mc accident (car driver was at fault) that even a highly skilled CHP rider said he probably could not have avoided.
Sorry for your loss. The words spoken by the CHP Motorcycle Officer must have offered at least a small amount of comfort to those who were grieving. That does not make his assessment accurate or true. There are ways to avoid getting into a situation in which there is nothing a skilled rider can do to avoid disaster (regardless of the idiotic moves of other drivers). The vast majority of motorcycle fatalities in which the car driver was at fault ARE preventable by the motorcyclist by not getting into that situation in the first place. Granted, riding a fully laden Police motorcycle is not ideal and will somewhat reduce the available options when another driver makes a negligent move. But over 95% of all motorcyclists take scant advantage of avoiding these situations in the first place. They ride along like nothing will likely happen and try to deal with it when it does. I ride every moment like every motorist is trying to use their cars to kill me when the time is just right. I ride as if they are secretly waiting to suddenly swerve (or pull out, slam on their brakes, etc) and kill me. Motorcycles are very narrow, very maneuverable and can change speed, up or down, almost instantly. Unfortunately, most motorcyclists do not know how to control their motorcycle optimally when something does go wrong or how to avoid such situations in the first place.
Motorcyclist fatality statistics are exceedingly high but a close look at the data will show that 90 percent of them are either young, relatively inexperienced riders doing totally reckless things or older riders who have returned to riding after years of absence and who think they have good riding skills and habits but actually do not.
In any case, I don't want to be one of those people who is afraid to do anything that carries risk for fear that I might get hurt. Life is too short for that. I would have missed out on some of the most rewarding days of my 51 years if I had cowered from potential danger and avoided doing the things I love. I would have missed hundreds of days filled with ecstasy had I been afraid to ski two or three feet of fresh back-country powder or of being paralyzed by skiing into a tree or crashing one of my many motorcycles.
I think a quote from the late Hunter S. Thompson sums it up nicely:
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Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!
Besides top skills and equipment, good life insurance is a top requirement too.
No thanks.
That's not good advice.
A person who has loved ones who are dependent upon their income needs good life insurance. This is true whether they are a cigar smoking, whiskey drinking, base-jumping, squirrel suit flying, motorcycle road-racer and it applies equally to an accountant who never leaves his office, never smokes anything, never touches a drink of alcohol and never does anything truly exciting. Additionally, a person who doesn't have loved ones dependent upon their income would be foolish to buy any life insurance, no matter how reckless and incompetent they are, a complete waste of time and money.
