I normally ride my bike to work to beat the commute and help reduce the cost of gas. Over the course of the last two years, I have met a riding buddy who is a guy that rides an R6. I can only think of a handful of days where we have not found each other somewhere during the early part of our commute. This was never a planned meeting, just sheer luck. As a result of our daily “meeting” we have come to recognize each other and even wave goodbye when I take my exit, regardless of who leads or follows.

Today, I while getting ready for work I kept having a bad feeling about riding my bike. Enough so that I left the bike parked and drove to work. While sitting in the commute traffic towards the end of my commute, I saw my riding buddy pass me in the commute lane (right on time) doing that I would guess to be around 70 or 75mph, which was the flow of traffic in that lane. Moments later, I saw what I can only describe as a cloud of dust and debris about a half mile up the road. I was close enough to see what I thought was a bike fly over the top of a full sized pick up truck but far enough away where I couldn’t see what type of bike or what had really happened. When I got closer to the accident, I saw a motorcycle that was in two pieces with the front end in one piece (minus the front tire) and the remainder of the bike in another piece. There was nothing left of the plastics and the tank was almost completely smashed. With the exception of the blue tank, bike itself was unidentifiable. The rider was lying in the middle of the commute lane, face down and motionless. It was then that recognized the riding gear and helmet to be that of my riding buddy. Unfortunately, I was trapped in by other traffic leaving me unable to pull over to help him, which will haunt me for a long time to come.

I work as a dispatcher so I was able to watch the CHP logs and listen to the radio traffic at work and found he had been transported to the local trauma center, alive. Later that morning one of my coworkers was at that same hospital and learned that the rider had died shortly after arrival as a result of his injuries. The CHP officer told my coworker that a driver had tried cutting into the commute lane (that he should not have been in to begin with since he was a single occupant) because he was running late and didn’t see the motorcycle. The motorcycle was struck by the driver then hit again by a truck that was behind him.

We had never spoken to each other and I didn’t even know his name but I know I have lost a friend. I also know had I not listened to the bad feeling I was having this morning it may have been me. In the future if I ever have a bad feeling like that again, I will listen to it and leave the bike parked. I also know it will be a long time before I ride in commute traffic again, if ever. If I do, it will never be the same. RIP….

ORIGINAL: woo545

Damn that sucks.

I`m sure a lot of us have these bad feelings. I know HC said that Swt had one the day they got into and accident. I had one the day I had my most recent accident as well as the day my ex told me it was over (though that might have been more predictable). What do you think gives us these premonitions?