As a motorcyclist, you already know some of the dangers of sharing the road with passenger vehicles. On a motorcycle, you have less protection than other vehicles. To make matters worse, distracted drivers often miss motorcycles on the road.
Distracted drivers become a danger to all other vehicles on the road, but they are especially dangerous to motorcyclists.
Inattentional blindness
After an accident with motorcycles, drivers tend to claim they did not see the rider. In some cases, this is true, but it does not diminish the driver’s culpability. On the road, you have a lot of components to pay attention to. If a driver does not expect to see a motorcyclist or becomes too focused on other aspects of driving, he or she may not see you. Inattentional blindness occurs when someone fails to see a visible object because of a lack of attention.
Distracted driving
While distracted driving can go hand in hand with inattentional blindness, it carries its different risks. For example, if a driver reads or sends a text, he or she may completely miss you entering the lane in front or crossing at an intersection. When someone reads a text for five seconds, it is equivalent to driving the length of a football field with his or her eyes closed. A distraction can include a manual distraction, where you take your hands off the wheel, a mental distraction or a visual distraction.
Distracted driving takes the lives of over 3,000 people every year. While drivers may be on the lookout for other passenger vehicles, they have a higher chance of missing a motorcycle.