Photo: Ebaum's world capture
Riding between the lanes can be a dangerous business, especially in countries or areas where this maneuver is illegal or where the road users are not accustomed to looking out for riders splitting lanes.
We've seen our fair share of crashes, some f them very bad, when riders splitting lanes collided with cars inadvertently steering in their way. Also, we also saw a lot of drivers intentionally blocking the way for bikes, or engaging in other dangerous or even threatening activities.
Punches being thrown and street fights are not exactly uncommon, and the crash of this Australian rider is a huge exception to the rule. Now, when we learned that this short video was recorded in Russia or, for what's worth, in a city in the former Soviet space, we expected the worst.
Road rage incidents in that part of the world that end up with unholstered handguns, shots fired, baseball bats and all sorts of object transformed into ad-hoc weapon were the first scenes that came to mind.
However, we were not in for a fight this time. The two cars drove closer because the passenger in the left one wanted to handle a cigarette to the driver of the one to the right. Funny thing, the ladies even asked the rider to pass the cigarette from one car to the other.
While we are quite glad to see the situation being a funny, rather than a violent one, we also have to observe that the two drivers were way too preoccupied with their cigarettes than with checking out their surroundings.
Luckily, the rider was not speeding, like we often saw so many reckless guys do. Had he traveled at high speed, the impact would have been impossible to avoid for sure. Illegal as his lane splitting is, at least he was not completely mindless, and this saved him.
Punches being thrown and street fights are not exactly uncommon, and the crash of this Australian rider is a huge exception to the rule. Now, when we learned that this short video was recorded in Russia or, for what's worth, in a city in the former Soviet space, we expected the worst.
Road rage incidents in that part of the world that end up with unholstered handguns, shots fired, baseball bats and all sorts of object transformed into ad-hoc weapon were the first scenes that came to mind.
However, we were not in for a fight this time. The two cars drove closer because the passenger in the left one wanted to handle a cigarette to the driver of the one to the right. Funny thing, the ladies even asked the rider to pass the cigarette from one car to the other.
While we are quite glad to see the situation being a funny, rather than a violent one, we also have to observe that the two drivers were way too preoccupied with their cigarettes than with checking out their surroundings.
Luckily, the rider was not speeding, like we often saw so many reckless guys do. Had he traveled at high speed, the impact would have been impossible to avoid for sure. Illegal as his lane splitting is, at least he was not completely mindless, and this saved him.
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