Singaporeans still reeling from Monday’s horrifying road fatality are debating today whether motorcyclists should even be allowed to split lanes, after footage of another motorbike incident surfaced online yesterday.
The latest dashcam clip shows a motorcyclist faceplant across two lanes of traffic into the path of an oncoming van, which swerves in the nick of time on the Tampines Expressway. The biker loses control after being sideswiped by a Trans-Cab taxi driver who failed to signal or look before changing lanes.
While the taxi is definitely culpable in the accident, the lane-splitting motorcycle also carries some fault, leading a popular forum for Singaporean road rage to suggest Friday that lane splitting be banned. It also claimed it was a factor in the shockingly violent death Monday of a 45-year-old biker along the Seletar Expressway.
“Early this week a Malaysia biker lost his life in this same kind of accident. Drivers MUST always assume that most motorcyclist lane splits and therefore MUST give special attention to look out for them during lane change,” the Roads.SG page admin wrote. “Even more so during rainy days where vision is limited and mirrors are hampered.”
Horrifying accident kills motorcyclist on Seletar Expressway
It defined the practice as one in which “a motorcycle rider moves past vehicles at an unsafe speed of more than 30km/h.”
“Lane splitting should be made illegal in Singapore to save lives,” it said.
Another who disagreed with motorcyclists riding between vehicles was Facebook user Tan Wai Hwang.
“I always think lane splitting at such speed is dangerous,” he wrote in a comment about this week’s incident. “The taxi made a dangerous lane change but the bike was really at the wrong place and wrong time. But subsequently, really lucky he was not run over by the dashcam car and van.”
After the rider falls, the one-and-a-half-minute clip shows a white van swerve to the left to avoid pancaking the motorcyclist’s head.
“Firstly, wish that the biker is getting well with little injuries or none. I wished he was aware that this is the rainy season, and he shouldn’t try to squeeze through between moving vehicles on wet road,” user Francis Lai wrote. “He should have kept a distance away from the moving vehicles in front. It is better to be home late with his family than otherwise.”
Others blamed the taxi driver for the Tuesday accident, saying the driver should have stayed in the lane while traffic was slowing, or given other motorists ample time to react to directional signals. More pragmatic voices rejected the idea of banning lane splitting for reasons including congestion and even safety.
“As a rider, I feel it’s more dangerous to be following behind cars as cars tend to jam brake, and if we do, we can skid. So lane-splitting is much safer but of course at a lower speed,” a Hadziq Najwan wrote.
The usual two- vs. four-wheel animosity picked up steam from there.
“Lane split or not is not the main problem, the main problem is some of the drivers are too lazy to signal or check blindspot before they change lane. The worst drivers are those who assume that once they signalled they are given the priority to switch lanes,” Benntsen Cole said.
There are several places around the world where lane-splitting rules are in place. In Australia’s New South Wales, for example, lane splitting is illegal and motorcyclists caught moving between traffic at over 30kph face heavy fines and three demerit points.
Meanwhile in Thailand, plans have been floated to regulate lane splitting by big motorbikes.
Related:
Horrifying accident kills motorcyclist on Seletar Expressway
