A tale of three crashes...

This weekend was a particularly bad weekend in Lincoln Nebraska. We had three motorcycle crashes within 21 hours. The initial reports on the news were that there was a car and motorcycle collision by the capitol building, there was a crash involving a car turning left in front of a bike, and there was a crash involving a motorcycle and a car both heading westbound on the highway.As an MSF Ridercoach, I am always very curious about the specifics of these crashes - who's fault was it, could it have been prevented, would I have been in that same situation? I decided to find the accident reports and find out what I could.Crash #1A 2015 Dodge Charger was heading east on a one way street. According to their statement, they had a green light, verified by a witness and security tape footage (this occurred on the northeast corner of the Nebraska State Capitol and the southeast corner of a state office building). A 2019 HD FLHXS Street was driving south on a one way street and ran the red light and slammed into the side of the Charger. The rider and passenger were thrown from the bike and the car's airbags deployed. Both rider and passenger were taken to the hospital in critical condition.Crash #2A Toyota Camry was southbound and in the turn lane to head east. The turn light was green (protected turn) as she approached and then turned yellow as she began her turn. As the driver began to turn left to clear the intersection, she saw something heading northbound quickly. She stopped and did not complete the turn as a 2014 Harley Davidson lost control and went down. The bike slid in front of her car and the rider slammed into the car. He died at the hospital. Two witnesses corroborated the driver's version of events.Crash #3A 2009 Chevy Malibu was westbound on the highway and stopped at a red light in the left-most lane of a 4 lane highway (two west, two east). As the light turned green and the driver began to take off, she saw something quickly approaching her from behind. Immediately, a 2008 Kawasaki V900c slammed into the rear driver side of the car. The rider was taken to the hospital in serious/critical condition (the paper is unclear on this point other than to say EMS took him and he was unable to provide a statement.)Who cares? Why am I bringing this up?We've all got stories of people turning left in front of us or cars not seeing us. We all know people who have had crashes. But all of these crashes were avoidable. Not only were they avoidable, they were completely the fault of the riders! The first crash happened because the rider ran the red light. The second crash happened because the rider was going to run the red light (at a really busy intersection) and then laid the bike down. The third crash happened because the rider was attempting to blow past a car on the left shoulder of a divided highway and lost control. When I heard about the first crash and when another RiderCoach messaged me about the other two, my first thought was "goddamn drivers turning in front of bikes, not paying attention, texting and driving." But then I got the full story and was both relieved (the drivers around me aren't as bad as I thought...) and angry (...but those damn bikers....).The other reason I'm bringing this up is just for me. I had dinner just down the road from the second crash. My buddy drove and we took a different route home, but had I driven, based on the police report, I would have been there just after it happened. The third crash happened literally 5 minutes after I finished teaching my course today, and just a 30 second drive from my range. I had just gotten some Dairy Queen, turned onto the highway eastbound at that intersection, and then unknowingly drove by both the car and the motorcycle moments before they crashed.I don't really have a thesis statement here. I'm just sad that one person (and possibly four people) died this weekend because of their poor decisions. I'm angry that I had kids arguing with me in class about the value of laying a bike down and that the next day I had a newspaper article showing the results of doing that to shut them up. I'm frustrated that I'll have to explain this stuff the next few weeks in class when people who signed up months ago start questioning if they should ride or not. And I'm gutted that the other drivers are going to have to live with this on their minds when they did absolutely nothing wrong.Please stay safe out there people.Due to the personal information, I won't link the police reports even though they are public records. If anyone wants to see them, just google "Lincoln Nebraska accident reports" and search for the date - 6/15 and 6/16 - and you'll find them. The local paper (JournalStar) has short articles on all three crashes, as well as the Omaha World Herald. via /r/motorcycles https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcycles/comments/c1k6cc/a_tale_of_three_crashes/?utm_source=ifttt