An Edmonton motorcyclist is raising alarm bells for drivers to be more vigilant after his helmet camera captured a vehicle passing him on the shoulder of the QEII Highway over the weekend.
Jamie Lamarche was out for a ride on Saturday night when the incident happened. He said he was heading north on the QEII between Nisku and Edmonton – near the 41 Avenue SW overpass – riding in the far right lane, when a vehicle came whipping past him on the right shoulder.
“This guy goes blowing past me at whatever speed he was doing and scared the bejesus out of me,” Lamarche said.
“I have no idea what the heck he was thinking. What makes people do this? … That’s just an idiot move right there. He could have caused so much chaos on the highway.”
Lamarche said traffic was moving along quite quickly at the time – he said he was driving about 130 km/h. There were vehicles in both lanes to the left of him, he said — a car in the far left lane and a semi directly next to him.
“Had he moved over it would have been a disaster.”
Matt Bendera is a member of the Alberta Sheriffs. He saw the video Monday afternoon and told the 630 CHED Afternoon News he hadn’t seen anything going that fast on a shoulder in his 12 years of policing.
“Man, that’s just insane,” he said.
Watch below: A motorcyclist’s helmet camera caught a shocking move by a driver on the shoulder of the QEII. As Albert Delitala reports, the stunt has even the most experienced drivers shaking their heads.
Not only was the vehicle itself a major danger, Bendera said, the wind created by the passing SUV could have made it very easy for Lamarche to crash.
“If you’re not paying attention or there’s a speed wobble, you’re going to wipe out,” he said.
LISTEN BELOW: Matt Bendera speaks with 630 CHED
Lamarche said he shared the video in hopes of reminding drivers to slow down, pay attention and be a bit more patient on the roads.
“Everybody’s in a rush to go somewhere in the city and it’s a pain. … I got a lot of friends out on bikes and every time we hear something on the news about a bike going down, it’s like, ‘Do we know them? What happened?’
“I love my bike. I’m not going to stop riding because of this but I’m so much more aware now. You have to be. We got no protection. We’re wearing a helmet, gloves, jacket and boots. A car has four walls and a windshield and all that — way more protection than we do.”
Bendera said police do their part to try and educate people about the dangers of speeding in the form of news releases and statistics, but people need to realize they just need to slow down.
“You’re going to kill someone, kill yourself, lose your licence,” he said. People just need to take a step back, leave a little earlier, check traffic conditions and we all know it’s summertime and there’s construction everywhere and that is going to delay you, so plan ahead for that stuff.”
According to the most recent statistics available, there were 645 motorcycles involved in collisions in Alberta in 2016. Or those, 38 of the crashes were fatal, making up 8.8 per cent of all fatal collisions in Alberta that year.
Watch below: Liane Langlois with the Alberta Motorcycle Safety Society joined Global Edmonton to remind all drivers, including riders, to watch out for each other and be safe.