I saw a total retard driving his motorcycle down a road in town yesterday while standing on it. I am serious… his feet were on his seat and his arms were out like a scarecrow.
So, my question is this. Say I’m driving in the oncomming lane and I see said 'tard standing on his seat, driving down the road standing on his crotch rocket. So, lets say as we get close I momentarily swerve my vehicle towards 'tard on his bike. I do not cross the center line. For example lets say your driving and you quickly turn your wheel 20degrees, and then right back… your car will quickly swerve back and forth in your lane without actually even going in the oncomming lane… get it?
So, lets say I did that and 'tard standing on bike freaked and fell off his bike… presumebly damaging both himself (yay! Darwin Award) and his bike.
Could I be charged with anything? If so, with what?
NOTE: THIS DID NOT HAPPEN. I DID NOTHING OTHER THAN MUTTER WHAT AN IDJIT HE WAS BY STANDING ON HIS BIKE.
To add to the original question, lets say someone behind him honked his horn and scared the bike rider, causing the same result (falling down, hurting himself).
You thought you saw a pile of nails / dead skunk / pothole / etc. that would cause harm to your tires and/or car, and swerved to avoid it. It’s not your fault they were driving in a reckless manner and not in full control of their vehicle.
Of course, this will depend on the exact circumstances, locality and mood of police officers involved. I’d like to hope that most officers would be of the opinion that the 'tard was just that and deserves a citation for reckless driving.
I would think that if you did it with the intent to cause him to fall it would be some sort of assault. I don’t think you can use the “but I never even touched him!” defense.
What’s wrong with you people? You want to wantonly cause serious bodily harm to an individual, and you think it’s ok?
So what if the guy was doing that. I see guys on crotch rockets pop wheelies and brake hard so that their rear tire goes up in the air. Let these people be fined accordingly. What drives you to want to hurt them. Really, I don’t see why it bothers you so much. They are taking a chance, sure. But that chance does not reasonably include an asshole like you trying to pretend to ram him. Geeez.
So the penalty for showing off a little should be paralysis? Death? Are you jealous of his ability, or what is your deal??
Yes, in Florida it would definitely be an Aggravated Assault. A felony! I don’t think it would depend much on the officer’s mood. I’ve never met one that took well to vigilanties. Especially the kind that want to kill people for committing civil traffic infractions.
IANAL but they’d first hafta prove that you meant to knock the guy off his motorcycle. As someone mentioned above, you could always say “I was trying to avoid hitting a squirrel” or something. How are they going to prove what your mindset was for swerving, especially if there were no witnesses around?
To add to the original question, lets say someone behind him honked his horn and scared the bike rider, causing the same result (falling down, hurting himself).
No. It’s not illegal to honk your car horn. Maybe the driver of the car was honking at a friend as he drove by their house. Not the driver’s fault that the moron in front of him on the motorcycle is (probably) riding his motorcycle in an illegal manner.
Besides, by the time the guy fell off his motorcycle and cracked his stupid head, you’d be long gone and AFAIK it wouldn’t be illegal considering you’re going in the other direction and you didn’t do anything to directly cause the accident.
Bear_Nenno you might want to be careful over-reacting and spouting off your opinion of people for asking a question, and especially the name calling. Wrong forum for that dude. It’s just a hypothetical question (written right into the title)… it don’t mean nuthin.
The OP calls the show-off a pejorative name, considers giving him a death threat, speculates on his resultant damage or death, rejoices in it (“yay”), and then says “it don’t mean nuthin.”
I will express no opinion on the above.
As to the OP, if the Highway Patrol saw the whole thing, I also think the charge would be aggravated assault, as physical contact is not necessary for that charge.
Of course if mmmiiikkkeee did nothing, the cop would have pulled over the show-off instead, on one of the catch-all charges like driving too fast for conditions.