Motorcyclist injured in drunk driving accident

A motorcyclist in Pennsylvania was injured when a driver of a pick up truck traveling north entered the southbound lanes of traffic to pass a slower moving vehicle.  When he did so, he did not notice a motorcycle traveling southbound and clipped the motorcycle, causing the rider to lose control of his bike and be ejected from the bike.   The pick up truck driver was charged with drunk driving.

This drunk driving accident sounds a similar them to many of the motorcycle crashes I have blogged about lately: that the driver of a car fails to see a motorcycle and yield the right of way to him, causing an accident where the motorcyclist was seriously injured (in this accident -- many other are wrongful death motorcycle accidents) and the driver of the car walks away.

When passing a vehicle traveling in  the same direction, it is a basic rule of the road that you do not enter the lane for oncoming traffic unless it is clear to do so for the distance it takes to complete the passing maneuver.  In this case, he either never checked at all, risking a head-on car crash that could have killed all involved, or he failed to see the motorcyclist, as has happened too many times in recent months.  The likelihood is that he simply failed to see the oncoming motorcycle rider.