Mork meets Mindy. 2/15/2006
Roy gave me this link…
… where a 22 year old motorcyclist died doing wheelies. On a 1200 c.c. Kawasaki, which has something like 130 plus horsepower on tap. The first question I asked myself was, “How does a 22 year old afford a liter plus Kawasaki?” OK, it’s Australia, where the bikes there don’t have this ridiculous import duty and tax structure where only the committed and insane buy superbikes. But even in Australia, big Kawasakis are still more expensive than Hyundais. No doubt a Kawasaki has more street credibility than a Hyundai, but still.
The other thing was how did he afford the insurance for it? Insurance in Australia is a bloody expensive joke. Maybe not as bad as England, where the cost of your annual premium can be more than the initial purchase cost of your machine, depending on your age, driving record, location and so on. But I do know for a fact that a 22 year old rider in Sydney is going to have some heavy premiums to pay to comprehensively insure his bike.
There is a saying about bold riders, and old riders, but no old, bold riders, to paraphrase that old saying about pilots. There is certainly no match for experience. Unless your name is Valentino Rossi.
- Posted in : On the road
- Author : thesnark
Comments»
There are an amazing amount of people that have more money than sense.
The only compulsory insurance here is what we call a Green Slip. this only cover injury to persons. Generally around $3~400.
Basically, you don’t need to be covered for property damage here, you can be personally liable, ut you don’t need such insurance to take your vehicle on the road.
Its pretty fucked up actually, because the victim in these cases usually suffers, especially if they don’t have comprehensive cover.
I have comprehensive cover but I’m weary of idiots on the road cause any dings and my car’s more likley to be written off due to the agreed value.
L…yeah, I know about the green slip. But considering what the machine costs, and the likelyhood of something going terribly pear shaped with it while riding, don’t you think it would be socially and financially responsible to have some sort of cover apart from third party?
I don’t know if the bike was under finance, or if he bought it outright. Either way, he paid the price for being foolhardy with it. Which was really the point I was trying to make. We’ve both ridden for many years, and seen too many new riders make fatal mistakes.
I wholly agree with you. There should be some sort of 3rd party property damage insurance cover before you can be allowed to use a vehicle.
Unfortunately, thats not the way it is here.
Indeed he did pay the ultimate price, so young…RIP..Dom