Sometimes, the most extreme conspicuity is not enough

I spotted a posting on advrider.com about a motor officer in Idaho who was rear-ended on his police motorcycle while he had all its emergency lights going.

I mean, that's about as conspicuous as you can get on a motorcycle! Flashing blue and red lights, very bright lights designed to catch the eye.

Picture from Idaho Statesman News

The office is OK, thank goodness. The idiot cager's name has not been released but I hope the driver is prosecuted to the full extent of the law! Getting hit from the rear is high on my list of dangers I worry about while on the motorcycle. My main brake light flashes several times upon initial activation of the brakes, and I´ve got flashing Hyperlites LEDs as well that continue to blink so long as I hold down the brake lever. This incident kind of renders moot my measures to be visible though, just goes to show that sometimes no matter what you´ve done to prevent something, some inattentive idiot cager will come along and hit you.

The police officer was apparently riding behind a police cruiser, also with its strobe lights on, which was pushing some disable vehicle in front of it. The theory on advrider.com is that the motor officer had nowhere to go to avoid the oncoming idiot and got hit.

The lesson for all this? Keep enough distance at stops to be able to maneuver out of the way of some idiot who looks like he´s going to not stop safely behind you, keep the motorcycle in gear and a wary eye on your mirrors. I rarely, put my motorcycle into neutral at a stoplight, I am ever ready to move. If I do have to free up my clutch hand, I wait for the cage behind to come to a stop and then use it as a shield (hopefully) but this is a rare thing.

Be wary and careful, there´s limits to conspicuity.

LINK to the news article.