Sad Story

I think I know what happened here and that's why I feel sad for the young man who died. He made the simplest mistake and it cost him his life.

Notice that the water was only a few inches deep on the roadway and it was flowing freely through the spoked wheels so there was no strong water pressure against the bike. If the bike had been swept away by water pressure the wheels would have been knocked out from under the rider and the bike would have slid sideways off the road and over the edge. In the video, however, the rider actually steers the bike through a ninety-degree turn and it remains upright even as it falls off the edge of the road.

What probably happened is that the rider looked down at the water and became disorientated by its movement across the road from left to right. He was instinctively steering to the right without even realising it. If he had lifted his eyes from the water he would have got things into perspective and understood that he was in danger. But he didn't lift his eyes. Even as his bike made that ninety-degree turn, he was probably still thinking that he was traveling in a straight line across the road.

The sad thing about his death is that solution is so simple.

Before entering the water you should pick landmark directly ahead of you on the other side of the river. It might be a tree, or a bush, or a fence post, or anything at all. But whatever it is, it now becomes your aiming point. If you go from where you are now directly to your aiming point then you will have crossed the river in a beautiful straight line, and you do that by never once looking down at the water. Once your journey begins you keep your eyes focused on your aiming point and completely ignore the water flow beneath you. That prevents you from becoming disorientated and you will never make a ninety-degree turn that sends you off the road and into the river.