Reminder: Shoulder it on sudden stops.

[Robb]

To wit:

[NYC_SKP]

1. Interest to read the comments.

Without doubt, the truck was at fault.

However, had the bikes ahead not been pulled over in that 17 inch strip of pavement right with a steep grade dropping off the shoulder, the Nissan wouldn't have stopped and the truck wouldn't have had a dead object in the middle of the street to ram into.

Were I in the Nissan, I'd likely have slowed but not stopped.

So there are some contributors to what happened here: the bikes ahead, the Nissan, but more than anything the truck driver who, as suggested in the comments, might well have been texting or reading emails.

Damn.

[catnhatnh]

2. Thanks Robb...I think....

On the one hand this is a safety tip I hadn't learned in 40 years. On the other hand I may have nightmares...

[Manifestor_of_Light]

3. Somebody yelled "This is a funeral procession"?

Truck driver is an idiot.

[frylock]

4. this ties in nicely with your lane splitting post..

I'm far more comfortable splitting lanes than I am risking an event like this on the freeway. Yikes!!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

5. I can't figure out why the first car (the one that got rear ended) was stopped.

Obviously from where he went post-impact there was more than enough room to get by the bike.