A motorist sustained minor injuries when a vehicle and a motorcyclist were involved in a noncontact accident about noon Tuesday near SBCC.

Santa Barbara Police Department spokesman Lt. Paul McCaffrey said the motorist was transported to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital for treatment.

According to McCaffrey, the vehicle and the motorcycle were traveling westbound at 721 Cliff Drive, outside the front entrance to the college. The 21-year-old male motorcyclist was traveling in the No. 1 lane, while the 76-year-old male driver of a Honda CRV was in the No. 2 lane. The motorcyclist was allegedly accelerating beyond the speed limit when the vehicle made an abrupt lane change, forcing the motorcyclist to crash into the ground, McCaffrey said.

“The motorcyclist took evasive action and crashed the motorcycle but didn’t hit the car,” he said. “While the driver’s actions contributed to the noncontact collision, both have some blame of what happened.”

The motorcyclist was wearing a helmet and motorcyclist jacket, according to McCaffrey, but suffered scratches and bruises from sliding on the pavement.

“You need to drive defensively and be aware of what is around you,” McCaffrey said. “In this case, it appears to be a motorcyclist riding too fast coupled with a car making an unsafe lane change. If you took away one of those things, there wouldn’t have been a collision.”

He said motorcyclists need to be especially aware of their surroundings.

“They need to be very aware that the car might not see them and may turn in front of them, evaluating their location and other driver’s actions in case this occurs,” he said. “They should always be driving a safe speed limit to give them time to react.”

— Noozhawk staff writer Alex Kacik can be reached at akacik@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk or @NoozhawkNews. Become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.