Saw a motorcycle accident tonight

[Alix B]

Whoah. Right in front of my eyes. I'm traveling home to Maine in a car, weird, I know. I asked my friend to back off the motorcycle in front of us. There were some cones up, indicating construction.

Well, the dude must have BAD eyesight because the next thing I know, he runs into a cone and then into the LARGE, BLINKING sign indicating to stay out of that lane.

He went down, caught sparks in the slide. I thought his tank blew at first actually.

I totally freaked, we pulled over, called 911. When I went over to him, he was standing. I offered him water and asked him some questions to see if he was delirious.

Well, he was.

THere are a couple of things I feel like pointing out.

WEAR GEAR. This guy was on the highway in a tank top and shorts.
(didn't see flip flops at least)

If you fall, STEP AWAY from the bike. Get your head together. Do a bone check.

He said he was fine, absolutely fine. I pointed out 2 major places of road rash. He was oblivious.

The first instinct upon crash always seems to be to get BACK on the bike.
DON'T,
thank god he was ok.
I want you to be too.

[runtotorun121]

Wow. Well I guess the only good thing was that maybe he was going slower because of the construction. . .

[KCScooterDude]

Did he fall asleep? It really sounds like he fell asleep.

He was in shock. I knew a guy who got his finger cut off in car's fan and he didnt' realize it until his wife told him. He said he looked at it, saw the finger missing and felt the most intense pain he'd ever felt, but none before that.

[Alix B]

Are you two hanging out? I notice the first two comments are from Kansas City, MO people. Within minutes of one another. Hmmmm......

I used to live there. But I was too young to ride a scooter-or anything other than my Big Wheels.

THe other saving grace of the night was that we dropped our following distance, to about 8 seconds.

I personally despise when cagers get on my tail as though they want me to be the next hood ornament.

Had we been too close, we could have possibly created more damage to him, or to ourselves.

Was he asleep?
Nah. I think he might have been coming home from work and was in a zone. I saw a lunchbox with his strewn about stuff.

I've done some stupid things, but can't imagine running full on into ORANGE CONES AND BLINKING CONSTRUCTION SIGNS. Then again, I had two headlights versus his one.

Maybe he was lost in thought about buying a scooter....

[KCScooterDude]

I think there are just a lot of us Kansas City people on MB. We have a really good dealer and we're early adopters!

I think it's just CST people signing off. In about an hour you'll see a lot of MST people on here. Or ist CDT and MDT, I get confused. PST or PDT people are just finishing dinner right about now, I reckon!

I usually check MB right before bed, when I turn off the lights and the night terrors begin... Just kidding.

I'm actually in St. Louis right now.

How many traffic accidents have you seen on your travels?

[sunshinen]

Yeah, shock and adrenaline can do wonders for masking injury. I'll definitely reiterate Alix's pleas to realize you may not be fully aware of your injuries.

After a ski jumping crash, I waved to tell the boat I was fine. Fortunately, the spotter had seen how I had hit the water and knew I wasn't. So they came and picked me up anyway.

After a car wreck, I remember my thoughts "What just happened? (I was rearended, and had no idea it was coming) I was just in a car wreck. Am I okay?" I literally did a visual inspection of my body, and it was still a while before I realized how badly my back and neck were injured. I made things worse by not respecting my injuries.

So, unless you are worried about exploding gas tanks, you might want to not move for a bit. My injuries were just to ligaments and bone, but you may not realize you have a spine injury. And it's better safe than sorry on that.

It makes sense. In the wild, if a lion bites off your hand. You don't need to notice that you've lost your hand. You need to flee. So that is how your body is equipped to work. So in the event of an accident, you need to stop and over ride those fight or flight instincts.

[charltons]

How many of is, in our cars driving the same route day in and day out, get into a "zone", pull into the parking lot and think to themselves "I don't remember the rde at all?" If we do it a lot, we just go on autopilot.

I can see how he hit the cones- maybe his day was just a little more exhausting than usual.

Only thing is, it has more serious repercussions on an MC.

[Dooglas]

I can see how he hit the cones- maybe his day was just a little more exhausting than usual.

Only thing is, it has more serious repercussions on an MC.

+ 1

I've thought about this one before. You see cars hit safety cones in construction areas all the time. Hard to imagine that you could hit one square on riding a motorcycle or scooter without going down.

[Racenut]

Now we know why Leroy's crash pics didn't clearly show how it all started


I flipped my quad a few years back and tumbled down a hill with it. it landed on top of me, I was pinned, gas was dripping. Yeah, you go into survival mode. You find strength you don't know you have, like kicking a 600 pound quad off you with your one free leg. And you don't realize you're hurt until you feel safe. I had broken ribs and broke my back and scrapes and bruises all over, I didn't really start to hurt till I was "safe".

[Keys]

Good points, Alix...here's one more;

DON'T get up. I have seen many instances where the rider jumps up to check his bike, only to find out at the hospital that if he'd just stayed down, his fractured back or neck might not have been completely separated. Wait to be checked out. The bike is replaceable...your spine is not.

Shock allows the body to do things it shouldn't.

--Keys