Crash, Stupid cager tried to kill me! .. wear your gear!

[Frodo]

Can't go into too much detail, but was riding this past Sunday morning (6-8-2008) and had an old woman try to kill me.  I was riding on a 2 lane road with double yellow lines and not a passing zone in sight.  But she tried to pass anyway.  Traffic had backed up due to a slow car ahead and I was 6th or 7th in line of the cars.  I was having to watch the car in front of me closely because they kept jamming on their brakes.  Out of the corner of my eye, I realize there is a car beside of me and they are coming over on me.  Before I could react, get out of the way or even slow down, the car makes contact and I go down around 40-45mph.  The scary thing was we were so close as I fell, that I saw her rear tire go past my head and there were more cars behind us.  I fell on my left side and my leg got caught under the bike and was sliding head-first down the road.  Not an enjoyable experience to say the least.  I do have some injuries from the crash.  I got some road rash on my elbow and knee.  My knee, hip, ribs, shoulder and upper back are bruised and sore.  May have some injuries to the knee, but got to follow up with a specialist next week.  Would have been hurt worse if I had not been wearing my gear.  Even though it was hot (over 90 degrees F) I was wearing my textile jacket, full face helmet, gloves and boots.  Earlier that day, I had several bikes pass me and most were not wearing helmets and only wearing shorts and t-shirts.  Without my gear I would most certainly have been shredded from my face , down my arm, back and chest, and probably would have spent a few days in the hospital.  So from my experience I have to say, wear all the gear all the time!  Here are a few pics of my injuries and my gear.  There was not as much damage to the bike as I expected, however with labor costs, I expect it to be $1000 easily.


Randy
















this picture is from where I stopped sliding back into the direction of the crash

[Villager]

Ouch, that looks painful. I'm glad you weren't 'seriously' injured - your gear did it's job, no broken bones or worse.

Did the woman stop? Will she be paying for your losses?

[Frodo]

yes, she stopped, although I was concerned at first that she might not.  Luckily there were cars following her and 2 of them stopped and gave me their info, and shared their disbelief in what she had done to cause the crash.  Her insurance is supposed to be paying damages.  I have hired an attorney to help make sure I recover damages and such.  I am not the type of person looking for an opportunity to sue someone, however this was caused by someone that completely disobeyed the traffic laws and acted in a dangerous and arrogant manner.  She was on a trip to visit relatives a few hours away and I believe she did this because she was in a hurry. 

Oh, and the first car behind her was an older fellow that is also a rider.  He helped get the bike off me, moved it off the road, put it on the kick stand and checked to make sure it would start again.  He stayed to talk to the police and talked to me until I left in the ambulance.  I am glad there are people out there that still care about other people and was concerned for a fellow rider. 

[SIKDMAX]

ATGATT 

Get er!

[w00derson]

Stupid people 

What kinda of pants were you wearing?

[Frodo]

Only had on denim jeans.  I have been looking for some mesh pants to go over the jeans, but had been unable to find anything that fit so far.  But before I go ride again, will have something.

[SIKDMAX]

Pics of the jeans for riders who think jeans are ok to wear 

[pandy]

+1 on ATGATT!

I believe in freedom of choice, but I can't even imagine going through what I'm going through after my own accident and adding road rash to it.

Glad that you made it out alive, Frodo. 

[El motociclista]

Wow, sorry to hear of your accident but glad you are (relatively) okay. Glad you were wearing gear. By the looks of your jacket you would've had some gnarly rash on your shoulders and fore-arms. I'm sure you've been running the scenarios in your mind of what your poor body could've been like had you not had your jacket and gloves and obviously your helmet. Those sores you have now look painful and uncomfortable enough. Yeah, definitely get some proper motorcycle pants. When I went down I had all my gear and came out virtually unscathed. Hope your examination goes well. Get plenty of rest and wishing you a good, quick recovery.

And thanks for sharing your story. It's good to be aware of as many of the different potentially dangerous encounters we might have as motorcyclists out there. I think you're like the third or fourth person in just the last month that has been downed due to an elderly driver. Not cool

[beRto]

Sorry to hear about your crash... get well soon! 

[BreakerIBS]

Glad to hear you're doing good.

Props to you for wearing your gear!!!

[ohgood]

Frodo -

Hi there, welcome to the forum if I haven't already. Also, welcome to another chance at life. The driver should be punished criminally and sued for damages. Please do BOTH to the fullest extent.

People get in a hurry and loose their civility so quickly. Such a shame.

Hope you don't have any qualms about riding again.

ps - thanks for riding slow enough your guardian angel could keep up.

[GeeP]

Frodo -

Hi there, welcome to the forum if I haven't already. Also, welcome to another chance at life. The driver should be punished criminally and sued for damages. Please do BOTH to the fullest extent.

People get in a hurry and loose their civility so quickly. Such a shame.

Hope you don't have any qualms about riding again.

ps - thanks for riding slow enough your guardian angel could keep up.

Couldn't have said it any better.

Also, lets see some photos of the jeans!

I hope your knee is OK.  The kneecap looks a little "crooked" in the photo!   

Please keep us up to date as you get things sorted.   

[Ronin]

Glad your alright dude!!  I would be highly pissed to say the least.Hope you rip her a new one!

[cd]

sue her retarded ass so bad she cant even give her crosseyed retarded grandchildren 5 dollars on their birthday

[GI_JO_NATHAN]

Glad you're relatively ok. Hope you're riding again soon.

[Frodo]

Sorry I don't have any pics of the jeans.  I just looked at them in the laundry room and there is not much to show.  The leg of jeans where most of the damage was, has been cut off and discarded at the hospital.  I can add this though, before I stopped sliding on the asphalt, I looked down at my leg to try to figure out how to get it out from under the bike.  One thing that stuck in my head was it looked like cotton dust flying everywhere, so I knew my pants were toast and probably my leg also.  I will never ride in just jeans again.

GeeP- my knee does look crooked, but thats just my knobby knee 

Thanks for all the comments on getting better soon, it does make me feel better!

I have not decided about riding again.  My wife has really not said anything but my kids have.  They have made comments that they don't want me to get hurt again and not to ride anymore.  Right now its not an option, my leg is in no condition to ride yet and the bike will need some repairs first.  Plus I willl have to replace all the gear.  As a friend of mine pointed out, it does not seem fair in many ways.  I have tried very hard from the beginning to be a safe and cautious rider.  I took the MSF class right away, bought riding gear, try to ride on the safest routes, and at times when traffic is light and chose a bike that was not too heavy or powerful for my riding skills.  And where I live, most everyone rides Harleys or at least metric cruisers, most do not even wear helmets and hardley no one wears any kind of gear.  Even the sport bike guys too often have on only shorts, tank tops and I have even seen them in flip flops!  But we have had a number of fatalities around here over the past couple of years, and as far as I know almost all of them were not wearing helmets or any other riding gear.  But even if my street riding days are over, I have rekindled my love of riding and will at least ride off road.  Here in Eastern Kentucky, we do have lots of trails in the mountains to ride and my oldest daughter is 9, almost 10 and is big enough for her first dirt bike.

Randy

Here is a pic of the bruise on my hip and upper thigh. 

[Frodo]

today I spoke with one of the people that witnessed the crash.  She confirmed what I suspected but was not sure about.  But when the woman came over on me, she hit my handle bars and thats what put me down so quickly.  And I also spoke to the nurse that came with the rescue squad and she said that the driver made it plain that she tried to pass because she was just tired of following me.

[yamahonkawazuki]

f%$king own her, so shes not tempted to do this again

[pronator]

Glad you're okay, man!

And thanks for another reminder of ATGATT (though Pandy already did this month's lesson... ). Especially as the weather gets better, it's tempting to just skip a piece of gear. 

I read something when I first started riding that stuck with me. A rider who'd been in a recent accident wrote something like this:

If you could push pause right before a crash and put on more gear before the fall, then you're not wearing enough gear!!

I always think about how STOOPID I would feel if I took a fall in jeans while my armored pants were hanging in the closet.

Here's to a speedy and full recovery!