It happened! I had an accident on my motorcycle. I was headed east on Hwy 80 with plans to turn onto Trickhambridge Road and then home. A small foreign model white car was in front of me with two young men in it. He had to stop for ongoing traffic and so did I. When he could make the left hand turn, I looked and followed him up a small hill. He was going about 7 or 8 miles per hour and I was right on his bumper trying to keep the motorcycle upright. As he got to the top of the hill, he began to speed up and I followed suit. By this time we were probably going about 12 mph. Then, all of a sudden, for no reason at all, he slammed on brakes and stopped. I swerved to the left hoping not to hit his car. The next thing I knew, he was speeding away and they were laughing as I was thrown off the motorcycle.
Just as I was about to hit the pavement I remember either muttering to myself or yelling for the world to hear, "Aw shit!" Then I felt a crunch and found myself laying on my left side right on the center line of the two lane road. I immediately felt my clavicle and could tell it was broken. A mini van going the opposite direction stopped and two young ladies ran over to see if they could help me. A man in his yard came running too.
I got on my feet and saw my motorcycle laying perfectly on its right side. The handle bars were straight, both tires were about six or eight inches off the ground. The highway bar had caught the front end of the bike while the hard saddle bag held up the rear. With the help of several people we righted the motorcycle and rolled to a man's driveway. I gave the ladies my cell phone with my ICE number highlighted. The call was made to my wife who didn't answer the phone. The man and the lady whose driveway I was using got a wet towel as my left arm was rather bloody. Then the lady called 911.
In the meantime, I checked the bike and determined it could be ridden. Everything appeared operable except for the rear brake pedal which was blocked by the bent highway bar. Since I only lived a mile away, I thanked the people and told them I would just ride it on home. The two ladies in the minivan turned around and followed me to the house. My wife was in the basement and when I opened the back door I gave a firm shout for her to come up quickly. She must have sensed the urgency as she ran up the stairs. We went to the car and began heading to the hospital which is located about 4 miles from our house.
The hospital was able to check me in rather quickly, and wheeled me back to a receiving area. Shortly a local policeman came in and said I had fled from the scene of the accident. I told him that was not even on my radar. I just wanted to get home and have my wife take me to the hospital. He said that is why the city has emergency vehicles. I recounted the incident to him. Then he said he would not give me a ticket but also could not file an accident report. Somehow he found out who I was, went to our house and saw the bike, then came to the hospital. To give you an idea of how fast things happened, my wife and I passed the scene on the way to the hospital before any emergency vehicles had arrived.
I was a lucky boy. I have a broken clavicle, road rash on my left arm and knee, and somehow a badly bruised big toe. And when the clavicle broke, it caused the left pectoral muscle to bruise. I told somebody it looked like I had the mammogram from hell.
The bike has relatively minor damage. There is a two inch by 1/4 inch scratch on the front fender. The outer chrome rim around the headlight is bent. The highway bar is scuffed and bent from the force of hitting the pavement. The saddle bag on that side of the bike encountered some pretty tough scuff marks but is still very usable.
I was glad to have a full face helmet on as there were some rather deep grooves running from the temple area to the chin. The helmet did exactly what it was supposed to do.
This was a tough way to learn a lesson on safety. A few weeks ago, a biker was killed when he couldn't stop short enough because he was following too closely. I was following too closely and had no margin for error. I thought the kids were tapping the brake light requesting me to back off. I certainly did not expect them to come to a complete stop.
I have proper gear...a protective jacket, gloves, helmet and boots. I was only wearing the helmet. From now on its all the protective gear or no riding. I'm not sure if the jacket would have stopped the broken clavicle but I am certain it would have prevented the road rash down my left arm.
Will I ride again? Absolutely! Just let me get the fracture healed and replace a couple of bike parts and buy a new helmet. Then its zoom, Zoom, ZOOM!
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