My heart goes out to you survivors, and to those of you who have lost friends to the road. I share your pain.
July 4 1983, A kid doing donuts in the AM//PM parking lot at 1am (it was actually the 5th), pulled out across 2 lanes in front of me and slammed on his brakes. Other than just not being on the road, don't know how I could have avoided him. Hit him at about 30mph, bike smacked my ankle into his bumper as I flew over the top of the car and landed on my head. I still remember the sensation of flying and thinking "tuck and roll..." Busted my full face Bell Star, blew out the zipper of my vinyl jacket, but it and the jump pants over jeans and combat boots kept the skin on. Had old Army leather covers for gloves. Got a hairline fracture of the tibia that has since secreted calcium deposits that cause me worsening problems as I get older, along with some neck and back pain. In '95 Got hit broadside while driving my Toyota Starlet by a guy in a Dodge Ram who blew a country road stop sign at 55. Again, other than just not being there..and how can you do that? Got bashed knees, neck, and shoulder injuries from that one, and a helicopter ride because it took them 45 minutes to cut me out of the car. So, I got some arthritis, was on opiate therapy for about 5 yrs until this past Christmas. Last summer, I went on a long ride with a friend and his gf, from Portland to Seattle to Boise and back, in the hills outside of Prineville, after 4 days on the road at 10:30 at night he sees a deer in the road and pulls in front of me while trying to stop. I never saw the deer, all I saw was his brake lights come on and get real close real fast, I couldn't avoid clipping his Vetter at about 20mph and I went over the bars. My bike took his down, he rolled off to the left, she got stuck between the bikes. Separated my shoulder, and busted my second Bell full face helmet, they were both wearing Half helmets but got no scratches on them, we were all wearing leather jackets, gloves, jeans and boots, mine shredded at the knee and I got some rash there, but my 3/4 length coat saved my hip and shoulder skin, the leathers and gloves kept everyone's skin and fingers intact. She rode in the ambulance with me to the ER, she had a second degree pipe burn on her thigh and they weren't sure about my shoulder. They ended up finishing the ride home, but my bike was down and I spent the night in the ER. I think about this one a lot. Obviously I was too close to avoid him but I was totally unprepared for someone to try to stop like that. I spent a lot of time in the foothills around Sacramento where there are lots of deer, I've always been taught to slow down and go around, it's safer to run over the dog than run over the kid on the sidewalk trying to avoid the dog, or hit the deer rather than go over a cliff trying to avoid it....but he's actually had 2 deer, at different times, jump on him while he was riding and knock him down. I can't fault a guy for not wanting that to happen again...but I still don't think I'd try to stop if I saw a deer... and I'll be lots further back if I'm riding with others in deer country again...and in spite of it all, there are still days when I would go riding shirtless and helmetless if I could....
