Warning and spoiler alert: if you don’t like descriptions or photos of crashed motorcycles or crash victims, do not read this post.
Today I was riding my NCX in a scenic area near the Mississippi River. It was a Saturday, so I did see a large number of motorcycles out.
I rode about 200 miles today, sightseeing and looking for good motorcycling roads that I had perhaps not yet discovered. I chose a promising side road route and came upon a nice curvy rural two laner with good surface conditions. I settled in to an easy pace on this new to me road, enjoying the curves and scenery. Judging from the number of bikes that passed me from the other direction, the road had been discovered by other riders.
Rather abruptly, a trio of motorcycles appeared in my mirrors. I immediately thought, I don’t want those riders pushing me through the curves, so I pulled to the far edge of the road and waved them by. They took the bait, waved as they passed, and quickly disappeared. I was later able to identify these bikes as a Yamaha FJR leading two Harley heavyweight cruisers.
About five minutes later, I was gently rounding the second curve of an S curve, and came upon a crash scene. I had enough “bandwidth” to slow and u-turn to the side and park before actually passing the crash. The picture below is what I saw.
I walked to scene to see more closely that a Harley was wedged under the front of the pickup, and the rider was in the grassy ditch beside the truck. I monitored traffic coming around the bend to warn them to slow down. The two other riders in their group were tending to the downed rider.
Worth noting in the first picture is that the skid marks indicated the rider had gone down while in their own lane, and slid across the road into the path of the law abiding pickup. The driver of the truck, about retiree age, with spouse as passenger, said he came around the corner to see a motorcycle sliding across the pavement into his lane. What could he do? I can’t imagine how this rider dropped the bike in his/her own lane, not even halfway through the curve, on clean, dry pavement, but that’s what the scene would indicate. It is also probable, from the early advent of bike skid marks, and from the visibility around the curve, that the crash rider was going down before he/she even saw the truck in the opposite lane. The truck just had bad luck timing.
Another aspect worth noting is the rider’s gear. He or she wore a jacket and a helmet. I don’t know about gloves. The pants were denim jeans and the on the feet were athletic shoes. One shoe was now under the truck, while the other was loose in the ditch. The rider had road rash on the lower back, suggesting the jacket rode up and exposed the back, and the jeans were somewhat shredded in the seat of the pants.
Eventually, nine emergency vehicles appeared on site and the injured rider was hauled off in an ambulance. There was talk of a possible helicopter ride, but apparently that was not needed.
So what is the takeaway? On the surface it seems two Harley riders were being led on a ride by a rider with a more capable machine, an FJR. Maybe the followers were less experienced, but who knows? They were going faster than me, but I had a large safety margin built in, to be able to stop controllably even before passing the crash site. The crashed rider lacked proper gear, wearing jeans and sneakers. The jeans partly shredded and the shoes left the feet. The shoes do no good if they’re not on your feet. I do have to say this rider’s gear was better than 97% of the rest of riders I saw today; most all were helmetless and clad in jeans, t-shirts and tank tops.
Key points: wear all the gear, all the time, don’t ride beyond your ability, and ride your own ride, maintain a safety cushion to deal with the unexpected. Little did that person know, that five minutes after the wave and passing me by, that the Harley would be totaled and he/she would be hurting badly and hauled off to the hospital.
I also thought about how many other people were or would be involved in this rider‘s mistake: the sheriffs’s deputy, the city cop, at least a dozen firefighters, the ambulance crew, the couple whose truck was involved/damaged, the tow truck operator, the hospital personnel that will tend to the patient, the body shop that will fix the guys truck, the insurance adjusters, and on and on. And what if the rider has permanent or long lasting injuries? Simply put, this is a big deal, and something we all should be thinking about.
Ironically, as you can see in the first photo, the crash took place right in front of a cemetery. Hopefully it wasn’t this rider’s last day.
Today I was riding my NCX in a scenic area near the Mississippi River. It was a Saturday, so I did see a large number of motorcycles out.
I rode about 200 miles today, sightseeing and looking for good motorcycling roads that I had perhaps not yet discovered. I chose a promising side road route and came upon a nice curvy rural two laner with good surface conditions. I settled in to an easy pace on this new to me road, enjoying the curves and scenery. Judging from the number of bikes that passed me from the other direction, the road had been discovered by other riders.
Rather abruptly, a trio of motorcycles appeared in my mirrors. I immediately thought, I don’t want those riders pushing me through the curves, so I pulled to the far edge of the road and waved them by. They took the bait, waved as they passed, and quickly disappeared. I was later able to identify these bikes as a Yamaha FJR leading two Harley heavyweight cruisers.
About five minutes later, I was gently rounding the second curve of an S curve, and came upon a crash scene. I had enough “bandwidth” to slow and u-turn to the side and park before actually passing the crash. The picture below is what I saw.
I walked to scene to see more closely that a Harley was wedged under the front of the pickup, and the rider was in the grassy ditch beside the truck. I monitored traffic coming around the bend to warn them to slow down. The two other riders in their group were tending to the downed rider.
Worth noting in the first picture is that the skid marks indicated the rider had gone down while in their own lane, and slid across the road into the path of the law abiding pickup. The driver of the truck, about retiree age, with spouse as passenger, said he came around the corner to see a motorcycle sliding across the pavement into his lane. What could he do? I can’t imagine how this rider dropped the bike in his/her own lane, not even halfway through the curve, on clean, dry pavement, but that’s what the scene would indicate. It is also probable, from the early advent of bike skid marks, and from the visibility around the curve, that the crash rider was going down before he/she even saw the truck in the opposite lane. The truck just had bad luck timing.
Another aspect worth noting is the rider’s gear. He or she wore a jacket and a helmet. I don’t know about gloves. The pants were denim jeans and the on the feet were athletic shoes. One shoe was now under the truck, while the other was loose in the ditch. The rider had road rash on the lower back, suggesting the jacket rode up and exposed the back, and the jeans were somewhat shredded in the seat of the pants.
Eventually, nine emergency vehicles appeared on site and the injured rider was hauled off in an ambulance. There was talk of a possible helicopter ride, but apparently that was not needed.
So what is the takeaway? On the surface it seems two Harley riders were being led on a ride by a rider with a more capable machine, an FJR. Maybe the followers were less experienced, but who knows? They were going faster than me, but I had a large safety margin built in, to be able to stop controllably even before passing the crash site. The crashed rider lacked proper gear, wearing jeans and sneakers. The jeans partly shredded and the shoes left the feet. The shoes do no good if they’re not on your feet. I do have to say this rider’s gear was better than 97% of the rest of riders I saw today; most all were helmetless and clad in jeans, t-shirts and tank tops.
Key points: wear all the gear, all the time, don’t ride beyond your ability, and ride your own ride, maintain a safety cushion to deal with the unexpected. Little did that person know, that five minutes after the wave and passing me by, that the Harley would be totaled and he/she would be hurting badly and hauled off to the hospital.
I also thought about how many other people were or would be involved in this rider‘s mistake: the sheriffs’s deputy, the city cop, at least a dozen firefighters, the ambulance crew, the couple whose truck was involved/damaged, the tow truck operator, the hospital personnel that will tend to the patient, the body shop that will fix the guys truck, the insurance adjusters, and on and on. And what if the rider has permanent or long lasting injuries? Simply put, this is a big deal, and something we all should be thinking about.
Ironically, as you can see in the first photo, the crash took place right in front of a cemetery. Hopefully it wasn’t this rider’s last day.
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