ATTGATT Safety Crashes Injuries Close-Calls

[Dan_Ashley]

I decided to write a book on motorcycle safety. My idea is to include real life experiences of motor sports riders.

A little of my background:
I am retired big city police officer (from injuries, not from a 20+ year career). After which I went to school and earned a handful of college degrees. I have doctorates in two fields, (two PhD degrees) and finally retired from being a business executive and a college professor. I taught both statistics and business topics.

This is what I am asking, if you would be willing to participate:
I am looking for real life examples of motorcycle crashes or close calls. What happened, why, and what could have been done by the motorcyclist to lessen the risk. The point of this is NOT to cast doubt on anyone's ability, but to provide the readers of this book with street driving strategies that will keep the shiney side of their bikes up--and the tires on the pavement.

Anyone who participates has two promises from me: 1) Anonominity (spelling) and 2) a free copy when the book is finished.

If you want to participate, and I hope you do, you can either post your vignette here, or you can email it to me at [email protected].

Thank you to all for participating!

 

[Bob Denman]

September, 1980...
A head-on encounter with a Buick... :shocked:
Got a busted leg out of the deal, but all of safety gear made it a perfectively outcome! :thumbup:
I did a double-flip up and over the car. my riding buddy told me that the bike did a single, before landing on the road shoulder.

 

[Blue Star]

My accident

The accident:
The accident happened on October 29, 2006. I was going to Best Buy to get a SD disk for my camera a week before my 7-day cruise. I took the bike (Suzuki Boulevard C50) to the store. Came up to a curve and noticed that I had to change the clock due to daylight savings time, and then prepared for the curve. Next then I know is I rolled over from my right shoulder to my back, and think to myself "dang, I am on the ground". I grab my cell phone only to realize that I cannot talk with my full face helmet on. A guy comes up, and tells me that he called 911, and asks me am I okay? I say I am hurting a little in my back (big mistake). He asks if there is anyone that he can call. I give him my cell phone, and tell him to call my wife. She (with my two teenaged daughters) got their before EMT did. At this point I am hurting on my back due to the (then unknown) broken ribs, and from laying on the hard asphalt. They try to keep me from moving thinking pain was from back bones. A person said that they should take my helmet off, but the original witness said no. Later Police said that was a smart thing to do. Never take a helmet off a downed rider, and leave that for the professionals. Emergency personnel come and took me to the Hospital. Accident happened at 1:00 PM Sunday, and was discharged from the Hospital at 9:00 PM Friday night. While I did not follow my Doctors orders of not going on the cruise, it did really ruin it, as I was in pain, on portable oxygen, and could not do many of the activities with my family.

Cause of accident:
While I knew that there was a curve coming up, and was prepared for it. I was distracted just before the curve, and was not paying attention to how fast I was going. I do not remember the whole chain of events, but from what I have pieced together from the witness I hit some gravel in the road, slid off the asphalt into the soft shoulder, and flipped the bike over.
Contributing factor to the accident was inexperience, as I was only riding for three months.

What I learned:
Pay attention to everything when on the bike, and take a motorcycle safety course. DO NOT put it off for later when you have more time for it.

Injuries:
Medium road rash to both knees, and left hip; minor road rash to back of hands; four broken ribs (two cracked, two compound); punctured lung; four days in the Hospital; a lot of pain.

Gear on:
Full face helmet, gloves, a leather jacket, was wearing a pair of sweat pants, and tennis shoes.

What this gear did to protect me:
Full face helmet protected my face, and the impact point was on left side top of head. The top layer was missing a two to three inch circle, and entire left side scratched up along the chin guard. Shield lost the connection on left side.
Gloves were torn or shredded apart, and I had only minor road rash to the back of my hands.
Leather jacket saved me from major road rash as I found out when I found a dime sized hole in my leather jacket with a red spot on the skin where this hole was on my left shoulder.
Sweat pants did no good, as I had road rash to both knees, and my left hip. I to this day have scars on both my knees. Tennis shoes had no damage, and neither did my feet.

Damage to bike:
Front forks, radiator grill cover, shifter, left mirror, and scrapes in paint. I never the bike fixed due to being under insured, and wife made me sell it.

 

[Dan_Ashley]

The accident:
.

Ouch....

 

[cuznjohn]

my accident

in 2008 i was waiting for a friend in a bus stop, he pulled up and we talked for a min. and than decided to get on the parkway for our ride. the ramp entrance was right across from us and there is a slight hill right behind us at the red light. i checked to see if anyone was coming and didn't see anybody and took off for the ramp. what i didn't know was that after i left the bus stop a older man came over that lil hill because he had the green light and when i was crossing to get on the parkway ramp he decided to go around me from the left side, lucky i was only doing about 10 MPH when all i saw was his rear end right quarter and he clipped my front wheel on my triumph rocket 111, it spun my bike out from under me and when i went down i got some road rash, not much, broke 4 ribs on my left side and fractured my left scapular and totaled out a brand new helmet. let me tell you broken ribs hurt and you always have to breath so it was bad.

 

[Michael211_2000]

I decided to write a book on motorcycle safety. My idea is to include real life experiences of motor sports riders.

I've twice now experienced the terror of driving on a divided freeway (one where traffic flows both directions on the same pavement with just a yellow line in the middle to keep traffic seperated) when an oncoming vehicle suddenly and without warning (no turn signal's lit) decides to turn left directly and immediately in front of me across my lane (illegal left turn;failure to yield to oncoming traffic; distracted driving)!

The 1st time was about 10 years ago to the day now, I was in my 1 ton dually pickup truck when an oncoming half ton pickup truck (with the driver talking on her cell phone trying to get directions to a wedding reception the DPS Trooper informed me afterwards) suddenly turns left across my lane not 25 feet ahead of me... I stood on the brake pedal (at ~42 mph) laid on the horn and held on hoping for the best but my truck could not stop in time she did not clear my lane and I T-boned her truck in the passengers side door spinning both vehicles 180 degrees and landing in the roadside ditch. It was a mess, but nobody was seriously injurred; the other truck was destroyed (bent frame and chassis), mine took 3 months a new frame and new front clip to rebuild (I still have it in fact). The speed limit was 50 mph where we collided, I was driving well under it and I was not cited nor faulted in any way for the collision there was no way to stop a 1 ton extended cab dually truck in such a short distance and nowhere else to go. It's my opinion that I was only able to reduce speed by ~2 mph before impacting, my ABS brake system had only just started to give pedal feedback when I collided with the other vehicle.

Yesterday virtually the same exact thing happened to me again: a min-van with 2 older ladies (chatting, I think; distracted driver again) suddenly made an illegal left turn not 25 feet ahead of me across my lane... I stood on my Spyder's brake pedal (at ~40mph) and swerved slightly aiming for the rear bumper of the mini-van and hung on to the Spyder with all my strength BUT the Spyder can stop on a dime (and just about did so literally!) so it gave the mini-van just enough time to clear my lane before I closed that 25 foot distance. Very very scary! Luckily no driver was following me, I would have been rear-ended for sure (the Spyder Operators Guide actually warns of this)! The speed limit was 45 mph, again I was well under it.

In both instances, there was really nowhere to go... I could not go behind the other vehicle as that would put me into a head-on collision situation *if* there's another vehicle following behind the one crossing my lane (impossible to be sure since unable to see what's coming behind the offending vehicle blocking my lane of traffic and there is NO time to look even if I could see), and I could not go in front of the other vehicle because well that's WHERE the other vehicle is going so would still end up colliding or possibly running into the deep ditch along the roadside and colliding with concrete drain pipe/culvert under the driveway the offending vehicle was turning in to... a lose-lose situation either way. The only option is to stand on brakes hard aim for the other vehicle's rear bumper if possible and hang on hoping it'll clear my lane before I get "there"! Not fun!

That's my story. What else can you do? I was not cited nor faulted in the 1st collision with my dually, the other driver tried to fight her ticket in court but I showed up to her hearing and offered to testify for the county prosecuter... the other drive pled no contest as a result (after lots of screaming across the courtroom, "HE'S A LIER! HE'S A **MN LIER!"), her insurance took almost a full year to finally accept liability for the collision and pay my damages and medical bills (though not seriously injurred, I had PT for a month for severely pulled neck and shoulder muscles I could not hold my head up at all for weeks due to severe whiplash). Luckily the Spyder was able to stop much faster in yesterday's incident and very luckily there wasn't a vehicle following right behind me that would have had me firmly between a rock and a very hard place!

- Michael

 

[ARtraveler]

Happy to say that I don't have anything for your book--but do believe in ATGATT. :thumbup:

 

[Dan_Ashley]

Happy to say that I don't have anything for your book--but do believe in ATGATT. :thumbup:

I am glad you don't have anything for it either....I hope this book, when I get it finished, will help others stay alive and healthy too.:spyder2: It will take me about six months to a year to get it all finished...most good things take that long!