20130926

being hit, next run over, then talking to the driver that did it

Sept.  4th, 2013 while I was being hit, and then run over

I can not count how many close calls there have been when I've ridden a motorcycle and by the fault of the driver of another car, they'd almost hit me if I wouldn't have taken evasive action...my best estimate would be: "every time I ride"....  sometimes I'll honk my horn at them, or they will hear my tires screech and they will notice what they did, other times they will never have a clue about what they almost caused....once when a lady entered the road right in front of me while exiting the grocery store, cutting across my lane to get over into the adjacent turning lane(I locked my rear brake, hit the horn, and barely swerved around behind her rear bumper) she was so traumatized(and overly apologetic) by what she had done that I had to comfort her! (telling her that: 'it was OK, it happens all the time') as we sat at the stoplight side-by-side...other times people have flipped me off as if it was my fault for being on the road...but mostly they just never know

...to get your motorcycle endorsement on your license; many questions on the written test are about how to avoid accidents and what to do in a emergency situation with a unexpected hazard in the roadway caused by another driver, and then two of the riding tests see if you can take quick evasive action in a panic situation...I don't remember anything close to those extremes on the basic tests for a car driving license(I was just helping my step-son study all this last year)

...motorcycle riders have to(all should at least) be prepared for the worst on the road; wearing a helmet, protective footwear and special gloves, armored jackets, pants or complete body suits made of leather at times...and this isn't to go to war, this is to just ride down the street with cars....you will likely never see a rider drinking a hot cup of coffee, reading a map or newspaper, talking or texting on a phone, having an argument with the passenger or yelling at kids in the back seat, looking for a music CD or fiddling with the radio, putting on makeup, or even eating a full meal, where it's very common to see car drivers doing those things while they operate a vehicle many times the size and weight of a motorcycle and capable of doing far more damage if a slight mistake is made.....and that's all that happened(initially), a driver of a car made a slight mistake and I found myself laying face down in the street next to a smashed motorcycle




OK... Here We Go
(if you really want to know what happened to me and what it was like)

when the white car first hit the front tire of my bike, the bike pitched over into a lean to the left, for just the tiniest moment there I felt as if that was all that was going to happen and I would maybe skid alittle sideways and then regain control...but then the side of the car slammed into the front of the fairing knocking the bike out from under me and all the way down, hard

...I was still trying to hold onto the bike and was yanked down with it as I continued forward until the side of the car smacked into my body full force...I remember seeing all white, and the side of the car door feeling soft and giving as it flexed, and thinking "that wasn't so bad at all"

....at this time the front wheel and handlebars must have been knocked turned all the way to the left, and the hit to the front of the bike(fairing/headlight area) pushed the instrument gauge cluster up and back, shattering one of the glass gauge bezel lenses against the right hand controls on the handlebars..as the bike came over, it hooked my right leg and a piece of glass from that shattered gauge lens pierced my pants and broke off in my thigh(a week after the accident that wound was still festering and not healing, so I convinced my Wife that something was still in there, and she had to dig it out).... my left leg was pushed into the road surface, and the knee of my  pants ripped open so the skin could be ground away(probably the spot on my body that got 'road rash' ground in the deepest)....I really didn't feel any of that at the time(later when people cleaned those two different wounds, it was the kind of pain where I screamed, couldn't breathe, and grabbed on to something tight and just shook)

 ...when my body was in contact with the car, it felt like the car just kept coming, and there was just more and more of it coming my direction(not just a glancing blow) like a door shutting further and further and being pushed by it increasingly harder and more directly as it came around, until it punted me to the ground
....I hit the ground flat on my chest with my arms back stretched down in front of my pants pockets...immediately I felt a harsh pain from the impact with the hard road surface, it felt like a hot fire flashing on my chest, and I knew this was all pretty bad(not just a minor 'tip over' that you get back up and ride away from)

...I didn't really notice that the flesh was being ripped off the back of my hands as I slid forward down the road beside the motorcycle, and didn't have a clue how bad that was until I got back up(later) to turn off the bike and saw blood dripping off my hands(later I also looked at the helmet I was wearing, and saw where one side of the chin guard was all ground away, which would have likely removed most of the skin off the lower left side of my face down to my jawbone,  if I had not had that "full face" helmet on)

... I knew a serious violent thing had just happened to my body, my chest hurt, but I felt as if I was sliding free of the accident, clear of the bike and car now and that would be it...my arms were trapped under my body and I didn't feel in control of how I was sliding, just that I was still going forward....my eyes were open and my head was turned to the right so I could see the bike and the car beside me, and I thought it was over...but the car just still kept coming, and it caught the bike again and was draging it toward me

....I had almost stopped sliding on the ground when the car began to come over the top of me...the view I had got dark, but I could see light out under the car's other side...the bike seemed to nestle back up beside me as it was first jammed under the side of the car, and I had a clear thought/realization that I was now being run over...it was strange, I felt it odd that "how can this thing not notice me here at all, and not react to me, it just keeps coming"...the first thoughts I had during this and after was how sorry I felt for all the dogs and cats that have been run over, and how they must have felt being totally ignored by a big mechanical thing as it was doing such a horrible action to their bodies without caring or feeling, or trying to stop at all

..the left rear tire of the white car bounced up over the front edge of my motorcycle's wheel and then came into my face, I was looking back right into the tread of the tire as it rolled up and over my head/helmet...it all happened so quickly(and all of it together too) that I didn't even have time to flinch or blink, I just watched it happen, helpless  ... I felt a really hard squeeze and pressure on my helmet, and the side of my face and jaw pushed hard into the ground until it lit up in instant severe sharp pain...then there was a hard knock or thud on my helmet as the tire rolled off the back of my head and the tail of the car came down on me as I lay there




Once Everything Stopped...I talked to the driver

for just a second I lay there in the street next to the bike(thinking about dogs and cats I guess, but feeling the pain in my head as it replaced the one in my chest, and I didn't feel that as much anymore because my face and jaw felt way worse) but then I jumped right up, thinking that I didn't want another car to come along and run over me again....so I took a few steps backwards while reaching up and holding the sides of my head/helmet with both hands...I sat down on the corner of the curb that led into the entrance to the parking lot and looked back at the bike lying in the road

...I sat there still holding my head/helmet with both hands and turned my head to the left to see where/if the white car had stopped, and just when I did I saw a young man get out of it and quickly come in my direction looking very angry and yelling at me:
he said: "but I was turning!!!"
I said: "I know, but you were turning from the wrong lane"
...he stopped and his face went blank as he looked back out along the street...I looked too, the blue truck was pulling up and stopping now in the far right lane from us, I looked back up at him behind and beside me now
and he said: "oh"(calmly, and a little reserved or dumbfounded, but he seemed to say that in acknowledgement of knowing now what he really did) as he was looking at the street, I wondered if he saw a sign or something that confirmed for him now that it was a one-way street, where before he might have thought it was two-way
...he looked back down at me now and he was acting totally concerned...
and he said: "are you OK?" and reached out with his right hand/arm towards me
I said: "I think you ran over my head"(I was still holding my head/helmet with both hands)
he replied: "I'm sorry" and he started to step away walking backwards looking very frightened now
and I said: "well accidents happen" as I wanted to calm him down, or say something to relieve the stress

 I looked around some, over at the white car again, and then turned back to look at my bike in the street, just starting to accept what had happened...I could hear a lady behind me sounding like she was talking on a phone calling the police, telling them where we were; I thought it was good that someone was doing that right away...taking care of stuff...from where I sat I couldn't see any fluids leaking from the bike, I saw that the ignition was still on, as the oil and generator instrument lights were on....so I stood up and walked back over to the bike, the motor wasn't running, but I still reached down and clicked off the kill switch and then turned off the key(leaving it in)...this is when I noticed blood dripping off my finger tips and how 'dirty' I thought my hands looked...then I felt like I needed help after seeing the blood, and I didn't need to focus on the bike
...I came back and sat down where I was before, and then an older man in a suit came over and squatted in front of me to the right, he took my right hand and held my wrist just quietly there not saying anything and felt my pulse
...I could hear the lady(that was on the phone before) behind me now telling someone that she saw what happened and they were talking about it...it relaxed me to know people had been around to witness what the car had done to me
she said: "I saw the whole thing" in a loud authoritative voice that I could hear better
I wasn't sure who else was around me yet, and I didn't know if she was talking to me or still to someone else
so I said "oh good" as I tried to turn my head around to the right to acknowledge/thank her, but the sun was behind her and I couldn't see what she looked like or who else she was talking to...I looked back at the guy taking my pulse, he was just calmly looking down at his gold watch as he held my wrist, this also seemed to relax me
then I heard the same lady say: "should I move my truck?(is it blocking traffic?)" and I figured then that she must have been the one driving on the same street as us(in the blue truck)
and I said: "yeah, because I don't think I can move my bike" as I kind of raised my left arm to motion at the bike, and then I thought to take a picture of it there before anyone tried to move it(but the bike looked in such bad shape, I figured that a tow-truck would have to hoist it off the road...that I couldn't have even rolled it out of the street myself if necessary)
she said back to me: "you should lay down" and I think she walked out to her truck to move it, but I really wasn't paying attention to her... now I was trying to get my phone out of my left front pocket with my left hand, and the guy taking my pulse was between me and the truck....still didn't see any other cars on the street,  any other people there must have been behind me on the grass or in the lot, the white car sat up in the lot in front of the building; so the area seemed deserted from my view ... just looking out at the empty street with my bike lying in the middle of it, I started to worry that a car would come and not be able to see it till it was around the corner, and hit it while it was down

the ambulance people were showing up next...and I had just gotten my phone out to take a picture from where I sat up on the curb and grassy incline with the view down to my motorcycle lying in E. Benton St.

iPhone4 Sep 4, 2013 2:54:40 PM 913 S Dubuque St, Iowa City Iowa, US   N 41'65" W 91'53"

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