Oh man......that sure brought back some ugly memories.
This is a post from June 04:
Guys I'm going to try to tell my story as true and honest as I can. Those of you who have been around this site or the Zone for awhile.....know me personally or have rode with me know that I'm 53 years old and have been riding since my late teens. You also know that I am a very aggressive rider (and driver, in my Harley truck) by nature. You should also know that this is my fourth motorcycle accident, over the years.
I was cruising along in the slow lane (two lanes in each direction), going to meet a friend, at about 5:00 p.m. on a Monday evening. The lane to my left was clear, with a large cargo type van about three or four car lengths ahead, in that lane. Directly in front of me was a car cruising at about 25 or 30 mph. I decideded that I was going to go around the car directly in front of me and pull back in in front of him.
I accelerate, twisiting the throttle to the stop. As I gain my center balance in the fast lane and get ready to move back over the the right hand lane.......all of a sudden brake lights.......the cargo van that was just doing about 30 mph with the flow is dead stopped......oh chittttt........I twist the trottle back from the throttle stop and get on both binders but I realize I've got way too much momentum and I'm not going to stop in time (I can remember thinking that for a split second) and I remember trying to squeeze between the two vehicles. I came to in the hospital.
I impacted the right rear corner of the van with the full left side of my body. My damages.....broken jaw, compound fracture to upper left arm, crushed pelvis, broken leg, fractured knee, compound fracture of left leg, just below the knee. I had seven sergical procedures in just under three weeks. I have zero weight bearing on my leg and my arm so my whole healing process will be very slow.
I can get out of bed and into a wheel chair by hobbling on my right foot and using my right arm. The surgeons are saying that it's going to be weeks before I can put an weight at all, on my foot or arm.The aftermatch.....titanium left jaw, titanium left upper arm (they called it a humor....but nothing funny about it), all three pieces titantium in my left hip (several surgeries on that), and titanium lower left leg.....two months and ten surgeries in all.
Moral of this story......you think you have enough following distance....you better double that, especially when you're accelerating rapidly.
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Topic: What you look like if you run in to a van on a bike (Read 3118 times)