[hgate73]

Well, this happened a while ago, but reading through the "Good, bad and the ugly" inspired me to share this...

Me and my buddy Jonathan went for a ride up to the Mogollon Rim (near Payson, in Arizona). It's an amazing and beautiful ride up there, tons of twisties up in the mountains, really stunning. It's my favorite ride out here.

For the first time in my life I had a passenger on the back.

Well, coming down from the Rim Jonathan was ahead of us on his Speed Triple, doing probably about 105mph or so going into a nice right turn (two-lane). He was on the outside lane (nearest to center) getting ready to overtake a late-90's blacked-out BMW, the only other car up there with us. he was about 5 feet behind the car when suddenly the BMW merges in front of him for no reason. he was forced to pull out of his lean to avoid rear-ending the car, and because he straightened up to brake he crossed the double-yellow line and went into the opposing lane, and hit a Silverado head-on at about 95mph.

his bike looked like it exploded, flipping down the highway with parts and smoke flying off it. he flew clear of the car (thank God) and bounced down the road. I nearly hit the wreckage of his bike, because I got a tank-slapper from braking so hard, but i think the HESD kicked in and saved me, it smoothed out just in time to weave through the wreckage.

After the wreck happened the BMW sped off.

so...if i hadn't had a passenger i would've been a lot closer to him and gone down myself, but because I had a passenger i was riding a lot slower that day.

get this - it was the first day he'd ever worn all his brand-new protective gear. He had on armored boots, knee and shin guards, jacket, helmet, gloves, etc....basically everything. his gear was destroyed and he was unconscious but all he had was a concussion (he still can't remember anything about that day) and some bad bruises. The medics said that he would've died without the equipment. God was looking out for us.

WELL..the story isn't over. they airlifted him out, but me and Heidi (my passenger) still had to get home which was about 1.2 hours away at a good clip to visit him in the hospital. So we're riding home on this big empty straight-away doing 95mph, when I cross over a small ridge and there's a State trooper...and he pulls me over.

I was very polite (there's no point in arguing...doesn't help) but he was a huge jerk about it..."Oh yeah, I heard about that guy up on the rim. well, you can tell it to the judge."

So, not only was my best friend in the hospital, but I got a CRIMINAL speeding ticket on the way to see him. in AZ, anything either over 85 OR more than 20 over the speed limit is a Class 3 misdemeanor. By the time I got it knocked down to a civil violation with an attorney, it was nearly $700 in legal fees.

worst day ever. :thumbd:

 

[jkobflys]

Sorry to hear about your friend man, It really gets you thinking dont it....

 

[macca9540]

We've all had bad days of some sort, just some are worse than others.
Glad your mate is alive, he's a lucky fella to come out of that. So are you by the sounds of it, even if it cost you $700. :hmm:
This is one of my bad days a while back.
http://www.fireblades.org/forums/general-discussion/57739-had-really-bad-day.html

 

[cbr lonner]

think its him that had a bad day dont you.

glad he's ok.

 

[Dangerous Des]

A bad day indeed, I am glad your friend is OK. Although I have to say there are lessons to be learned here. Luckily you avoided the accident, imagine how you would have felt if you had crashed too and killed your pillion.

As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility.

 

[SuffolkGeezer]

Despite our skill and best reactions, there are moments when what the other person does can affect us badly.

Best we can do is ride decisively and not linger in the overtaking (passing) position.

I would think your friend is very lucky to be alive.

 

[tuffy6969]

Wow dude - I am VERY sorry about your friend. Did they ever catch that SOB driving the BMW? He'll get his.......hehehe. Vengence is MINE saith the Lord. :thumb:

 

[setanta]

Oh I think its a good day, your mate had a bad accident but lived to ride again and you managed not to come a cropper too.


My friend wasnt so lucky when him and I went for a run 3 years ago.

So not the worst day ever

 

[MadMarek40]

I love the BMW driving asshats who make OUR insurance so damn expensive.

But, I am glad everyone is O.K.

 

[bladeracer]

On a tuning day I spent a session following the guy pitted beside me to get him some footage from my camera.
After the session we watched the tape on the camera, he gave me his phone number and we went out again. A few minutes later he was dead. I was first on the scene and checked for a pulse.
That was probably my worst day.

Edit: My girlfriend and I packed his stuff into his car for a friend to come and pick up from the track. I was in a dilema of how to ask his family if they wanted to have a copy of the tape of his last few minutes of life when it was the riding that ended his life. In the end I simply mentioned it to a friend of his and heard nothing more of it. His family donated all his racing gear to members of the club and I still have his tyre warmers - and the scrap of paper with his phone number...

 

[hgate73]

On a tuning day I spent a session following the guy pitted beside me to get him some footage from my camera.
After the session we watched the tape on the camera, he gave me his phone number and we went out again. A few minutes later he was dead. I was first on the scene and checked for a pulse.
That was probably my worst day.

That definitely beat my story. I'm just happy my buddy is okay and will live to ride again. you know what he said from his hospital bed where he was hooked up to a machine?? "now I can get a ZX-14!" ha ha ha! what a guy...

they never did find the driver of the BMW...

 

[rccaulfield]

Think it was more to do with his protective gear then any god in fairness! Ur man in the bmw sounds like he did it on purpose?

 

[hgate73]

Think it was more to do with his protective gear then any god in fairness! Ur man in the bmw sounds like he did it on purpose?

na....there have been plenty of times people were wearing full protective gear and still got their neck snapped or bones broken. the odds of coming out of a 100mph+ head-on collision with nothing but a concussion?? astronomical. what was weird is that all three of us had a really uneasy feeling about the ride all day before it happened, and i never feel uneasy about riding.

i don't know about the bmw guy...from my vantage point it looked like he did it on purpose. I guess we'll never know :idunno:

 

[sheepofblue]

I am glad your buddy had new gear on and can recover.

The cop was not a jerk, YOU WERE! Telling a cop that you are speeding because you have to get to the hospital to visit your buddy that just crashed while speeding

Your buddy was speeding (way over) in a turn and obviously was running to hard and his recovery method was into on coming traffic. He is lucky not to have been killed. Also consider that in his recklessness he also tore up some ones truck and wrecked their day also. What part of 105MPH was the BMW's fault? Zero.

You then just missed harming yourself AND your passenger while following your buddy in his recklessness. So your answer was to continue running at dumba$$ speeds because you "still had to get home which was about 1.2 hours away at a good clip to visit him in the hospital" instead of figuring out what a bad idea that was from the early accident. Now unless you were the Dr getting there to help him I fail to see how you being there mattered one bit.

The reality is you had a good day, because if you choose you could learn a big lesson and have yourself, your passenger and your buddy all make it out alive. None of us are perfect and do the speed limit everywhere, but if you insist on driving like that and blaming everyone else your lifespan will likely be shortened (by yourself) Grow up.

EDIT: Oh and as long as I am ripping on you with honesty 'only other car up there with us'.... so the Silverado did a Star Trek teleporter act right into the middle of all this ???

 

[hgate73]

I am glad your buddy had new gear on and can recover.

The cop was not a jerk, YOU WERE! Telling a cop that you are speeding because you have to get to the hospital to visit your buddy that just crashed while speeding

Your buddy was speeding (way over) in a turn and obviously was running to hard and his recovery method was into on coming traffic. He is lucky not to have been killed. Also consider that in his recklessness he also tore up some ones truck and wrecked their day also. What part of 105MPH was the BMW's fault? Zero.

You then just missed harming yourself AND your passenger while following your buddy in his recklessness. So your answer was to continue running at dumba$$ speeds because you "still had to get home which was about 1.2 hours away at a good clip to visit him in the hospital" instead of figuring out what a bad idea that was from the early accident. Now unless you were the Dr getting there to help him I fail to see how you being there mattered one bit.

The reality is you had a good day, because if you choose you could learn a big lesson and have yourself, your passenger and your buddy all make it out alive. None of us are perfect and do the speed limit everywhere, but if you insist on driving like that and blaming everyone else your lifespan will likely be shortened (by yourself) Grow up.

EDIT: Oh and as long as I am ripping on you with honesty 'only other car up there with us'.... so the Silverado did a Star Trek teleporter act right into the middle of all this ???

Jeeze sheepofblue...i expected the typical finger-wagging post from a few people but that was a bit much man! (woman?)

I didn't blame anyone...obviously it's our choice to go those speeds. i just said it was a "worst day ever" story...not a "poor me look what happened while I was being innocent!" story...lighten up! How old are you? You've never done anything dumb in your life? I did not blame anyone, and I never blame anyone for something that happens because I was speeding. I just said the day sucked and then described the series of events that made it suck. It's pretty rude of you to bag on me while you've admit yourself that you've been in similar situations ("we don't all drive the speed limit").

The only car "with us" would indicate that they were with us on our side of the road, traveling in the direction we were traveling - i.e. "with us in the flow of traffic." We had not passed any oncoming cars for quite a while. I never saw the silverado...it was the weirdest thing. Neither me nor my passenger even knew there was a truck involved until about ten minutes later when the guy came walking down the hill to see if we were okay.

I just assumed Jonathan hit something in the road. The truck was kind of a tannish-brown...maybe it blended in, but it was probably just tunnel-vision. All I remember seeing (it happened pretty fast) was the BMW cut off Jonathan and then a sudden explosion of smoke and bike parts.

 

[sheepofblue]

I am old enough and done enough stupid that it is surprising I am here. You were dogging the cop for doing his job and being bummed about you're repeating behavior (remember those guys get to see all the gore that results)

Take it to the track if you need to go triple digits. In the end you were going WAY to fast for the conditions and that was what got you not the phantom truck or the moron in the BMW (we all need to save some reserve for cages or they will get us)

I am glad you are all relatively OK but acting like you weren't over the edge only increases the odds of you repeating :thumbd:

 

[SuffolkGeezer]

On a tuning day I spent a session following the guy pitted beside me to get him some footage from my camera.
After the session we watched the tape on the camera, he gave me his phone number and we went out again. A few minutes later he was dead. I was first on the scene and checked for a pulse.
That was probably my worst day.

Bugger! That's got to be unlucky, to get deaded on track...:crap:

 

[tuffy6969]

Bugger! That's got to be unlucky, to get deaded on track...:crap:

That was my question....did he die on the track?

 

[bladeracer]

That was my question....did he die on the track?

Yep.
Head on into a concrete wall at full throttle. Massive head trauma killed him instantly so there was no bleeding at all.
Nobody witnessed the crash and the only explanation I could come up with was that he did something in the turn that put him off the side of the bike with his weight on the throttle.
The tyres basically skipped across about fifty meters of sand trap before hitting the wall at ninety degrees and stopping dead. The wall was only the height of the tank but the back of his head hit it which adds to the theory he was alongside rather than on the bike. If he'd been seated I'd have expected him to be thrown over the wall. In '93 a guy hit the wall at very high speed after brake failure at the end of the main straight. His bike was destroyed by the wall but he was thrown over and into the chainlink fence with fairly minor injuries.
We lose about one rider per year at our local track on average - which makes it about 30 times safer than riding on the road. The main advantage of track crashes though is the _huge_ reduction in non-fatal injuries that you see in road crashes and change people's lives forever - paralysis, loss of limbs and internal organ damage for example.
Fatals come from hitting walls or from being hit by other bikes usually. A guy died after a simple fall when a bike ran across his neck and another one died when when a bike ran over his chest.
A couple of years ago another rider died in very strange circumstances running head on into a wall at high speed despite hundreds of meters of good bitumen runoff road in which he should easily have been able to stop, or at least significantly reduce his speed.

 

[tuffy6969]

How sad Blade. I would have been shaken up by the site of that. I have seen aftermath on the roads with death involved and THAT shook me up. I couldn't imagine being the first person on the scene. I act tough - but I have a very soft heart for human suffering and death.

Did you ever see the video of the guy on a track somewhere that was helping a downed rider when he was hit by another bike. He was apparently sliced in two pieces - it was sickening. I just wonder if that was all true.