Motorcycles

After the recent events that have taken place in my life over this past weekend, I now have a new outlook on motorcycles. On August 15, 2008 at 10am, my father was almost killed on a motorcycle, but by the grace of god he wasn't.

My father has driven a number of different motorcycles over the years and nothing like this has ever happened to him. I will tell what I know of this story and hopefully it will help people be more aware of their surroundings and other drivers when they are behind the wheel of any motor vehicle.


My father lives out in the country where there are lots of steep hills and curves. Everyone that drives on this road tends to drive like they drive for Nascar or something. I'm sure you know people like this and may have done it a few times yourself.


You know, you're driving fast enough around a curve that you have to get into the other lane just to keep from running off the road and you manage to get back onto your side of the road before you meet another car coming the opposite direction where if you were just 30 seconds later than you were, you would have hit them. Or, better yet, you speed up considerably to make it up that steep hill and accidentally veer into the other lane but you manage to get back into your lane just in time to keep from hitting the other driver coming up on the other side of the hill.


Well, on this particular day my father was on his way up one of those steep hills on his way to town to go to the bank. A car comes flying over the hill and he is partly in my fathers lane so my father swerves to the right to get out of the way. The bike starts to vibrate and shutter because he hits some loose gravel. He tries to pull back to the left to get out of the gravel but loses control of the bike. He then slams into the guardrail where the bike pins his leg to the rail and breaks it, stopping him in the process while the bike continues to go about another 15 to 20 feet up the hill. At this point the other vehicle doesn't even realize what has happened because they were driving so fast they missed it all.


A neighbor of my fathers comes along and finds him probably a minute or so after all this happened. He calls the paramedics who then life-flights him to a major metropolitan hospital. Did I mention that we live in a small town.


My father had to spend almost a week in the hospital. He fractured 7 ribs, bruised both lungs, fractured his clavicle, fractured a vertebrae in his neck so he has to wear a neck brace for at least 6 to 8 weeks, broke his right leg(the one the bike pinned to the rail) he had to have surgery on this to put in a plate and some screws, a laceration down to the muscle on his right arm, and numerous other cuts, scrapes, and bruises. And did I mention all the road rash covering his face as well.


He got lucky. I just sit and think of all the other people that you hear about on the news that either die instantly, or they are in critical condition and they don't expect them to make it through the night. That could have been my dad. All because some idiot can't stay on his side of the road and drive the way they are supposed to.


That was one of the worst phone calls I have ever received. I don't know what I would have done if all of this had a different outcome and a different phone call. I try not to think of that.

Well, thanks for listening to me complain.

Traci