Other drivers don't see us.

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Yamaha Newbie

Yamaha Newbie
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I'm writing this post while from my enforced bed rest after being discharged from two days in the hospital. Friday night, while heading to my girlfriend's house, I was in an accident while riding my 2000 Kawasaki. It was dark out and the other driver claims he didn't see me while I was heading straight at him, forget that I was 100 feet away with my headlight poited right at him. He ending up turning left into a driveway about 50 feet in front of me, while I was doing about 60mph. I had no time to stop and was faced with the dilemma of laying down the bike, or hitting the pickup truck and go flying through the air. I chose the lay down option, which probably saved my life, I've been told. After the accident the kid (he looked all of twelve years old), claimed he never saw me coming, even though the other occupants in the truck had seen me just fine. At the ER I was diagnosed with a ruptured spleen, bruised lung and dislocated shoulder. Luckily the road rash was kept to a minimum thanks to the armored jacket, gloves, helmet, combat boots and thick jeans.

Now I'm on two weeks of enforced bed rest to let the spleen and lung heal, followed by another 4 weeks to allow the shoulder recover.

This is my second motorcycle accident, both times required me to be out of action for a few weeks at least. So I'm posting to beg my fellow riders to 1) please be on the lookout while riding, because these cagers never seem to be on the look out for us. 2) Always wear your protective gear, even in the state's that don't have helmet laws. Helmets have saved my life twice now, I will always wear one even if I'm not required to. A good armor jacket and gloves are worth there weight in gold.

I can't wait to get back on a bike, but I have to wait to heal first. So please, be careful out there. I would hate for any others to be robbed of the remainder of this riding season. If not something more valuable. :bike:
 
YN - Glad to hear you will be OK. I hope you heal quickly and without too much pain. you are dead on with your advice. All the gear, all the time! It's the only way to go!
 
Sorry to hear about the accident yn.

Thanks for sharing the story,
I like your attitude, when kicked off you should always get back in the saddle.

Hope you get better soon!
 
You have to anticipate the other driver doing the stupidest thing possible!I say this because of 45yrs of driving & riding.I drove a 22,000 lb bucket truck,pulling a trailer full of pole lights,people would look at me,and at the last moment,they would pull out,making me use every ounce of braking the truck had.I guess they wanted their wife and kids to live well after they were dead?I too have had motorcycle accidents,none my fault.I still walk with a limp since 1972,from getting t-boned,They didn't see me either.Good luck and hope you get well soon. lha
 
I too had a similar accident only I was driving a 1986 Chev. Caprice, we nicknamed it the "Cop Car", in broad daylight, and here in Canada we have mandatory daytime running lights on all vehicles. Guy said he did not see me and made an unsignalled left turn directly in front of me.

We gotta watch out for ourselves out there whether we are in the right or not. I would rather not be dead right.

Hope you have a full and speedy recovery.
 
Glad to hear that you are OK, we dont have helmet laws in Iowa, and I usually dont see anyone wearing them except me, i guess nobody values their life.

get well fast and keep on riding!
 
Thanks for the story and I hope you heal quickly and fully. I definitely need to look into buying a bike jacket but I'm on a college student's budget... any suggestions?
 
Try to find a used one, its really important to wear one. When I was 13 i rebuilt a little 110cc minichopper and damn that thing was fast, I never believed in helmets or gear at that age, until i lost control doing 70, dragged about 50 feet in shorts and a t-shirt, road rash so bad i couldn't walk for 2 months without severe pain. I lost all of the skin on my knee and part of the bone. I ended my slide with a nice crash through a 4x4 wooden mailbox post, head first. I feel I'm lucky because that 4x4 broke much easier than my thick skull ;) Over all the concusion wasn't that bad, but that road rash was the worst!
It took me 6 years to even think about getting back on a bike, but man I am glad I did!
 
I hear you. Never got hit on my bike,but head on in a car once by a lady looking where she was about to turn not what was coming at her.Here in minnesota we have the choice not to wear one if we do not want to,but it seems I am with the minority here as I wear mine all the time now. It's not that I don't like going with out one because it's great wind blowing through your hair etc, but I just do not trust the other drivers out there.
 
Riding without the helmet is fun, and I have done it. I don't like the idea of a Helmet law, or 90% of the laws on the books for that matter. That's just my Libertarian side speaking. However, if you ride a motorcycle without a helmet and get into an accident, well that's just natural selection at work.
I bought my crash jacket after my first accident back in 2004 and have worn it ever since. I think of protective gear as insurance, you buy it in the hopes that you never have to use it. But when (not if) you get into an accident, it's worth way more then the few hundred bucks it costs. When people buy new bikes they start thinking of how to spend money on them to make them faster or look cooler or customize them out to their personal preference, when they should be buying "protection farkles". Both accidents I've been in, the driver's said the same thing, "I didn't even see him, he came out of no where".
 
Yeah bikes are harder to notice. I mean, I consider myself to me a pretty good car driver never having had an accident but that does not mean that I have not had some close calls with other vehicles because of faults that I/they have made! And it was with vehicles larger than bikes! :eek: I must say that, being new to bikes, my '82 Seca is really fast around town and, yes, I do regularly go over the speed limit (which I do not do in a car) cos its sooo easy and I think that us bikers sometimes create risks all by ourselves :wink2:. I guess that im stating the obvious to most of you but I can see how car drivers can miscalculate a biker. Heck, I live in South Africa man! We have almost the HIGHEST road death toll in the world at the moment and our government is talking about reducing the national speed limit to 100km/h from 120km/h but that is not the main reason for our road carnage :banghead:. As in many African states, most road users are unqualified to be on the road :confused:. Either their vehicles are un-roadworthy or the driver incompetent/ignorant. People die here on SA roads because of pure issues out of pure selfishness :yikes:. Period.

Ok, I am done ranting now :bike:
 
Glad to hear you'll be able to ride still but man car drivers are becoming very very inattentive. I know when I drive a car I feel far more inattentive then when on my bike. I've noticed that from a distance car headlights look like a single light. And motorcycles appear to be that distant car look right up to the point they pass you. This begs a question Does anybody believe that the flashing braking light and flashing Headlight is beneficial? I wonder if in you case have the Flashing headlight mod would have prevented your accident. Anybody know anything about them?
 
I grabbed a decent flashing taillight module off of Amazon a while back, and definitely noticed that people started to give me plenty of space when coming to a stop. That's one investment that I do not regret :D. I have also heard lots of praise toward the headlight modulators, but since I've yet to have someone fail to notice my 55/100W monster, I'll probably go without.
 

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