Comments on: Ordinary Rides

By: hrw115

hrw115 — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 13:04:00 +0000

Jason and I drove past the poor Mr. Bohdan around 6 p.m. the night of his accident. He was face down on the side of the road, half covered with a blanket, laying amongst the glass and small bits of trash everywhere. His bicycle didn’t even look like a bicycle anymore. It looked like a drinking straw that someone had nervously twisted into knots. About 6 cars had stopped to help – and a small collection of people gathered around him – but none of them knelt beside him. They all stood there like chess peices – a placid look on their face – looking at the off ramp for the ambulance to arrive.

When a person is in an accident – the most important thing to do is to try to keep the person conscious – but no one was even sparing an eye his direction. No one talked to him – no one held his hand. He was dead even before his heart knew any better to stop beating.

I found out from someone I work with that the man who hit Mr. Bohdan has macular degeneration and should not have been driving. My understanding is that the driver lives about 2 miles away from where the accident took place. He probably thought that he could just make a quick trip out. In that area – the road is wide and there is plenty of maneuvering space to avoid an accident – but the cyclist lost his life that day because the person driving didn’t see him – and more specifically – couldn’t see him.

By: irondad

irondad — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 01:16:00 +0000

Steve,
The gal who had an accident on her vintage Vespa is from Portland, about an hour and fifteen minutes North of me. Interesting coincidence. It really pissed me off because the liberal media let some big bellied biker jerks spout off about how full face helmets break your neck, cut off your vision and hearing, yada, yada. Then they showed the pudding bowls these guys ride with. I hope the natural cleansing of the gene pool works.
Anyway, she worked for a company that makes special riding jackets. They have pockets with the armor padding, etc. She modeled one in an ad but had not been able to buy one, yet. The Arai full face helmet took a good hit. Some lady in a Subaru wagon pulled out in front of her scooter. She hit her face hard on the door frame. The docs may have to wire her jaw shut for a while next week.

Prayers for her.

By: irondad

irondad — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 15:39:00 +0000

Preventative maintenance. Hmm, I've heard of it. Today Katie is gone for the day. The ST really needs me to change the oil and wash it. The sun is coming out. Change oil and wash bike or go ride? Or do something really daft like mow my lawn. See ya, the road's calling!

Dan

By: Steve Williams

Steve Williams — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 14:41:00 +0000

Gary,

I have not reacted the level of reactive homeowner yet. Proactive is something that is only a whispered myth. I've still not put up the trim in the bedroom that I rennovated ten years ago....

Time just gets sucked away in so many ways. I can't seem to every get hold of it.

steve

By: Gary

Gary — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 12:20:00 +0000

Wow... a whole week off to ride and write about it. (Well, of course there are the chores as well, but those are just more reasons to ride!) I'm jealous!

Every time I try to save vacation time to do something like that, excrement happens. It never fails.

This is probably because I am a reactive homeowner, rather than a proactive one. I don't fix anything until it's broke, and becomes an emergency. If it's not the house, it's the cage.

Doing preventive maintenance is abhorrent to me because I feel like it is using up my riding time. But now that it is using up my vacation time, I will have to rethink this. Thanks for the reminder!

Ride well,
=gc=