While I was on my way to work under clear skies farther south in another valley my friend John was riding his BMW R100 to work in fog along a main artery for commuters. Shortly after 7AM his motorcycle slammed into a garbage truck that pulled into the road as he passed.
Emergency responders came to his aid quickly and took him to a local airport where he was flown to a trauma center. Upon arrival he was designated Trauma 13. Seeing that there is no room 13 in the Intensive Care Unit is was odd that there would be a patient designated Trauma 13.
John’s wife is an instructor for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation. She told me the visor of his helmet was completely covered with blood on the inside. You couldn’t see in. She arrived on the scene minutes after the accident. They didn’t know the rider’s identity but she recognized the pieces of his BMW. And the helmet. As I talked with her at the hospital she told me that she would be planning a funeral if he hadn’t been wearing a helmet.
The oral and maxillofacial surgeon showed us 3D images of his skull. As he manipulated the images to explain the damages it was unnerving to see how fragile everything looked. John was fortunate that the damage was minor. A black eye, a few hairline fractures, and only one small displacement in the bottom of the ocular socket.
John is a lifelong rider. He’s done the Iron Butt and cross country rider. He’s a daily commuter and wears all the gear. While the gear won’t prevent a collision it will help minimize potential damage. He was in and out of sleep when I visited and at one point he asked me where he was and if there was an accident. After briefly explaining the circumstances I told them they had to cut off his new Revit jacket. He responded with “Aww f**k!!!”. While the doctors already confirmed it I knew there were no brain injuries.
The worst damage occurred to John’s right leg that hit the truck door. Since the truck was pulling out into traffic to move to the next pickup he probably hit at a deflected angle which helped minimize damage but his femur was still in pieces and the patella shattered. Looking at the x-rays I thought about former Washington Redskin’s quarterback Joe Theismann’s leg break during a game with the New York Giants.
An orthopedic team will begin reconstruction Friday morning if the swelling has diminished. Their biggest concern at this point is infection since the bones breached the skin. The armored pants helped keep road dirt and grime on the outside. A pair of jeans would have things dragging through the dirt.
It’s sobering to visit a friend and fellow rider in a hospital. It’s hard not to switch places. It had me reassessing the risk. I haven’t ridden since but only because work has kept me in need of my Ford Ranger. I’ve thought a lot about being Trauma 13. And I know I’ll continue to ride.
John has a long recovery ahead but I suspect he’s already thinking about what to ride next.
Godspeed John.
i wish your friend john a speedy recovery!! even though he’s got a long road ahead, with friends like you, i’m sure it will be a walk in the park.
you’re a good man for being there for him.
take care,
nick
Birmingham, AL
Would you mind sharing with us what type of armor and helmet John was wearing at the time of his accident? Thanks
Texas Geezer
Godspeed in your friends recovery. The reason he was named “trauma 13” is that all traumas that come in have to have a number to identify them in the computer. That way all the appropriate test, labs, meds… can be ordered quickly. Once the trauma alert has gone out, the patient is loaded in to the computer as Trauma 13 before their arrival. The next is trauma 14 and so on.
AJ
Topeka, KS
Steve,
I’m glad to hear your friend is doing as well as he is…ironic as that sounds.
His brain took quite a rattling for sure.
You might consider offering to him the following, if you (or his wife, etc.) are there again when he wakes up and asks where he is and what happened…You’re in the hospital (orientation to place and location), and you had an accident on your motorcycle (orientation to purpose), and the accident is over…and the healing has begun (reframing and messaging).
If this sounds too stilted, forget about it. If not, it has the potential of helping on many levels as he is (perhaps repeatedly) coming back.
Tim
I’ve seen so many accidents in my 26 yr career. It always amazes me to see that anyone survives such a horrific accident as John had.
God has spared his life and given him a friend like you to help him through this difficult recovery.
God bless and Godspeed John!
Cody
Please add my wishes for John’s speedy recovery, and congratulations to him for wearing a helmet even though Pennsylvania sez you don’t have to.
A thought occurs to me:
I wonder if John’s injuries would have been less serious if he’d been riding a Vespa, vintage or modern. An old BMW probably has a fairly stiff tubular frame, while a Vespa is made of sheet-steel stampings welded together (monocoque, or unibody, whatever your preferred term is). Sheet steel deforms on impact, and such deformation absorbs energy. I’m not aware of any crash tests involving Vespas or other similarly-constructed scooters (if there are any), but it would be an interesting subject to explore further…
Orin O’Neill
Scootin’ Old Skool
So Sorry to hear about your friend John. We will all be hoping for a full recovery.
DaveM
SCTRCST
I hope for the best for your friend. Keep us posted.
Bill
My thoughts and prayers are with your friend. I hope he has a speedy and full recovery, and I hope you do too. (being a close friend you will I’m sure need to recover as well) Ride on.
Sherry
I was working a couple of weeks ago when a vespa rider dropped his PX150 cuttinga corner by riding through a gas station. He dropped it at walking speed and his head hit the curb. He died.
He was four months from military retirment but his widow gets nothing because he died while not wearing a helmet as military rules require.Vespa? Motorcycle? No difference.
Disaster at every hand and yet we keep on riding.
I shall be thinking of your buddy on the table on frida while i’m back at work listening to everyone moan about not getting the weeknd off.
I wish your friend a speedy and full recovery. It does make you stop and think when accidents like this happen.
Cripes, that’s pretty much my waking nightmare. My two sources of anguish when riding:
(1) intersections and
(2) getting hit from behind
I’m pretty hyper-observant about intersections, but getting hit from behind? I have no control at all. Just have to try and stay well in front of everybody.
Best wishes for John’s speedy recovery.
Thanks everyone for your well wishes for John. He’s scheduled for surgery this morning so we’ll see how things go.
Other than the Revit jacket I’m not sure what brand of pants and helmet he wears. I might be able to find out. He also always wears a hi-viz vest over his jacket. The kind that road workers wear for enhanced visibility.
Tim: Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll pass them on. Once he is less heavily medicated it will be easier to determine what his memory is like I think.
orin: Not sure about the difference in crash worthiness between a scooter and the BMW. He certainly had more mass with a bigger and heavier machine. I just figure that a crash on two wheels is an unprotected event regardless of what you are riding.
conchscooter: It’s amazing how fragile we are. My personal opinion is that riding without a helmet is just nuts. Even if you don’t kill yourself a very low speed fall can really mess you up.
rickrussell: I try and stay hyperaware like you. And I always watch for rear end stuff at intersections. Slower speeds allow for more time to react but it also means you have to choose different roads sometimes.
I don’t ride scared but I pay attention like I do when I cross a street on foot. Looking all the time…
When I drive the car I see how easy it is to sit back and relax, listen to the radio, and not pay attention. It is really hard to get the same awareness in the cage. It’s no wonder that drivers miss seeing riders. They probably don’t appreciate the kind of hyperawareness you can develop on two wheels.
Comment 13. Hmmmmm.
So sorry to hear about your friend, John’s accident, but thankful that he will recover and live to ride again. Wishing him courage and determination during his recovery. Perhaps knowing that all of us are thinking about him and wishing him the best will lift his morale.
I just started reading your blog a few days ago and I am addicted. You are a wonderful, creative writer. I found the blog via a vespa adv and began looking at the images. I thought “what a photographer this guy is”, then realized that you are a pro as well as an artist. Bravo! Lea from Fort Lauderdale. Oh yes and I am shopping for my first Vespa. Thanks for all the inspiration.
Best wishes to your friend. I’ll try to send some good karma his way.
May God speed in his recovery. Thank goodness for all the riding gear and they have served to save his life. No point explaining how important we all need to be in the most appropriate riding gear. A compounded femur, patella, and “Le forte” three facial fracture is evident but overall the helmet, pants, jacket and boots saved his life and done its job. I may ride a small scooter but I dress the best I can. The road to recovery will be a little long but he will ride again..that is the good part I trying to share.
Best wishes to your friend.
Sorry to hear about your friend John’s accident Steve. I join the others in wishing him a speedy and complete recovery.
It’s a risky life we live as riders but even knowing the risks we ride anyway. The pleasures of the road outweigh the risks. Still it’s a hard thing to take when one of our brothers goes down.
rickrusselltx mentioned the danger of getting hit from behind. I had my bike wired so that my rear turn signals light up along with the brake light. That adds some additional visibility for whomever is behind.
I am hyper aware of what is in front of me when I ride. Not so much of what is behide me. I will definately start paying closer attention to whats behind me. I recently was on a country road and put my blinker on to pull off onto the shoulder. The car behind me tooted his horn at me. Was he mad that he wasn’t paying attention to me and almost hit me. That scared me and I vowed to pay closer attention to the cars behind me. Glad to hear John is out of ICU.
Sherry
gosh, only today I had time to read the post, and I was impressed… no fog here, but a lot of stupid drivers, be thay garbage pickups or youngsters (hey, I’m 33, I could be one of them…) so I’m just learning from this post. I always wear jeans, as I haven’t any other kind of pants, so I’ll be more and more careful, even though I don’t ride high-speed highways here in my homeland.
I wish a speedy recovery to your friend, and godspeed to we all, people, as we are supposed to be the example to follow, when we ride, so let’s be careful for the others’ sake.
If John wants to start riding sooner rather than later, he may be riding a scooter!
Did they determine it was his fault, or the truck driver’s? I’m hoping it isn’t one of the SMIDSY cases: “He came out of nowhere! He was going too fast!” etc.
I too wish him a speedy recovery. The only good thing about this is that John’s accident has made your audience more aware, whether it would help or not.