Hey all...I haven't posted up here in quite a while, but I just needed to get something off my chest. I know that we all take risks every time we go out on the roads among traffic...it is just the nature of sharing the highways with 4 wheeled weapons.
Last Saturday...a good friend, a riding buddy of mine was almost taken out of this world by a cager. My buddy was on a 2 lane, straight..flat (we live in Illinois) road at 4:00 pm in the afternoon, doing the 45mph speed limit with no traffic immediatly in front of him in his lane. He could see that there was an on-coming car waiting to turn left at a side street in front of him. For all appearances sake....the car was waiting for him to go by before making the turn across oncoming traffic. Then at the last possible second, the cage turned directly infront of my friend. He had barely enough time to leave about a 2 foot skid mark before slamming into the right rear door of the cage, and launching through / over the cage. The impact of the bike and rider at 90 degrees was enough to straighten out the car back to its original on-coming angle, and pretty much stoved the door into the backseat of the cage. My buddy...was left very badly beaten up. Shattered one wrist, shattered scapula, major arterial and nerve damage to the arm with the shattered scapula (so much so, that the first of many surgeries to come was to repair the artery in his arm to restore his blood flow in hopes of saving that arm) he now feels pain in that hand so they feel hopeful he will keep the arm...although to what extent he will be able to use it they will not know for some time. One knee has all but one ligament totally shredded....and the other leg has a shattered ankle. He has fractured ribs and a punctured lung as well as a broken collar bone. His helmet undoubtedly saved his life. He was not speeding....he was not F*#$&# around....it was not cloudy...not raining...nothing chould have obscured the drivers view of a bright and shiney headlight on a bike coming his way at a moderate, legal speed. The driver is not a geriatric....or some punk ass girl with her ear in a cell phone....he is a bailiff in our circuit courthouse....privvy to cases all the time where disastrous results like this happen from momentary lapses in concentration. It just does not make any sense to me at all! It makes me angry as hell....it make me want to scream...it makes me want to beat the F(#$* outta this guy...but then again....he'll have to live with this the rest of his life....and I dont want my kids to see the side of me I work so hard to hide from them.
I dunno....I just wanted to rant.....and now I have.
PLEASE...not that he could have been any more careful...and that is the real kicker here...I cant think of one thing I would have done any differently....it could have been anybody...no matter how careful....but lets all get home safely to our loved ones. This hurts....it hurts badly....He will be in ICU for a month they estimate...not sure how many surgeries are in store....not sure to what capacity his arm will be restored.
Not sure of anything at thispoint other than he is lucky to be alive! All this...and he was only doing 45 mph. It sounds awfully benign....but please brothers....BE CAREFUL!
His name is Josh...goes by the screen name of Blaster....if you can say a prayer for him please do...he needs all the help he can get!
Best Regards,
Brigg
