On Friday, August 15 2008, while riding my beloved 2005 Kawasaki Ninja 500r home from work, an inattentive driver rear-ended both me and the motorcycle, sending the bike tumbling some 30 feet, and bouncing me both onto the hood of the car, and subsequently onto the pavement. I jumped back to my feet, looked behind me, and then stood very confused about what had happened. I am truly blessed to have walked (or perhaps limped) away from the crash. The sum of my injuries were back trauma (caused when I back-flopped onto a Honda Accord Hood) a minor abrasion to my, er, "lower back" a skinned knee, and a minor cut on my hand. I was wearing most of my safety gear (a padded jacket and helmet, though no gloves), and boy am I thankful. I walked away with considerably minor injuries. The ninja, well, not so much. What follows is a cross-posting from my MySpace blog (posted here for the non-MySpacers) from a week after the accident. Submitted for your review...
As most of you know already, this Friday will make two weeks since my motorcycle crash. If you don't already know, August 15th, (it was a Friday) I was rear-ended on my motorcycle while on the way home from work. Fortunately I'm OK, and I walked away with very minor injuries considering how bad it could have been.
It was almost surreal. On my way home I had seen my friend Andy about 300 yards ahead of me as I turned onto Jack Tone. I thought I'd try to catch up with him, so once I was on Jack Tone, I moved to the left lane to pass a few cars and try to catch up. The light turned red and held him up, so I figured I'd get up to him in time. But he turned right and got onto the freeway, with about 3 cars between he and I. So I followed him, figuring that as long as I took the Main Street exit, it wasn't too far out of my way.
I merged onto 99, and was now further behind him. I was feeling a bit "frisky" so I moved to the center lane and again passed some cars trying to get up closer to him, but about half way to Main Street, I resigned that he was too far ahead, and the freeway is no place to get reckless, so I slowed down, merged right, and exited at Main Street.
I'll just text him when I get home. With that my mind was back ..ing the door. How many weeks had we been without one? Was it four? Five? I'll just be glad to have it back up. On the far side of the freeway now, I saw pedestrians waiting to cross the street, so I motioned to them that I'd wait while they crossed. As they crossed in front of me (in the left lane, waiting to turn left onto Milgeo) a car shot across the intersection making them take pause to let it by. "Stinkin' impatient people" I thought.
They finished crossing, and I made my left turn. As I approached Oak Street, and signalled to turn left, I again saw the pedestrians crossing, so I stopped to wait again. "I wonder what we should have for dinner," I began idly thinking, waiting for my turn, "it's too hot for--"
Suddenly I was overwhelmed by the sensation that I had no idea what was happening to me. I heard a loud crashing sound, but when I play it back in my mind now it just sounds like noise. I remember thinking "I'm crashing... but I wasn't moving... somebody must have hit me... I hope I live..." I remember seeing bright white for a few seconds, but I don't remember seeing anything else. I know at one point I shouted something like, "HOLY CRAP!" I remember coming to a stop at one point, and
thinking, "I'm still thinking, I must be alive, I'm OK!" and then I remember starting to move again. Finally I came to a stop, and without thinking, I shot up to my feet and looked behind me, hoping and praying that there wasn't another car about to take me down again. Thankfully, there wasn't. Just two very surprised and scared people who jumped out of the car and shouted, "ARE YOU OKAY?"
That's what my, um, "southern hemisphere" did to her hood.
Full of adrenaline and endorphins, I felt like I was, so I grabbed my radio and shouted back "I think so!" After listening for open air, I keyed up:
"Ripon, IT01"
"IT01 go ahead."
"Uh, I've uh, just been involved in a TC at... Oak and East Main... can you send a unit?"
"Tom-Six Copies"
"King-Sixty, I'll be en-route"
"10-4, Break. IT01 confirming, Doak and... Stockton?"
"Negative, East Main and Oak -- Avenue"
"10-4. Any injuries?"
I shout to the two standing by the car that just punted me, "Are you guys injured?"
Puzzled looks on both faces, they both shake their heads, "No."
"Negative Injuries"
"10-4"
I'm pretty surprised at how calm I sounded, now listening to the playback. Considering how scared and shaken I still was.
Within about 2 minutes, I heard sirens that meant help and friends were on the way. I began directing traffic around the two vehicles, trying not to look at my poor broken up Ninja. It's hard to look at, it looks so unnatural seeing a motorcycle laid down. I've owned it for three years and haven't laid it down once, now here it lay in the middle of Friday afternoon traffic, for all to see.
Doesn't it just look unnatural?
Tom-Six got there almost immediately, and King-Sixty just a few seconds later. They took photos, we stood my bike back up, moved it to the curb, where I sat, once I started feeling the hurt. De showed up just a few minutes later, showing a ton of strength as she was all business, no fear. My parents & grandparents came out too. Both the Fire Chief, and our Chief came out. And ours reminded me that even though I was wearing one, my thick head probably didn't even need the helmet. Fire & Medics showed up to check me out, and I got a (relatively) clean bill of health. No need to transport. We wrapped up, after me offering to show Sam-Five-Three my road-rash, situated well South of my lower back.
Tom-Seven-Three rode the limping motorcycle home for me, as parts fell off, and after changing, De and I headed off to the ER. After getting called into Triage, De heard Keri's voice from the other side of the wall, and we peeked our heads out.
Knowing that my parents were at Dinner with Nana & Papa, Mike & Keri came to check in on me.
The ER went faster than I expected, and after a quick stop at the pharmacy, and then In-N-Out, we were home. I went to bed with a full belly and an aching back.
In retrospect, I have nothing to complain about. I was blessed for it to have happened like it did. The driver who hit me
was driving a Honda Accord, which has a very low nose portion, so instead of flinging me off the bike and onto the road, I
just flew back onto her hood. For some reason (God) I decided not to bring my Laptop into the office that day, so I wasn't wearing my backpack, which would have complicated things. (There's a horizontal strap that probably would have choked me, not to mention how much worse the trauma would have been with that on my back.) It was a friday, so I was wearing jeans instead of my uniform, which meant that my Gerber Tool and Knife were not on me, both of which would have done some major damage if they had been between me and the other car's hood, or the asphalt. I even took my work key ring out of my pocket and threw it in my tank bag before leaving work (which I NEVER do). Those keys probably would have embedded themselves into my leg (or worse!) had I crashed with them in my pocket. Even the physics of the impact have God's fingerprints all over them. Most accidents fling the rider over the bike and either into oncoming traffic, under the car behind them, or onto pavement. As for me, I just bounced back onto her hood, and then rolled onto the ground when she finally saw me and hit her brakes. No doubt about it, God had my back.
So now I'm down to fighting with insurance to get my bike paid for, medical bills paid, and compensation for time off work.
And that's how I made the transition from the group who "Hasn't laid the bike down...yet" to the group who has. Having
survived it, it's kinda a good feeling. No more pressure.
Now, four months later not a lot has changed. The insurance company paid out (handsomely) for the motorcycle, but I'm still waiting on HIPPA forms, HR paperwork, and many other things for the rest of the settlement. The good news is, I decided to go out on top, and De and I now sport new Dell XPS Laptops instead of a replacement motorcycle. I hurt much less, but it's still pretty frightening thinking about that "CRUNCH!" Even tonight, De and I were headed to Modesto, and as usually happens during the commute, the Pelandale exit got backed up. After about two minutes of sitting with our tails hanging out onto SB 99's slow-lane, I decided to take a detour (and a 10 minute delay before dinner) just to get out of the congestion. Paranoia or safety-consciousness, I don't know, but I felt better about it. Oh, and I got back on the [iron] horse, just to prove to myself I could:
Okay, I admit, the photo is doctored. I don't look that fast/blurry in real life. Below is the REAL picture.
My good friend Andy let me ride his new Honda CBR 954RR. Ironic, huh? Knocked off my bike by a Honda, and I return to a Honda. I was litterally shaking when I got off that beast.
