Today at work I came upon a bike crash minutes after it had happened. A man on a sport bike was on the side of the road curled up and being helped by the witnesses. In relation to where he was and where his bike was it appeared that maybe he had been accelerating from the stop light rapidly. Looks like the cage could have changed lanes and he hit them from behind, or they had changed lanes into him, hard to tell. I couldn't tell if he had a helmet on because of the position he layed in, but he had a serious case of road rash on his *** where the jeans had been ripped away. The police was showing up at the time we passed, and moments later we met the ambulance so hopefully he'll be ok.

Seeing that really brought the reality of our lifestyle back to me. I'll be on high alert for weeks now I'm sure.

 

That'll wake ya up won't it? Hope the guy was ok.

 

It always makes my stomach churn to see wrecks- even on tv. It does tend to heighten my awareness!!

 

Yah, that sucks, hopefully everyone will be ok.

 

I was standing out in front of the house one afternoon, (circa 1978), when I heard a big bang. I turned around just in time to see a bike followed by it's rider flying through the air. The bike had no stop sign. A car had run his stop sign and almost ran over the poor guy where he came to rest. The car careened on down the block, side swiped a couple of parked cars and hit a tree.
I got to the biker first but was affraid to do anything for fear of doing more damage. (I wanted to at least take his helmet off).
When the para-medics got there I went down to where the car was.
Low and behold it was a couple of guys I went to high school with, (coupl'a dipsh!ts). I recognized the driver and said his name in a question, (him and his buddy are sprawled out on the grass). He looks at me, holding his nose and starts crying, "my nose my nose."
I yelled back at him, "f**k your nose, you probably just killed this guy!", and went back up the street.
They were out drinkin' and drivin' and just havin' a high ol' time, oblivious to the world.
I have always wondered whether the biker lived or not.
It was quite a sight seeing the bike & rider flying through the air.

 

Yeah it sucks, really brings it home.

 

You should not remove an injured rider's helmet before he or she is examined by a doctor

 

I came upon a bike accident a couple of days after Christmas last year, and I was on my bike. The guy died. Made me real nervous.

 

Yeah, that's why I didn't. But I wanted to help the guy. It was hard to just stand there waitin' on the PMs.

 

As an EMT I've been on a few motorcycle crashes and they are scary. The range has been from fatal crashes involving Deer a couple times and one time a dump truck to less severe crashes. In almost every case it always seems that the Rider gets the short end of the stick. It's crucial to stabilize the riders cervical spine and leave the helmet in place so the neck does not get jostled around. The only exception to C-Spine stabilization would be if the victim was not breathing and even then there needs to be extra caution that the neck movement is minimized. I would suggest that if you have not, to take a good first aid class and get a CPR card.