word of caution following serious accident

[chairmouse]

hi folks a couple of weeks ago my son was involved in a very serious accident while out on his bike at night, he was on a straight road, which was poorly lit, but the weather and road conditions were quite good, a car coming in the other direction, ( you can guess whats coming) without signaling or any other warning turns across my son, head on collision!. my son is bloody luck to be alive.

almost lost his lower left leg, compound fractures of both left tib and fib, masive muscle and skin loss, broken left fema, broken right tib and right fema, numerous broken bones in his left foot, punctured left lung, fractured left cheek and eye socket, massive blood loss at the scene, almost bled out. give the driver of the car his due if not for his actions at the scene, chris, my son would have died.

chris had 13 hours of surgery to rebuild his legs with god knows how many screws, plates and rods, never get through airport security again. a further 6 hours of reconstructive surgery to try and rejoin/rebuild the damaged musle in his lower left leg and skin grafts. he now faces months of phisio and learning how to walk again, although, he has been told it will be another 4 weeks before he can even start phisio cos his lega are not strong enough to bear any weight yet.

the car was a total right off, chris' bike disintegrated upon impact.

talking to one of the attending officers at the scene, a fellow biker, he told me that in eight years as a traffic cop he has only seen three accidents as serious as chris', and in all of those the rider died.

you know what the drivers excuse was, an older man, by the way, he didnt see him, didnt bloody see him, how often are we going to hear that excuse from some doddering old fool who didnt bother to open his bloody eyes.

and so to the word of caution, especially to the younger riders out there, please dont assume that just becuse the car coming toward you is not indicating, that hes not gonna do sommat stupid and turn across you, it might be some num nut with his eyes shut, like my old man used to say "YOU COULD BE THE BEST DRIVER IN THE WORLD, BUT ITS ALL THE OTHER IDIOTS YOU HAVE TO WATCH OUT FOR" so do me a favour keep a special eye out for idiots please.
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if it aint fun why do it!

[BigGeeking]

He is one luck lad hope he gets him self back on track sounds like a very bad crash,

All my best to him and your family.

John
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Bendy "Flip front. I can filter down the M4 while shoving a Twix in my face."
honda CG 125 2001 SOLD-- current Bandit 400--SOLD. current SV650s 2000
MOD 1 ON 20/7/2011**passed** MOD 2 ON 17/10/2011***passed***,,

[Eddie Hitler]

All the best to your son.

[illuminateTHE...]

Hope your son gets well soon...

[chairmouse]

thank for the sentiment guys , hes on the mend just gonna tak a long time to get him back on his feet,
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if it aint fun why do it!

[guile]

It's stories like this that make me think whether biking is really worth it.

What sort of speed was both vehicles doing at the time of collision just out of interest?

All the best with the recovery.

[mysterious_rider]

Sorry to hear this! Hope he makes a speedy recovery.

Tell him to fit a HID kit to his bike, trust me, people bloody see those!

[UnspeedySam]

There needs to be something done to get incompetent old drivers off the road. Many of them, and I'm including some family in this, just don't have the reactions or just aren't 'with it' enough any more. However they won't give up driving because it's their 'freedom', without any concern for the damage they might cause other road users.

Just something as simple as a 10 minute assessment every other year to weed out some of the ones who are just obviously not safe would surely dramatically cut the number of accidents they cause...

I am saying this not because I hate old people, I'm saying it because a large proportion of the people who pull out on me or I see doing other dangerous things on the road are older people.
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Riding: BMW R1150RT `02 bought mildly crashed
Fixing: Also the BMW as I get less broken bits
Gone: ZZR600 '00, TRX850 '97, RXS100 '93, JS125-6B '07, BMW R1100RS '93, Kawasaki ZX-6R-J2 '01, Honda Bros NT400 NC25 '88

[mentalboy]

Wish your son a speedy recovery, unfortunatelty SMIDSY's are a common hazard for bikes and sometimes even use of proper observations will not prevent them.
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Make mine a Corona.

[cromwell]

Hope your boy gets well soon. An all too common occurring of SMIDSY, surely the old chap will get a DQ for driving without due care at the minimum.
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"unbelievable"
Current - Suzuki Bandit 600
Ex's - Yamaha YBR 125

[Polarbear]

[Ellerker9]

I wish all the best in his recovery.

[mentalboy]

[UnspeedySam]

[mentalboy]

^^^
Now that would be a cracking idea, not sure what our constabulary may think though with their ever reducing manpower, an automated DVLA hotline may work though.
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Make mine a Corona.

[UnspeedySam]

[cimbian]

Sorry to hear about the accident but glad your son is on the recovery road, albeit a long one.

Aged drivers are definitely a problem particularly, I feel, as light levels fall; however, I think another big part of the problem is that cars these days insulate drivers too much from the outside and are just too comfortable leading to attention slipping and the whole SMIDSY scenario.

I know that quite a few on here scoff at the Think Bike campaign but without some technical intervention or regular reassessment of drivers I'm not sure what else can be done.

Sadly it is on the onus of bikers to compensate for the actions of drivers.
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22PlusY
Current: Moto Guzzi 1100 Breva. Previous: Honda XL650V TransAlp
Bearded, Balding, Born again Buddhist Biker

[duhawkz]

[ajbsmirnoff]

Blimey.

Glad the lad is ok.

If he has a cast at anypoint, sign it 'Nobcat' somewhere.

[daemonoid]

[Fem1]

Hope your son gets better soon

[Bike Bunker]

thing is the government want young drivers off the road more than anything...yet in america its 16 to drive im sure


on the bright side your son will heal and his insurance pay out will put a massive grin on his face once his got a few little scars and is back to his normal self

[Walloper]

[Irn-Bru]

Hope he GWS.

What is happening to the old codger?
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KTM 990 SMT & Suzuki DR-Z 400 SM

[illuminateTHE...]

yeah make sure you milk every penny out of the other party... take pictures of scars, keep receipts etc