Hey everyone! My wife and I just returned from Minnesota where we spent some time with family. My old brother, who owns and drives a 1985 Yamaha Virago, rode the 100 or so miles from his home to our parent's home to spend some time with us. Last Sunday evening he decided it was time for him to head home so he started off on I-90, and got about 15 miles or so when he completely wrecked his bike. He was following another vehicle (he says not very closely) when both vehicles encountered a 6 x 6 inch block or wood in the center of the highway. The car in front of him straddled the block of wood and by the time Steve saw it it was too late to avoid. He hit it going 70 mph and completely lost control of his bike.
Amazingly he managed to maintain his grip on the bike and slid (mostly) on top of it for about 300 feet before coming to a stop. Three motorists saw the accident and stopped to render assistance, one of whom was nurse, who forced my brother to sit down while they waited for an ambulance. The truly incredible thing is that other than some road rash on his left leg and arm he was completely fine! He was wearing a helmet but he never once hit his head. He managed to keep his head up during the entire slide, and his leather jacket and motorcycle boots took most of the abuse. The doctor and nurses in the local ER where he was treated kept saying over and over how lucky he was. A wreck of that kind going 70 mph rarely gets you a quick trip to the ER. More like a couple weeks in intensive care, if not a full blown trip to the morgue! My brother's Virago was completely wrecked and unsalvageable. Bummer. It was a beautiful bike that had been well maintained. But my brother, who had taken a safety course, was reminded of a valuable lesson. *Don't follow too closely behind other vehicles, because you can't see down the road far enough to react to debris and other road conditions.* The nice thing about driving on the freeway is that *you're in control* as to how much you choose to distance yourself from other traffic. You can slow down or speed up in order to adjust your position related to other traffic to make sure you're NOT driving without enough road in front of you to see what's coming ahead. Had Steve (in this case anyway) given himself more of a buffer between his bike and the car ahead, the accident most likely wouldn't have happened. (Conditions where such that it was a clear day and there was plenty of sunshine and no fast curves or steep hills.) But reaction time is *greatly reduced* when you stay too closely tucked up next to traffic. (Steve didn't feel at the time that he was too close to the car up ahead, because he there were several car lengths between them...but when you're traveling at 70 mph even a distance of 10 car lengths goes by in a matter of seconds.) I thought I would share this in the hope that it would sound a warning about keeping a safe distance ahead and behind. Ride safe everyone!! Paul --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
