Great advice and I'm glad your brother is OK. Now I don't feel quite so foolish for wearing all my gear in 100+ temps.
-Kyle On Sat, Jul 18, 2009 at 5:06 AM, Paul <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
