Hey all! I'm new to these forums and came across this Crash section. There are some pretty interesting stories from some of you guys... so, I thought I would share mine.
Last January 07, Friday the 26th to be more specific, I geared up for what I thought would be a nice relaxing night ride home from work. Nothing would have brought my week full of over-time hours to an end better! Unfortunately, my day of slaving away for more hours than any a sweatshop worker should, ended much more tragically.
As I headed North on La Brea here in Los Angeles, I approached the cross street of Jefferson. As I came into the intersection just North of the Crenshaw area I had an overwhelming gut feeling that something wasn't right. Out of the peripheral of my vision I saw a solid mass coming the opposite way of me (traveling South). In a split second, too fast for my mind to respond to the situation at hand, an old busted arse, red, 89' Toyota Corolla sheers from the far most lane on the other side of the street right into the intersection. Right then and there I thought my last conscious thought of the night... "Wow... I can't believe it's actually happening."
My bike's front end slams into the front-right quarter panel of this ghetto blaster vehicle! Thanks to Newton's law of inertia (that bastard) my bike came to a destructive halt and I was catapulted forward head-first over the hood of the car. As I flew through the air, I tried to brace myself for the impact of the 10 foot flight I was on. I came crashing down on my left forearm and my head followed beating a nice Icon helmet into the intersection’s asphalt. The street was extremely unforgiving as I lay unconscious for several minutes. As I slowly started to gain some sort of bearings, I couldn’t make out the figures that stood over me asking me if I was alright and my vital information. All I was able to them was a number that popped into my mind and that my left forearm was broken… come to find out much more than a simple break. It was a severe compound fracture that broke both the radius in a clean snap and the ulna in a fragmented brake. Just as fast as everything happened, I was out of consciousness again.
In the meantime, my bike and I lay vulnerable in a crowded Los Angeles boulevard. The Corolla that had pulled in front of me actually backed up, went around my folded bike, and took of running East on Jefferson. Thankfully, an amazing eye witness of the event followed right behind this douche. The Good Samaritan parked down the street from where the felon parked and called the fuzz. This time the popo was working on my side (which seems to validate all the BS tickets I’ve been issued in my life). They arrested this jerk and booked him in the county jail. Apparently, the guy was 26, an illegal immigrant with no insurance on his brother’s car, and had a couple drinks to start his criminal night.
I was rushed to the UCLA Westwood hospital where I was admitted into the ER. A CT scan showed some possible bleeding in my occipital lobe, yet the doctors on hand were skeptical. They allowed some time to pass before I was put through another scan to confirm what their conclusion. Questions were being thrown at me to gauge my verbal cognition, “What is your name?” “Dan”, I replied without hesitation. “What year is it?” I replied, “Umm 2005… no wait 2009. Crap, 2006 right?” Lastly, they ask, “Ok, and who is the current president?” Perplexed I answer, “it’s either Bush or Reagan”. I was pretty jacked up, but was slowly coming around. Several hours later, sweet morphine flowing through my veins, a couple more CT scans, and a dose of blood thinner to clear up any brain bleeding, I was getting prepped for surgery on my arm.
As I was under the knife, they pieced back my arm with two six-inch metal plates and 12 screws. I feel like a bionic man now!
In the end, I spent four days in the hospital licking my wounds. The assumed bleeding on the brain cleared up and my arm healed perfectly after being in a cast for 3 months and going through intense physical therapy to learn how to use the muscle that was once pried apart from my intruding bone.
My bike has spent the last year in a totaled state, but has recently been resurrected as I’ve replaced the front end, radiator, intake system, and complete fairing set.
Here are some photos to go with the damn book I just wrote:
Hit and Run Victim
Linear Mode
