Another telling of my accident
By JimK. Filed in Motorcycle |Tags: choice, DOT, motorcycle, motorcycle accident, Skull Crush, Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd.
The awesome people at Skull Crush asked me to write something for their company blog. It’s not up yet, but I’m also gonna throw it up here. All eleven of you who read this site will get to see it first. :)
Hi. I’m Jim, and a Skull Crush helmet saved my life.
I ride a 2009 Star 950 Tourer model. Here’s a photo of my baby, named Lyla, in better days:
She didn’t look exactly like that when she was hit. I’d upgraded to a wider, slightly taller windshield and some lower deflectors to combat buffeting. Also, I upgraded the seats to Mustang seats. And for Christmas my wife bought me a set of the Midnight Bomber parts to replace a good amount of that fake plastic chrome. Lyla was looking good.
On Friday, February 17th, the weather here in Connecticut was incredible for this time of year. it was just over 50 degrees, lovely sun, just a great day to go for a ride and be at peace with the road. I felt like it was warm enough to skip my heated gloves, so I chose my leather jacket that doesn’t have the wiring cables for the gloves in it. Good thing I did, because that jacket has elbow and shoulder armor in it.
The ride was great. Weather was nice, traffic was good, the bike was running right, and my new combination of a Skull Crush half helmet and some nice mirrored amber goggles (that I got on ebay) were really working out. Comfy, good feeling of wind in my face but no issues with the helmet sliding around or being too tight…everything was 100% correct. I stopped at my tattoo guy’s shop to discuss my next piece, and it involves the motorcycle a little. He came out, took pictures, commented on his nice the bike was, etc. All in all, you couldn’t have asked for a better afternoon. I headed home.
The main road that leads to my neighborhood is two lanes, one in each direction. It’s fairly heavily traveled, with a pretty big straight section that tends to encourage people to speed. I tend to favor the middle of the lane coming down the road because there are so many businesses and driveways, and cars are constantly shooting out or backing out without looking. Being in the middle also prevents – or so I thought – car drivers from trying to get along side of me. I was in the middle on this fateful day.
There is a specific house on this road that stands out visually (because it desperately needs a paint job!). It’s about 150 yards from the turn. I like to signal early and often! There’s no other roads between that point and the street I was going to be turning on to, so there’s no chance of drivers wondering where I’m about to go. It’s obvious. There’s a street, my “landmark house” and then the street I was turning on to. I use this landmark house as my cue to turn on my blinker. I’ve burned that habit into my head, and on this day I did exactly that; I came to my landmark house and signaled for a right turn. I glanced down at my speedo to see if the signal indicator was blinking, which is another habit I picked up over time. I checked my mirrors and noted that the gold truck behind me was still where I saw him last, about two car lengths behind and holding his place. No worries.
I triple-tapped my brakes, another habit I have. That was taught to me in the MSF safety course I took. Blink the brake lights to get the driver’s attention. I downshifted from third to second preparing for my turn, and began to gently brake using both the front and rear. I let off the front so I could shift from second to first, because the right-hander I was making is tight. You can’t take it at speed on a touring bike with floorboards, even if it is only a 950. I was now in first, still gently braking, turn signal on.
Oh! I should mention that I have upgraded brake lights – super bright LEDs as well as run-stop-turn super bright LEDs in the actual rear turn signal housings. You cannot miss the lights on the back of my bike. Sometimes I think you can see ‘em from space.
I moved about a foot and a half to the left, because the turn is sharp and if you don’t do that, even when going slow, you will end up in the oncoming traffic lane of the street you’re turning on to. That’s pretty unsafe, so I moved over just a bit to make the turn. I started the lean and had just turned my bars. I was off the brake, clutch fully out and just about to roll on the throttle when I felt a jolt. Instantly I knew.
“The gold Ford just hit me” Turns out it was a Chevy Trailblazer, but at the time I thought it was an Explorer.
Then I realized I could see the damn truck. ON MY RIGHT SIDE. I had enough time to think “What the f___ is he doing on my right?” and then the truck hit my handlebas. The bike was simply ripped out of my control and went down hard to the right. I ride bicycles as well, so I am pretty familiar with falling. :) I tucked my right arm in so as not to break a wrist or collar bone and just waited for the fall.
The top of my forehead hit the ground. It’s pretty clear that my Skull Crush helmet impacted just about straight on, as if I’d decided to head-butt the road:
I was up off the ground almost instantly. The witness that saw it from start to finish couldn’t believe how fast I got up. I made it to the driver’s door before he unclicked his seat belt. I remember thinking as I stood up “Wow my head doesn’t hurt at all. NOW WHERE THE F___ IS THE GUY THAT JUST TRIED TO KILL ME.”
Someone called the cops. I couldn’t stop yelling at the guy. Someone else called the cops again and told them I was going to kill him. I wasn’t, I was yelling over and over “YOU CAN’T COME TO THE INSIDE OF A RIGHT HAND TURN, WHAT THE F___ IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?” and variations on that theme. He tried to claim I ran into him. He admitted to seeing my turn signal though, so there’s no earthly way he could be in the right. In fact, the turn signal was still blinking when the cops showed up.
Some bikers stopped to help me, and one of my neighbors was walking their dog and saw the entire thing. Cops came, we sorted paperwork, the bike guys pushed the bike to my house and locked it up in the garage for me. While I was waiting, I kept showing everyone there the helmet. I went over the whole “kevlar & carbon fiber and memory foam” aspect, and I swore up and down that the helmet was the only reason I didn’t have a concussion. The fire department came to clean up the gas, and the EMT that splinted my finger agreed…the helmet saved not only my bones, but saved me from a concussion.
The traffic investigator, also a rider, came to my house to inspect the motorcycle when he was done with the driver. He told me the guy tried to claim, despite witnesses, that we were “traveling side by side” and that “he turned into me.” Then he looked around at my multiple helmets and said “Which one were you wearing?” I pointed him to the Skull Crush beanie.
“Wow you were really lucky man. This isn’t even DOT.”
I then went into the whole thing again, how the kevlar/carbon fiber is rigid but gives just enough under impact, how the memory foam cushions and stop that slosh effect and helps to reduce the possibility of concussion. He was visibly impressed and said “Wow, I might have to try one of these.” Then he gave me a good-natured rib about buying a Harley with the insurance money instead of another Yamaha. Friggin’ Harley guys love to give us metric riders a hard time. :)
The driver was cited at the scene, BTW, for passing on the right. The marks on his car, the road and my bike told the whole story.
After I was done with the cop, my wife drove me to the ER. I walked in and said to the triage nurse “Hi. I was just hit by a car while riding my motorcycle. That triggered a freaking hurricane of activity. I was treated as something they call a “trauma code” and examined from head to toe inside of 3 minutes. Then they scanned me from head to toe as well. Nothing broken, just a few deep bruises and one severely dislocated finger. Once I was cleared by the CAT scan and X-rays, they took the neck collar off. I got some morphine, and some lidocaine injected into my hand and a guy came over and popped my finger back into place. I’m banged up, but I walked away, and that’s a beautiful thing.
A little something about the Skull Crush people, by the way: I emailed a link to my personal blog post about the accident as well as a photo of the helmet to the contact email from the Skullcrushgear website. I wanted to know if the helmet needed replacing like a DOT helmet would. I could see no damage at all to the shell other than the scratch, from the inside or the outside. I sent that email at 10:59:55 AM on Saturday, February 18th. At 11:28 AM I got a call from the company asking if I was okay and explaining the reasons why I don’t need to replace it unless I wanted to for looks. Who does that anymore? Who gives that kind of customer service, that they get right on a question and go out of their way to call a customer to reassure them? Skull Crush, that’s who.
Bottom line? I trust this helmet with my life. Moreover, I trust it with my wife’s life, and I will be placing an order for her Skull Crush helmet ASAP. My experience, with the company and the product, has been beyond outstanding. Also?
Please wear a helmet. Even if the law says you don’t have to. You might be the best, most safe rider with the sharpest reflexes that has ever ridden, and you might love how your hair looks after a nice windy ride, but you can’t predict stupid people in rolling tanks. They do dumb sh__ every day. They couldn’t care less if they hit you. It won’t hurt them at all.
It could kill you.
Freedom is one of the most important ideals we have in these United States of America, and we should fight to preserve freedom at every turn. But freedom means you have a choice. You can choose to wear a helmet even if you aren’t required to wear one. If you make that choice, I suggest a Skull Crush helmet. It saved my life, and one day it might save yours.
If you’d like to see what can happen when you do everything right and a cager decides to save four seconds on their trip and pass you on the inside of your right-hand turn, here’s a few pictures of the damage. Note: I still have no idea of what may be wrong internally on the neck or front end. This is just some of the cosmetic stuff.
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Wednesday, March 7th 2012 at 9:15 pm |
This is actually quite hard to read but it is made easier knowing you are doing well after the smash. The picture of the helmet is scary!
Saturday, March 10th 2012 at 10:56 pm |
What an endorsement!
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