I was thinking I would hop on my Harley ride a short 15 minute and have some fun at a party. I was looking forward to a couple drinks and visit with friends. I never did make to the party. I just got on the freeway and b/4 I saw the car I heard the noise from her car hitting me. I had looked over my shoulder to see if I could move into the left lane and this old lady decide not to change her lane and came into the crash bar of my motorcycle. Next thing I knew I was laying on my back on the freeway. All I could think about was that the weekend b/4 this I was at a bike event and a women crashed her motorcycle, she got up from the crash and was doing fine when a car came along and killed her. So a few seconds that I was laying on my back as 4 lanes of car are cursing by I decide this was not the place to be, I started to get up and found that my foot was so damaged that I could not walk, so as I am falling back down I catch the front bumper of the ford bronco that is about to hit me. I look up at the driver of the bronco and she is screaming, the passenger of the bronco got out and helped me off the side of the road by stopping other traffic. They strapped to a back board and hauled my butt to the hospital, fared pretty go because I think I was going at least 60 mph.
I was pretty shocked at time of the crash, I couldn’t figure out how this had happen and it took me a couple days to replay everything back thru my head a dozen times. One advantage of riding a big bike is it adds protection to the rider and my 2003 ultra classic did just this for me. It took a little over $18000.00 to fix it, they had to put a new frame in it, I ended up bruised from the hips down, one finger broken or dislocated (never did get it x-rayed) and one foot that was really sore for a few days. I had scratches in the top of my helmet that meant I did a head stand after I took the windshield off with my legs; I remember flopping around on the pavement like a rag doll. I also think it was good that I never saw the car hitting me. I think when a person see the vehicle coming at them and knows their about to get hit this person will tense up (tighten up the muscle’s) and this will cause more injuries to one’s body. Like I said I flopped around on the highway like a rag doll because it happen so fast and I never saw it coming and after replaying it through my mind I figured out that the old woman that hit me figured she did nothing wrong because she said she had been hit from behind. Yup! That’s what she told the officer on the scene, and guess who got the ticket, you guess right, me.
While I was lying in the hospital waiting for x-rays to come back on my foot an Officer came to ask me what had caused the accident, I am lying there in shock trying to figure this out myself. I remember him telling me that he was going to ticket me for improper lane change or traveling too fast for condition.
It took me a couple weeks to really figure out what happened I had to go back to the spot where it happened many times. The state had been doing some road repairs in this area and had removed the white dashes and added new ones to shift all traffic over one lane, and the spot where I was hit was where the traffic should shift back. All I can figure out is this old woman never shifted back and that’s how she came into my lane. Because I was looking left to change lanes myself I never saw her and when I was lying on the side of the road I could see her car sitting on the other side, I remember thinking where did that car come from. To this day this has been the worst crash I have ever been in on a motorcycle; I ride through this same spot many times a year.
When my father found out what happened he ask me “haven’t you had enough of that motorcycle riding yet”, I just smiled and said: No: Ride hard, ride fast, be safe.