Motorcycle Rallies and Events

The story of my BILs motorcycle crash

March 25th, 2007

I subscribe to a feed from Biker News Online, one of several that I use to stay current with biker related events. Recently, Steve wrote a post on The Real Reason Why Crash Victims Quit Riding. After reading the post, while I generally agreed with what Steve was saying, I thought he was being much too general, basically putting all people who decided not to ride again into four buckets-Wannabe Bikers, Partiers, Social Environmentalists, and Opportunists. Since I am currently taking care of my brother-in-law who had a extremely severe motorcycle accident on September 18th, from which he is still slowly recovering from, I decided to leave a comment to Steve’s post, asking which bucket my BIL would fall in if he ultimately decides not to get back on his motorcycle. This reply was never, as of today, approved for display, so it either got lost in the cyber-mail system, or Steve chose not to have to reply. So, I decided to give the circumstances presented to Steve and let you, my readers, decide.

My brother-in-law rode every day, both to and from work and to visit his friends. On this particular afternoon, he was riding home to change out of his work clothes, and had planned on visiting his girl friend that evening. As he was riding, a girl delivering pizza turned in front of his motorcycle. She claimed that she “did not see him”. My BIL had no time for any kind of evasive maneuvers, so he wound up T-boning the front of the girl’s car. While his motorcycle was not damaged too bad, my BIL did not fare quite as good. He was thrown over the top of the car’s hood and severely injured.

The luckiest thing about this crash (yes, I refuse to call what the cager did an accident) was that it happened right in front of a fire station, with EMTs there to immediately respond. Before they got my BIL stabilized, his heart had stopped twice; thankfully they were able to restart it both times. He was life-flighted to MUSC, the closest hospital with a severe trauma capability.

From the crash, my BIL sustained the following injuries:

• Right ankle had a compound fracture
• Spine broken in two places, upper and lower back
• Collapsed right lung
• Severe enclosed head trauma
• Blind, at least temporarily, in his right eye
• Sometimes severe tremors, causing his hands to shake so violently he may not be able to control his motorcycle if he does decide to ride again

Five months after the crash, the hospital determined that they had done all they could for my BIL (most probably because there was no insurance to pay for additional care, but that is another story). So my wife and I brought him here to our house to continue with his recuperation. He still requires 24 hour care, so this is not a cheap option, but it was the only option we had.

We had some of his friends visit on their motorcycles, and my BIL asked for a ride. So, yes, he has already got back on that horse, just not with him in control. When he has more fully recovered, we will ask my BIL if he still wants to ride motorcycle like he did before the crash. If he says yes, we will repair his motorcycle and that will be that. If he expresses any doubts about whether he should ride or not, then that is how it will be also. However, I will refuse to place my BIL in any of the buckets that Steve categorized in his post.

Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I absolutely agree that if you get bucked from your horse, and do not get back on that horse as soon as you are able, you never will, and probably should not have been on that horse to start with. But if you are out riding your motorcycle, being as responsible as possible, and some cager that just isn’t paying attention turns out in front of you, so when you do recover you decide you don’t want to be set up for that again, does that mean you were never a true biker to start with?

Entry Filed under: General Motorcycle