I should have died tonight - Hit a car going 60mph tonight

[JP50515]

First of all let me say this...I shouldn't be here to write this right now, but someone is obviously looking out for me.

Tonight I tried to ride home to my parents from my apartment at school but didnt' get very far. Here's the story:

I was on the highway and to be honest driving extra cautiously because I had forgot my helmet at my parents the night before when I took the car to my apartment. I entered onto an on ramp that connects three interstates 35WS, 94E and 94W I believe. For you MN riders its the ramp connecting 35w and 94 from the U of M campus. Anyway when you enter the ramp there is another on ramp to the right of you coming down from the washington street bridge. Right before I entered the ramp I noticed an ambulance coming down the ramp to my right. The two meet at the bottom but there are two separate lanes. I was about 4-5 car lengths behind two cars that were in front of me, an 02-03 audi a4 and a similar year ford explorer. The ambulance cut off both these cars and they were forced to slam on their brakes. I hit the front brake.....with little success, and decided to hit the rears. At this moment I was still 3-4 car lengths behind, but quickly approaching the audi and fully expecting a very sketchy rear end power slide at the minimum when i hit the rear brakes. Sure enough i slid almost 50ft nearly sideways and with little deceleration. I was hoping I could pull the bike out of the slide in time to dodge the now stopped audi, but at the last moment the bike stood up and I hit the last foot of the left side of his bumper head on at somewhere between 50 and 60 mph. I remember seeing his car, then the sky, then the concrete from about 10 feet up. The decision I made at this moment is what I believe saved my life. I did gymnastics for about 9-10 years and dove for 1 so I am strangely comfortable flipping through the air. When I saw the concrete coming towards my face I decided to roll with the flip. By the grace of God I managed to transfer all of the impact from what would have been my skull, to my right forearm. Literally NOTHING else hit the ground, no head bounce, no road rash, just a mediocre bruise and a gash on the arm. I laid on the ground for about two seconds, and realized that the top of my head was touching the median, one inch the the left and I would have cracked my skull. Got up, and picked up the bike which was in surprisingly good shape. No fluids leaking, still in gear and kickin, not even a scratch on the paint. The shift peg, clutch lever, license plate bracket and forks were trashed but besides that Nothing serious that I could tell on the scene. When I looked up there were about 5 people pulled over running towards me, all of them yelling asking if I was alright. I've never seen such unconditional concern from strangers in my life. They helped me pick the bike up onto the curb and made sure I wasn't in worse condition than I thought. I was told by multiple people that from their view it looked as though my head should have made direct impact with the road. One guy even wrote his info down and said he would testify for me if needed. I don't know what will all be covered and not covered by insurance and luckily the police on the scene didn't write any citations. In my opinion there is no one to blame in this situation besides the ambulance perhaps, however the driver was simply doing his job and probably concerned with the life of someone else in need. The two drivers in front of me got legitimately cut off, and I was what I thought was more than far enough back from them entering the ramp but my brakes locked. Coincidentally my new tires were waiting at the front door when I got home...taunting me.

The strangest part of the whole thing was that not a single thought besides "ROLL" was going through my head during the entire situation. And no adrenaline or hard feelings were felt after. I knew I was okay and glad I was the only one in serious danger during it. Everyone was just happy that I was able to walk away from the situation with minor injuries.

I am THOROUGHLY convinced that had I had my helmet on I would not have been able to determine where I was in the air and probably would have came down forehead first and snapped my neck tonight. I am NOT encouraging ANYONE not to wear a helmet....but it gives you something to think about.

I'll be picking up the bike from the impound tomorrow and giving it the official judgment as to whether its worth saving.

I plan to be back on two wheels as soon as I can.

Be safe out there guys and stay much farther back than you think necessary. I'm extraordinarily lucky to be alive, more or less typing this from the comfort of my home tonight.

On a side note, i'll be pretty sad to see my project go after all the work i've put into it if I can't resurrect it

[superdiver]

WOW, glad you are ok! What a story!

[alarmdude9]

Its great to hear you made out with a relative minor injury. Now hopefully the same can be said for the bike.

[Inferno]

Glad you made it. One of the lucky ones, for sure.

A quick look at the bike looks like the tank is dented and I can see the front forks (most noticably the right fork) are bent.

[JP50515]

Originally Posted by Inferno

Glad you made it. One of the ucky ones, for sure.

A quick look at the bike looks like the tank is dented and I can see the front forks (most noticably the right fork) are bent.

Ya you cant tell from the pic but those forks are junk now. The brace inbetween them is barely holding them together.

[Mentat Ix]

Huh. It's like one of those scenarios that runs through my head from time to time. "If I high sided right here, I would just jump on top of the bike and surf it to a stop..."

In reality, I'd just faceplant into a curb. But you pulled it off this time.

Maybe I'll see if I can join my daughter's gymnastics class.

In other news, it sounds like either something was wrong with your brakes or you need to practice emergency stops and swerves. Using front and back together should be automatic and should never make you lose control. When your back barely starts to slide out, you should be pumping the brake to keep the ass end of the bike tracking. Leastwise, thats how I do it. It has saved my butt big time, especially in the rain.

Hope you can get back on two wheels soon!

[xrayr]

OMG!!!! Glad you are OK. You are VERY lucky!!!!

[vt500guy]

Any crash you can walk away from is a good one.

Congrats on living thru it.

[RonsterEMT]

Glad you're ok, but remember most of the time people are supposed to yield to emergency vehicles. Something to think about before placing blame. But most importantly is you came out ok.


Sent from my Motorcycle iPhone app

[Canyon]

Glad you are OK. Oddly enough my story (about the helmet use) is similar. We had stopped for dinner, there were so many of us instead of the usual of me bringing my helmet in with me I hung it upside down on the handle bars. Normally I don't do this as it could be gone when I come back out but with so many bikes in the parking lot, I'm sure no one with mess with it. Well, while we were inside it down poured on the bikes, one of those freak 15 minute rain storms. By the time we were done with dinner the roads were dry from traffic warming the road. I wasn't about to put on a soggy helmet - half shell, so put it in my saddlebag and road the rest of the night w/o it.

Left turner took me out and I fractured my skull. Docs told me, though they didn't want to advocate it, NOT having the helmet on in this instance probably did less damage. (Though I have a TON of damage and my bike was totaled - RIP 2000 Roadie, damn I miss that bike).

Anyway, back to you..... funny how life can help you survive when it's called upon. Sorry to hear the story but now you have "the story". Bike doesn't look too bad but make sure you fix her up good and test her out before you just hop back on and ride.

Good luck!