an accident report--my baby now has a cracked body panel

[flyingzonker]

About 10 days ago, on a sunny morning, I went out on my PCX 150 to get gas and run some errands. The gas station I had in mind is attached to one end of a long strip mall. The mall has three entrances: One on the highway where the gas station is; one at the end opposite to where the station is; and one toward the middle of the mall from a secondary road that intersects with the highway and runs the whole length of the mall. Now, this entrance from the secondary road is unique among the three entrances in that it is a dedicated entrance. There is an exit that is paired with it and separated from it by an island planted with grass and a lily garden. The entrance and exit are marked as such. So much for the scene.

That morning I turned into the secondary road intending to hang a right into the mall using the dedicated entrance. The entrance that day--and for some days previous--had been transformed into a blind corner by a huge dumpster that was parked near it in the mall lot. The dumpster--about half as long as a railroad car--had been put there by a construction company that was doing some demolition work nearby. They chose a bad place for it. Anyone coming up on that entrance from the right intending to turn into it, could not see what might be coming the other way until he/she was 2/3rds into their move.

It was a nice morning. Good riding weather-about 45 degrees. I was doing maybe 30 mph. I swung the bike into the blinkered mouth of that entrance, and, such was the bleak hugeness of my stupidity, I not only came in faster than made sense, I came in wide. And half way through my act, my nemesis appeared: A white coupe, late model, sporty and fast, darted out from where he shouldn't have been, with the manifest intention of entering ASAP the secondary road that I had just exited under the influence of the same acronym.

I brake hard. Front wheel locks and rear wheel slides out. The bike low sides and skids on its flank toward the car. Somehow I have gotten my ankle caught under the running board (foot board?) and am being dragged along by the skidding scooter. I try to pull my boot out from under and try again. Fiinally we stop, I drag my foot out from under the machine and stand up.

The guy in the white coupe is out of the car standing looking at me with scared eyes. Someone on the secondary road stops and comes running from behind. "Are you OK?" They both ask. I say, "I'm OK", although my ankle is telling completely different story. I ask the guy from the coupe, "Can you help me lift this up?" He quickly gets the bike on its wheels--I make a feint to help, but my foot won't let me do more than that. I manage, with great and disguised pain, to straddle the bike as I thank the guy for getting it up, and I slowly, in a tail-between-the-legs manner, ride off.

As soon as I get out of ear-shot I start moaning. I make my way back home--a distance of a mile or so moaning. I somehow manage to hobble the bike into it's space in the garage moaning. I go into the house and collapse on my bed, and moan.

The next day I had an ankle and foot on my right side that made the ankle and foot on the left look like something out of Tom Thumb. And bruised! And sore! And a long way from letting me do anything but stay the hell off it.

Someone might be asking about now, "Why did you let that jerk get away with it? He was clearly completely in the wrong. The least you could have done is road rage him a little!" No. I felt no animus toward the guy. That is not the way I look at motorcycle accidents. I always blame the cyclist. When you have ten times more to lose than the other guy, then YOU have to be ten times more careful. I wasn't careful at all. I turned fast and wide into a blind corner.

I felt and feel that I deserve 100% of the blame.

Thanks for reading this. I hope it has a salutory effect on anyone with ears to hear (eyes to see?).

[fish]

Leg/foot Xrays?
Fish

[honkerman]

I feel your pain...figuratively and literally. Heal well. Rest easy, get back up when you're able.

[ScooteringAbout]

Least your hopping along still, I'd get medically checked out though afterwards.

[Mel46]

Panels are not that difficult to replace. Your foot and ankle are a different story though. How is everything now? Did you get X-rays? Is anything broken? Not a way to spend Christmas, but things could have been worse, so be grateful that the situation wasn't. Rest and lots of ice should help. Get well soon.

[homie]

Great attitude! sorry you had a close call but glad you survived. Chief say's "hell of a ride"
Join the honor roll of crash survivors

[flyingzonker]

I thank everyone for their good wishes. I have not done the doctor thing. After the first hour or so there was not much pain, just a lot of swelling and bruising. I know the procedure for treating sprained ankle and know the amount of time a sprain like this takes to heal--6 weeks, if I'm lucky. If I'm real lucky, maybe 4 and half or five. I can put a little weight on the affected leg--but prefer to hop around on one leg and crutches most of the time.

Doctor's, for me, are a last resort. I avoid emergency rooms and hospitals literally like the plague, and IMHO doctor's offices are right up there with hospitals when it is a question of passing on superbugs.

At the time of the accident I was wearing high topped lace-up boots, as usual. If I hadn't been wearing boots with laces, I think the dynamic of the sliding bike would have pulled the boot off the foot and my condition would be much more serious than it presently is.

I can't stress the importance of wearing high top lace ups. Mine have saved me several times from badly scraped ankles. Harness boots may look better and be easier to put on, but an accident can jerk you around so hard and fast and in such a multitude of strange and violent ways that everything that's not tied on is in danger of flying off.

I know a guy who was almost t-boned at an intersection. It was a two way stop. He had the right of way. He approached the intersection doing maybe 35 mph. Someone meanwhile made a Hollywood stop, entered the intersection, and cut him off. He managed to bring his bike to a skidding halt just before impact but the bike high-sided throwing him over the handlebars. His helmet, that he had neglected to strap on, flew off. He hit the pavement with his shoulder and his head. He was in a coma for a week, but survived. If his helmet had stayed on his head, he would have walked away.

In an accident, helmets, like boots, can come off in a flash when not tied on.

It's even easy to lose gloves that have not been secured someway at the wrists.

You can learn this stuff the easy way or the hard way. I have learned both ways.

.

[Geoffers]

I understand the point about taking more responsibility because of more vulnerability, but I would still have taken issue with the other guy. Sounds to me like there could still have been an accident even if you were going slowly... you creep round the blind corner just as he emerges and bang.

Glad you're not too badly hurt. I'm recovering from a sprained ankle myself (not bike related) so I feel your pain.

[kramnala58]

Two wrongs don't make a right.

Good on you for taking responsibility, but IMHO, I don't think you needed to let the other guy off completely. You may have been able to prevent the accident by being more cautious (good defensive driving), but from what you shared, you did not cause the accident.

Glad to hear that you are not worse than you are, and hopefully you heal quickly. I tore my Achilles tendon in July (not riding related) and five months later I am still am only about 65-70% of the way there.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

[Mel46]

It is good that you are still around to enjoy Christmas. Just be aware that your sprained ankle could turn out to be something else. If it does not improve shortly you may not have much choice but to go to a doc-in-the-box to get x-rays. Our accident was in September but we are still feelibg it now, and I am worried that my back may have problems that I didn't notice at first. It takes a little while for all the various pains to start showing up, so just be aware and go to the doc if it gets worse.

Above all else, have a Merry Christmas. :-)

[you you]

I suspect the Lilly garden had a bigger part in this tragedy than is apparent.

[flyingzonker]

I understand the point about taking more responsibility because of more vulnerability, but I would still have taken issue with the other guy. Sounds to me like there could still have been an accident even if you were going slowly... you creep round the blind corner just as he emerges and bang.

Glad you're not too badly hurt. I'm recovering from a sprained ankle myself (not bike related) so I feel your pain.

Well, at the time of the encounter I was so aware of my own idiocy that I had no room in my mind for anything else. Also, I was in no mood for any kind of information exchange. I wanted to go home and lie down. Also, if a cop had been called, that might have meant an ambulance and the whole ER rigmarole. I don't like hospitals--with good reason which I won't go into--and didn't feel like I needed to be taken to one.

All that being said, I was not exactly in my right mind at the time anyway. I had one clear inner directive: Go home and get off that foot!

[flyingzonker]

It is good that you are still around to enjoy Christmas. Just be aware that your sprained ankle could turn out to be something else. If it does not improve shortly you may not have much choice but to go to a doc-in-the-box to get x-rays. Our accident was in September but we are still feelibg it now, and I am worried that my back may have problems that I didn't notice at first. It takes a little while for all the various pains to start showing up, so just be aware and go to the doc if it gets worse.

Above all else, have a Merry Christmas. :-)

I hear you.

[flyingzonker]

I suspect the Lilly garden had a bigger part in this tragedy than is apparent.

Not really. It was the dumpster that did me in. The lillies were on the other side of the offender and not in my line of sight.

[flyingzonker]

Good on you for taking responsibility, but IMHO, I don't think you needed to let the other guy off completely. You may have been able to prevent the accident by being more cautious (good defensive driving), but from what you shared, you did not cause the accident.

In connection with this matter of close encounters between scooters and cars, excuse me while I echo an old Chinese saying: Grasshopper always wrong in argument with chicken.

[homie]

reminds me of this old movie clip

[you you]

reminds me of this old movie clip

Eric idle Grizwald european vacation? Terrible movie. Did you watch Grizwald family Christmas this year? A classic

[ONTWOWHEELS]

I wish you to get on your feet soon and never again.

[Mel46]

Flyingzonker, you don't happen to need a right front cover do you? (That's the one in front of your knee when you ride.) If so, I have one that I took off of my wife's bike. You pay shipping and it is yours. It has a tiny spot on it where a bubble of paint popped. I touched it up and it looks fine.

[Jge64]

we need to start a "I wrecked my bike" section....