My Motorcycle Accident: August 6, 2010

Motorcycle Accident, akeg - Eric Schmuttenmaer, FlickrHello and welcome to my eventful day on August 6th, 2010.

The ferry ride back to Seattle from Bremerton, WA was relaxing. I had finished paperwork generated from a day at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and was enjoying the sunny weather.
The Navy has a variety of fire suppression systems that I install, maintain and repair as needed.Sorry I can't go into more detail, but then I'd have to...you know.

Once back at the shop I worked from, I hopped aboard my 2007 Yamaha VStar motorcycle - my pride and joy machine. We took trips over Chinook Pass to Yakima, rode the Cascade Loop over the North Cascades into Twisp, back around to Wenatchee, and generally all around the state of Washington.

Around 5pm, August 6th, I was nearing home, going into a banked curve when a car suddenly stopped in front on me. The bike was already into a lean to the right when I had to brake - straightening up was not an option as that meant going head on into several cars and trucks in the opposite lane.

 The bike started to slide and slow as the car in front of me started moving again. We never made contact, but the front tire of the bike did come within a foot or so of the car's rear bumper as I noticed the front fork start to bend. (This is happening in real time of two seconds, maybe three) As I am trying to control the slide and see the fork bend, something on the side of the bike catches on the pavement and snaps rolls to the right incredibly fast. This is probably where my right leg was subjected to at least 600 lb-ft if force, since it takes a minimum of that much force to break the bones I did that day.

The car takes off , never to be seen again. A small black import - Acura, Honda, something similar. I didn't get a plate number since by the time I stopped skidding, rolling and bouncing, the car was out of sight. Jerk.

Rolling out of the traffic lane, I looked up and saw a car behind the scene stopped police-style, and was blocking cars from proceeding to smack into me and what was left of the bike. I thanked him for stopping and we decided that he would watch for inattentive drivers while I called 9-1-1 to get help.(Thanks again, plumber-man!)

I looked back at my formerly beautiful bike and then stood up. Oh.  To say that was a bad move is an understatement.

Standing there, glancing down at the lower right leg below the knee bending the wrong direction, I realized that I wasn't going to be running after the little black car and sat down.

A battalion chief from the Shoreline Fire Department arrived on scene first and took control. Police cars and the paramedics arrived a minute later. Fast response times and  professional attitudes every step of the way, guys. Thanks to you, all, too.

Thanks in part to the armored suit I always wore (and a good helmet), I had no other significant injuries. There were some friction burns on my arm from heat transfer through the suit where there was not an armor plate and a cut on my pinkie where a glove ripped. Nothing too bad -  besides a tibial plateau fracture and a broken fibula. In other words, my right leg was broken in 8 places, and some of the bone was pulverized, too tiny to count.

While being loaded in to the aid car, the medics asked where I want to be taken for treatment. Had I known what I now know, my choice would have been to go to the Harborview Medical Center, which has a level I trauma unit. I didn't know at the time that my first choice of hospital could not treat my injury and  that they would only stabilize me for transport to the trauma center.

The next portion of the saga will cover what to do now that you have had a serious accident and why thinking ahead before it ever happens can help save you from experiencing more pain that you need to endure.

Dave
Shoreline, WA