So, on the importance of wearing your motorcycle gear -- my husband Peter was hit by a minivan today.

We had been out camping last night and were heading to a lunch spot on our way home. The restaurant is the local biker hangout on weekends (Alice's on 84/35) so there are always a ton of bikes at the intersection. It's a 2-way stop, where traffic on the road we were on does not stop and the cross street does.

Anyway, Peter was riding at about 25mph (slowing down as the driveway to the restaurant is just past the intersection) and the minivan driver was stopped at the stop sign at the cross street. For the locals, we were going north on Skyline/35 and the minivan was at the stop sign going west on 84.

She says she never saw him and she pulled out to turn left directly in front of him.

He locked up the rear brake and skidded for about 15 feet until he hit the car, at which point he let go of the rear brake, the rear tire regained traction, and the bike highsided. He was thrown free, tumbled, and landed on the shoulder of the road.

He's fine, thank goodness. We spent 5 hours in the ER tonight and the X-rays show nothing broken, just a sprained left wrist and some bruises/soft tissue injury to the left shoulder and pec muscle. The doc and nurses were all amazed that it was a moving motorcycle accident and that was the extent of his injuries. They all thanked him for wearing gear.

He was wearing an armored leather jacket and Aerostich armored overpants (over jeans). He had thin gloves on; maybe he wouldn't have gotten the wrist injury with more substantial gloves, but that's impossible to say.

I didn't see the actual impact as I was about 20 seconds behind Peter (twisty road, so I was behind the bend). I arrived on the scene to find the bike down in the middle of the road and about 239487294 pissed off motorcyclists helping Peter, taking photos to email to us, and making sure the driver stayed until the police arrived. The driver was very shaken up and apologetic; she was lost on her way to a wedding and was distracted looking for street signs. She claims she never saw Peter.

The bike is pretty beaten up aesthetically but he was able to ride it home. The whole right side is scratched up and has some missing plastics. The aluminum saddlebag on that side is essentially destroyed (broken weld, smashed, scratched down).

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6137/5920691093_960f24efe7.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6024/5921255396_656ff5276b.jpg

The good news, other than the relative lack of injury, is that the woman admitted fault and she was cited on the scene for right-of-way violation. Should be a no-brainer with the insurance company. Peter already called and filed the claim.

Blah blah long words.

Summary: WEAR YOUR GEAR. Jacket, pants, gloves, full face helmet. Boots if you can. EVERY RIDE.

Both Peter and I have ridden cross-country with no incidents and both of us have been hit by cars now each within 10 miles from home. Don't skimp on your gear just because you're putting around town.

its good to hear he's relatively alright. hitting or getting hit by cars is never fun and every day i thank my lucky alpinestars that i haven't been seriously injured in any of my cage-interactions. it's also good to hear you didn't maim or murder the driver of the minivan... i know i would have lost my marbles if someone hit my better half.

as a side note, by "didn't see" did she mean "didn't look"?

Damn a minivan. That's horrible. Glad he's ok. Also glad it looks like it'll work out ok. Geez, that's just crazy.

That's great to hear he's OK. :thumbup: ATGATT saves lives. Looks like I will invest in some armored overpants myself!

Johnny

Yikes! Very glad to hear he's okay! Even better the culprit was willing to face the music.

Statistics say some 52% of traffic accidents happen within 5mi of home. That number jumps to almost 70% within 10mi of home. Sorry ya'll joined that statistic, but VERY glad you're both around to tell about it.

Best wishes for speedy recovery.

Sorry to hear about the accident, But I'm glad to hear that the hubby came out of it relatively ok. Hoping he has a speedy recovery

Geez, I'm so glad he was ok. Sounds like it could have been awful!

Oh thank goodness! I read about this incident on BARF but didn't even think twice that it would be you and your husband >.< Glad he is ok!

Thanks for posting. I had a van run a stop sign on me a while back, and I got to learn how to do a stoppie. So I can really visualize how this happened.

How fast was Peter going at impact, just out of curiostiy? Any good photos of rashed up gear to really drive the gear point home as we imagine that it would have done to his knees, head, etc.?

Very glad he's ok... Thanks for the post...:thumbup:

She claims she never saw Peter

Yes, there's no way to completely avoid the "never saw him" or "he came out of nowhere" senario. It seems that there's a small percentage of cage-drivers out there who are so bad or blind that they're absolutely destined to eventually run over a motorcyclist.

That's why I use a headlight modulator. I believe there has to be a certain percent of those really bad and blind cage-drivers who will see the pulsing headlight in a situation where they wouldn't see the motorcycle. Just reducing my chance of being the motorcyclist who "came out of nowhere."

Sorry to hear that, but thank god he's ok.

Oh thank goodness! I read about this incident on BARF but didn't even think twice that it would be you and your husband >.< Glad he is ok!

Really? Can you shoot me the URL?

Glad he is ok

Sorry to hear about the accident but glad to hear that your nubby is ok.

How fast was Peter going at impact, just out of curiostiy? Any good photos of rashed up gear to really drive the gear point home as we imagine that it would have done to his knees, head, etc.?

He estimates he was going about 25mph. The speed limit on that section of road is 40mph and he was slowing down to turn into a driveway on the other side of the intersection.

The gear looks pretty boring, to be honest! :lol: We don't think he hit his head at all as the helmet is unscathed.

The biggest damage is to his jacket. The blue-ish scuff mark here is where his biggest bruise now is. We think that's where he landed when he was thrown off the bike. The white scuff marks up by the neck were there already; that's just years of the helmet rubbing against the leather.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6140/5921255928_b8cbb66511.jpg

There's a teeeeensy little hole in the Aerostich pants, too. He has a bit of a bruise here too but nothing major.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6145/5921256064_6cc4351ba8.jpg

Oh, we did find one tiny bit of road rash on him last night, right at his waist. His jacket doesn't zip to his pants, so we think the jacket rode up a bit in the accident and left his waist exposed.

That fits with the jacket damage, too -- in the picture the scuff is lower than the physical place on his body with the bruise, which suggests the jacket rode up on his body.

Glad he is alright and only got some bruises.

both of us have been hit by cars now each within 10 miles from home.

Sounds like you ought to move someplace else, your home is dangerous! :p

Glad he's OK. :thumbup:

Oh, we did find one tiny bit of road rash on him last night, right at his waist. His jacket doesn't zip to his pants, so we think the jacket rode up a bit in the accident and left his waist exposed.

Carolyn,

Given the bit of road rash that Peter sustained from the accident... do you think you guy's might rethink riding with jacket and pants that zip completely together 360 degrees, or one piece suits?

Wishing him a quick recovery!!

Oh, we did find one tiny bit of road rash on him last night, right at his waist.

You crazy motorcycle couples and your nighttime roadrash searches. Kinky. :p

You crazy motorcycle couples and your nighttime roadrash searches. Kinky. :p

Bom chicka wah wah!

Carolyn,

Given the bit of road rash that Peter sustained from the accident... do you think you guy's might rethink riding with jacket and pants that zip completely together 360 degrees, or one piece suits?

It's a good question. I rode for years with two-piece leathers that zipped together completely and I do think they're safer. That said, I've offered to look for one piece suits for Peter and he doesn't really want to go that route. *shrug* It's all personal preference, and I'd rather him wear the gear he was wearing and take the minimal damage he did, than have him not want to wear the gear at all (or not ride at all).

I should mention that the mark on his waist, while technically road rash, looks more like a rug burn that's about 1.5" long. It's really quite small and he didn't notice it until I pointed it out.

Wow. I'm glad to hear he's ok. That area around Alice's seems to be a magnet for biker accidents.

Wow. I'm glad to hear he's ok. That area around Alice's seems to be a magnet for biker accidents.

It's true. I hate being up there on the weekends (we were only on the hill because we'd been camping at Portola Redwoods off of Alpine Road).

It was funny; we went inside for lunch after the police paperwork etc and Peter asked for some ice for his wrist. He explained and the waitress was like, "that was YOU who was just hit out there??" I think a lot of riders are airlifted off the hill instead of walking inside to have a burger. :lol:

(we were only on the hill because we'd been camping at Portola Redwoods off of Alpine Road).

That's a great campground!

I've yet to go to Alice's. Between the law enforcement targeting bikers to the accident stories, it doesn't seem like a safe place to be. :(

You gotta get out there at some point. Best times are mid-week, I also try and avoid it mid-day on the weekends.

No can do on that. M-F I work the old 9-5 type job. I'm off every other friday, but that's the weekend for some people already.

Really? Can you shoot me the URL?

Here you go Carolyn!

http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=373637

Glad to hear he's ok!! :thumbup:

Carolyn,

Given the bit of road rash that Peter sustained from the accident... do you think you guy's might rethink riding with jacket and pants that zip completely together 360 degrees, or one piece suits?
Probably would be better, but the best gear is the gear you wear, so sometimes you sacrifice a little ultimate protection for convenience.

I arrived on the scene to find the bike down in the middle of the road and about 239487294 pissed off motorcyclists helping Peter, taking photos to email to us, and making sure the driver stayed until the police arrived.
This is one of the things I love about the MC community. I bet the driver was shaken up...both from the incident, and from being so quickly surrounded by so many hostile bodies.....

Glad your hubby's ok. I've been in a few downs, always involving a cager doing something stupid, and the gear makes a difference, for sure.

:( but Yay gear!

Hey Ninjettes!

It's been awhile, but I'm back to sadly say my wife and I are selling our little Ninjette and big Vulcan. On May 13th my father was struck by a cager that made a left hand turn without yielding to oncoming traffic. He was admitted to Cooper Trauma center in Camden, NJ and life support was removed on Friday, May 16th. He was wearing all of his gear.

It saddens me to leave motorcycling but I saw what happened to Dad. I am not going to preach to you to stop, I've been on bikes a while now and know what it means to be a motorcyclist, but please ALWAYS wear your gear and ride with at least one other rider. My father was alone that day and not with his normal riding buddy Dave. Ride safe my friends, I will be lurking around here still. This is by far the only MC forum I care about, because we all seem to really care about one another here.

JOhn

John I am sorry to hear about your dad. I cannot imagine how hard that is for you and your family.

That's terrible! :(

Statistics say some 52% of traffic accidents happen within 5mi of home. That number jumps to almost 70% within 10mi of home.

There is a perfectly logical reason for that, when you think about it, those miles are included in almost every journey:)

I have had the opposite where a woman pulled out in front of me, wrecking my CB 750 and then got a letter from her husband (who was nowhere near the scene btw ) saying it was my fault because "I was obviously speeding being on a motorbike". ( such is prejudice )
Fortunately I had a couple of witnesses. Always take witness details they seem superficial in the shake up but they are vital when the dust settles.
(keep a mini notebook and stubby pencil in the pocket of your leathers)

Johnnyscoots, I'm very sorry for your loss. It's heart-breaking to lose family or a close friend, particularly under these circumstances. You and your family will be in my prayers.

Very sorry to hear this news. I will keep your family in my prayers and I hope you stay on the site at least.