So this is the story of my younger brother's first motorcycle accident.
This was a dirt biking accident at relatively slow speed and not involving 2 ton vehicles. Despite this he still suffered a serious injury. Overconfidence, complacency and a lack of skill can injure, maim and kill at 20 mph or 200 mph.
So as it goes...
I took my 15 year old brother out dirt biking a month ago for the first time. He'd ridden a friends dirt bike on flat ground several times and had the clutch work down, but no real skills past that.
Our first day out we rode 6 hours or so along loose gravel or hard pack trails. He had a few tip overs on and one fall but nothing except his pride was injured. We had taken it slow and his confidence was obviously building. Our second day out we take a morning ride. He's improved considerably in the last day and has zero issues through the trails. I'm quite impressed with how quickly he appears to have progressed. After lunch we notice a few storm clouds gathering in the distance and decide to sneak in one more ride, this one along the fire roads we typically used just to access trails.
A friend of mine takes off in front, faster than we've been going, he wants to make the last ride a bit more exciting. Foolishly I allow myself to join in the spirit and sprint after him.
Despite my firm and repeated insistence to my younger brother to ride his own pace and not push himself to keep up, he races after me. I should have known he would; he's a 15 year old, it's my mistake.
Ten minutes into the ride, my brother comes upon a small rise. Just over the rise is a fairly sharp right turn downhill. While he was able to zip along at 20 mph or so on the straights and flats with confidence he's unprepared and unskilled at handling these turns. He turns the handlebars, locks up the front wheel into a skid and lowsides. Shatters his right elbow and humorous.
A gruelling, bumpy two hour ride with a dangling arm to the nearest medical center, an hour ambulance back to the city (now on morphine thankfully), several rounds of imaging and consultations with the on-staff doctor, a call to mom who is out of state, a sleepless night, a 5 hour surgery in the morning and two days in the hospital. He's discharged with new hardware; over a dozen screws and two titanium plates.
Docs estimate 6-9 months recovery and full use of arm/joint.
Lessons learned:
1. New riders, especially young ones, can allow overconfidence to put them in situations they can't handle. The same applies to experienced riders.
2. Treat riders you are teaching as a liability to themselves. Don't give them a reason to ride above their skill level.
3. Don't put a GoPro on a 15 year old boy who likes to show off. He now has an audience. He only wore it on the ride he crashed during and later said he felt like he had to look good for the video.
4. Make sure you have a reliable communication line. We were lucky enough to be relatively close to medical facilities, but if he had had a compound fracture or worse, medical evac would have likely been needed. It took me over 30 minutes just to get a call out to our mom due to poor reception.
5. Don't try and push yourself too much because the day/weekend/ride is ending. It's not worth the risk; there will be a next time.
