I recently had a German Shepherd Run out of the tall grass beside the southbound lanes (4:00 AM and still dark) and stop right in front of me. I had the brakes but can't recall if I even had time to apply them. I slid down the road from about 55 mph to a stop with the bike sliding behind me. The results were road rash/burns to my left shoulder, chipped bone in my left elbow and 10 stitches there, burns and rash to my left knee in four places, a torn ligament in my left ankle, and 2700.00 damage to my bike. I spent 6 hours in the emergency room for cat scans and x-rays. I also missed 8 days from work. I am about 96% right now but still have swelling in the ankle and a limp. All could have been avoided by the dog's owner obeying the laws and keeping the dog in a pen or on a leash.
2009-08-06T17:03:20Z
Forgot to mention, I did hit and kill the dog. I am also going to be doing a little investigation of my own as to who may be the owner. I saw a couple more dogs playing in the road about two weeks afterwards so a good bet is a person close by owned it. I do intend to sue if I locate the owner. I am a private investigator and do accident investigations and skip tracing. I have lived here for almost 40 years so I know almost everyone except the rental residents (which is where the dog came from),
BTW.............good luck in the upcoming races.
Anonymous2009-08-06T12:19:37Z
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Way back in 1971. I was on my way back to college after spending a weekend at home. Going through an intersection, I had the green light but a lady turned left in front of me. Didn't see me, she said.
I hit her car about even with the rear wheel. The bike stopped but I kept going, flying through the air like superman. I landed on my face and broke three teeth, tore my chin open, and my knee, and broke a small bone in my foot. Nothing really that serious or permanent.
She knelt next to me and held my hand and cried until the ambulance came. Her name was Dolores, which I reminded her, meant 'pain'.
My parents 'convinced' me I would give up motorcycles, and I bought a car, but a few years later I wanted another bike. And I've been riding ever since then with no major problems. The accident taught me to be paranoid, to always expect stupid people in cars to pull into my lane or into my path. I think it's this paranoia that's kept me safe. Every few weeks I read about some old, experienced biker who was done in by some idiot backing out of a driveway or making a left turn in front of him.
The driver always says "I didn't see him!" Which is true. Because they don't LOOK! This is definitely the worst hazard for motorcycles.
About five years ago, in my car, I was rear-ended by a kid in a big van. My car was hit so hard it actually flexed in the middle, there were wrinkles in the top of the roof. He hit me so hard my seat went back and wouldn't come up. I hurt my neck (a little) but I got to thinking how bad it would have been if I'd been on my bike. But then I realized that if I'd been on my bike I wouldn't have been there. It was stop-and-go traffic and it's legal here in California to split lanes, so I would have gone up between the columns of stopped cars and I wouldn't have had the accident at all.
Some kids spread a strip of sand across a street like a speed-bump for me as I was coming home from work, they knew what time I would be there, same time every day. I hit the curve and the sand at about 45 mph and ALMOST hit a tree dead-on but just managed to wipe off the left side mirror and both left signal lights, nuthin' but a$$holes and elbows did I see running away like rabbits. A bit of baling twine to hold the headlight in place and I was watching out for the idiots from then on. An old Yamaha RD 350, I wish I still had that bike, very fast for such a small bike !
Last July I was riding at KC-IR in missouri, I had a 01 GS-XR 600 punched and the goodies, ran the first 1/4 just fine, second run I went from 5th to 6th, brought the front end off the ground and didn't know it. Started to tank slap and I went flying through the air on a high side at 147 MPH. Suffered a busted jaw, busted ribs broken left hand , right arm, blew out my left knee, and shattered two discs in my back from sliding head first into a K-rail. since then I have had 6 surgeries to fix stuff, i now have plates and pins and screw's in my knee jaw and hand. The bike was cleaned up by a shop broom. I have also since then built a new bike and amd still riding.
I crashed at 155 kph last year on a racetrack. I ran a few inches off the inside of a turn, while accelerating, and the concrete rumble strip caused my front end to come off the ground. When the front tire touched the ground, it was sideways, and pitched the bike (and me) end over end. Fortunately I was going fast enough that I didn't hit the ground until I was on the grass outside the curve. (the track is about 60 feet wide at that point) The bike left several large craters in the grass. The impact was so severe that the battery was ripped out of the bike, with the terminals still attached to the bike. Of all the lights,horn and instruments, one turn signal remained on the bike. Both ends of a removable section of the swing-arm were still in place, but the middle section of it was torn out. The rear rim had a foot-long strip torn out of one side, and the tire had a similar tear in the sidewall. I went to the hospital after dinner that night (I was feeling pretty sore!)and they took 37 X-rays. They thought that my right thumb might be broken and put a cast on it, just to be safe, for two weeks. I had lots of bruises! The bike became my "track-only" machine. My leathers cost about $80 to repair. The proper riding gear really WORKS! My most recent crash was at another racetrack, about three weeks ago. I lost the front end when I hit some ripples in the pavement while leaned over (my footpeg was touching down) at about 90 kph in a tight turn. I broke my front brake lever and a passenger peg. No injuries, and $120 to repair the same leather suit. $60 for the bike parts. My next track session is next Thursday. Wish me luck.
Sorry to hear about your accident. You ought to sue the dog owner for your medical expenses and loss of work. I had a golden retriever do the same thing to me except I wasn't able to stop and I did hit him, but that wasn't my worst.
When I was a noobie with my first bike in the mid '80s, I didn't realize that even though I may have the right-of-way, I'm basically invisible to others and I have to to ride like it. I was riding straight on a road when a car made a left hand turn in front of me. I wasn't able to stop and t-boned him. I walked away fine, but my first motorcycle was totaled. Lesson learned.