I know I just wrote a blog like this one, however the image has stuck with me and every once in awhile I see it clear as day. I woke up last night from my sleep and this was the image that came to mind so I've decided to write about it and share it with everyone. I do believe this event happened back in 2002 as I did have my Dyna then and I think it was one of several getting to know you rides. See I got my Dyna after years and years of riding a sportster and my first thought was dam this thing is a big fat lazy pig! It just didn't have the umps the sportster had with the slightest twist of the throttle. So in many ways I was disappointed with my choice but happy because well nothing would fall off as a rambled downt he road, and it was a little more comfy to ride with the bumps and all.
It was spring, maybe a nice comfortable day. It was Harley Day at Atco Dragway and the area was crawling with bikes. Now, I was on a mission even if it killed me to get to know this big fat pig of a bike so I bypassed the dragway and went on ahead to the pines so I could ride in peace and solitute to learn about the Dyna. I came back Atison Road and hit Jackson Road I guess some where around 4pm. There were large groups of bikes or what appeared to be large groups of bikes heading out to the pinelands and to point home. This section of Jackson Road at the time was just a couple of horse farms, cranberry bogs and the Speedway then almost as ya passed the speedway little developmets start poping up. I think the first one is on Seseme Street, yeah I know but its the actual name! Anyway justr as your passing by the Ataco Dragstrip about a 1/4 mile down give or take is a nice sweeper of a curve. Nothing sacary or peg dragging just a nice sweeper.
It was in the middle of the sweeper that I saw it. there was a bike off to my right in the sugar sand and several dudes wondering around, a chick in the middle of the road and a bike face first into the gardrail standing straight up. There were several bikes stopped but no one seemed to be doing traffic control. I would think that would be the first plan or that lovely lady was going to be hit again, however the guys were all walking around on the side of the road. So, I stopped. Walked over to a lady that was on the side of the road and asked did anyone call for help, she said she didn't know, so I did right then, Dam 5 bikers on the side of the road and not one person called? WTF, then I asked why isn't anyone doing traffic control? She told me they were looking for his wallet. Wallet? Why? his gal is laying in the middle of a curve and risks the chance of getting run over WTF is wrong with you people? I walked to the gal laying in the street. She was moning and sobbing some.
I kind of stood over her and said, "Hi, I'm Tumbles, what is your name?" The lady standing around asked me what she should do, I told her to get her husbands head out of his ask and help slow the traffic down in both directions to keep another accident from happening. Cars and bikes leaving and going to the event were going around us at regular speed and really they ought to be stoped and let several go through in one direction then the other..........This area of the woods the State Police are large and in charge and it might be awhile before they show up. I asked Kathy how old she was, about children their names, and where she lived. She asked me, " is it bad" I said, "well kathy its going to hurt for a while but it looks fixable to me. by the way what's your name again?" I was just trying to keep her talking. She said she was cold so I took off my leather jacket and put it over her chest, and aske the other lady for hers so we could cover Kathy more.
I continued to bable with Kath and I found out she was a "Yellow Mother" along with my niece, and she knew "Mean Mother". See Kathy's foot was twisted around facing the wrong way and her calf was sitting on it , she had a very nasty compound fracture of the ankle and leg not really sure but I kept talking with her. As I did in the back of my mind I wondered why, why me why am I always the one to stumble across these accidents as one of the first few? I didn't know if it was because I've got this desire to always help, or that I'm not affraid to get involved, or is it that I got first aid trainging? I'm not sure which it is but I do seem to be the first on the scene and this time on the secene like 3rd and a bunch of dimwits were looking for a wallet? as if that was the most important thing? Kathy said she and her boyfriend were riding to Atco togehter. They were having a blast just riding side by side, loving life and enjoying the ride! She's only been riding for 6 months and was 47 years old and believed this was the greatest thing she'd ever done and couldn't wait to get better to get out there again.
Kathy at that moment didn't realize that it would be a couple of years and some heavy PT before she could walk and even think about riding again. She when on to tell me that they were riding side by side and came into the curve side by side neither one backed off and slammed into to each other and he went left she flopped her and her bike was the bike in the gardrail. "I see". I went back into my own thoughts as I kept her talking. Why do I always come upon these senes? Maybe this accident sceen was a reminder to me and those that pass not to get too cocky when out riding? After all how many times have I ridden side by side with my ex, in this exact same road in the exaxct same spot? How many times have Joanna nd I ridden side by side thur the mountains of North Carolina. Hell sometimes the ex and I rode so close together we were able to go through each others saddle bags while on the move? How many times did I share snacks with Joann or BamBam, Dawg while riding? Was I lucky? was it my experience or skill that kept this from happening to me or was it a warning that keep it up girl and see what ya can get into.
I don't know how many times this particular accident scene has flashed in my head since 2002, but its the one that I believe had the most impact on me. I mean sure there was the gal that I held her hand and made her husband thinks she was alive, there was the migrant farm worker whom slamed into the tree no one wanted to help cause he was mexican, then there was the guys that slide off the road into a telephone poll that a big pine tree was hidding. Now that was sicking and silly too. See the branches of the pine tree wraped around the truck so ya couldn't see him however fresh tracks in the snow had a tires going into the tree but not coming out. When I got there, his head was bleeding so badly, his scalp was stuck int the windshield and It was turing my stomack thinking about that I saw an atural scalping. I didn't have anyting else or I didn't know whatelse to do so I reached in my glove box and pulled out a super tampax tampon unwraped it, de tubed it, put it on the kids head and asked him to hold it there. Someone else had called this in, cause while I was talking to him the rescue squad came walking up. The EMT looked at his head and said what the hell are you holding to your head that has a string? then he said oh, well they do aborb alot of blood good thinking. Then there was the gal that bumped into another car and it went air born and hit the tree infront of a bar that I was in, her car landed upside down. I mean the list of first on the sceen goes on but why did this one stick in my head, why Kathy?
"Mean Mother" told us about Kathy and her progress. It took her about a year and half before she could drive a school buss again. She never road again but never regreted her time she did ride. Me I understand completely she was hurt bad and if she didn't want to ride again that was ok. She was just happy that if only for a short time she did something she always wanted to do. But for me I still she her there in the middle of the road, bike in the gardrail, foot under her calf...........its still haunts me. I never think twice about getting involved, and neither should any of you. If the only thing you can do is call for help then that's what ya do. Do I think I'm great or fantastic..........NO! its just who I am, maybe somewhere inside I hope that someone will stop for me if the rolls were reversed. What I do know is I don't understand why even today, after all the different things I've seen, the time that has passed, Kathy's image still comes to my mind. Its like it haunts me, like the lesson wasn't Kathy's but mine, maybe I'm suposed to share it here with all of you. A reminder that shit happens, don't be cocky, get involved, or its just something that touched a cord. have a great one! "T"
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