Grim Ride Report
Watched a kid die today.
Went on a motorcycle ride 'round the south end of Puget sound with some guys that I'd seen at different events, and was friendly with online. One of the other small clubs in the area. We met up in Georgetown, across from Smarty Pants, and headed south from there. The plan was to go through Tacoma, and come back up the west side of the sound , along Vashon Island, abnd take the ferry back into Seattle.
When we got to the port of tacoma, the group got broken up a bit. as we were stopping at a light, a couple of rider came up and had words with the ride leaders, and we all turned 'round and went back, to what became apparent was the scene of a collision that had just happened.
I cut through the cars, and parked my bike to block traffic.
There was a small group huddled over the biker, who was on his back against the curb.
He'd hit a small car head on, and the driver and passenger were getting out as I parked.
Our sweeper was all ready kneeling by the downed bikers side, talking to him.
I called 911, and started asking other bystanders where we were, as I had no Idea. One of them took my phone and handled the call to EMS for me.
The side of the road the crash was on was completely blocked, and traffic was backing up, so I suggested that we block traffic from the other direction to get people moving through.
As we were doing that, a guy in a white truck pushed his way past me (I was directing people around the scene) in the lane that the wreck was in, so I punched his canopy. Turns out that he was firefighter who cam upon the scene and was pushing trough to help.
EMS got to us very quickly, Squad cars first, followed by fire department, and then an aid car.
They worked on him for what seemed a long time, and it probably was, our ride leaders had time to call this kids sister and get messages out to his family.
Watching them work was really impressive. His body didn't respond. I was surprised to see how violent CPR really is, his gut expanded like a bad pregnant guy joke with every compression. They defibrillated him once or twice, he puked a couple times, but not like he was throwing up, stuff just came out of his mouth. There was the moan of grief and turn away from the scene by those who were close to him when they covered him with a yellow sheet.
One of the firefighters laid a colors jacket over him, and set his helmet by his side. It was very respectful.
I touched base with the other riders, as best I could. I had just met most of them that morning, and the two that I knew well enough to say "whasup" to I knew only by sight.
During all of this the driver of the car was sitting on the curb, in shock, overcome with emotion. A couple of us checked in with her, to provide her comfort, and let her know that she was not to blame, and should not take any guilt on for what had happened.
The rider, John, had looked up at something as they were coming 'round a sweeping right handed bend in the road. He drifted a little wide, and when his focus came back to the road, his front tire started to wobble. This evolved very quickly into a severe tank slapping (handle bars slapping the tank because the wobble in the tire is so severe), and he swerved into oncoming traffic.
The driver of the car didn't have anywhere to go, there was a car next to her, so she hit the breaks, but they were to close to each other for it to make any difference.
John was pitched over the car, and landed 15-20 feet behind it. The force of the impact knocked his shoes off. Odd to see a pair of sneakers just sitting there in the road, still tied, surrounded by debris and fluids from the collision. His helmet stayed on.
I'm not having much of a reaction. Didn't have much of a reaction. Want to make sure that the folks who have been affected get taken care of, but I don't know any of them well enough to do anything.
Kid was 24 years old, parents and two sisters, no wife or kids, but there may be a girlfriend.
A group of us stuck around long enough for the accident investigation team to show up. One of the other bikes and blown it's oil filter out when we turned around to go back to the accident, so we waited to get that guy loaded into a truck, and then headed home. I rode with those guys 'til we got to the freeway and came home.
There was a lot of chatter at the scene, guys trying to figure out what went wrong, trying to suss out a cause, was he familiar with the bike, how long had he been riding, could it have been this mechanical thing or that one, were they speeding and he went wide because of that, was there debris or oil on the road?
I told them, there are thousands of things that can go wrong, and getting worked up or worrying about them doesn't change what happened, or make it make any more ok, or gonna make them feel anything other than what they are. Sometimes shit happens, and it really sucks.
We left him there by the side of the road, investigators doing what they do. There seemed to be an inclination to wait for him to get picked up, but the officers told us that it was gonna be several hours, so we got the other broken bike loaded up and took off.
Went on a motorcycle ride 'round the south end of Puget sound with some guys that I'd seen at different events, and was friendly with online. One of the other small clubs in the area. We met up in Georgetown, across from Smarty Pants, and headed south from there. The plan was to go through Tacoma, and come back up the west side of the sound , along Vashon Island, abnd take the ferry back into Seattle.
When we got to the port of tacoma, the group got broken up a bit. as we were stopping at a light, a couple of rider came up and had words with the ride leaders, and we all turned 'round and went back, to what became apparent was the scene of a collision that had just happened.
I cut through the cars, and parked my bike to block traffic.
There was a small group huddled over the biker, who was on his back against the curb.
He'd hit a small car head on, and the driver and passenger were getting out as I parked.
Our sweeper was all ready kneeling by the downed bikers side, talking to him.
I called 911, and started asking other bystanders where we were, as I had no Idea. One of them took my phone and handled the call to EMS for me.
The side of the road the crash was on was completely blocked, and traffic was backing up, so I suggested that we block traffic from the other direction to get people moving through.
As we were doing that, a guy in a white truck pushed his way past me (I was directing people around the scene) in the lane that the wreck was in, so I punched his canopy. Turns out that he was firefighter who cam upon the scene and was pushing trough to help.
EMS got to us very quickly, Squad cars first, followed by fire department, and then an aid car.
They worked on him for what seemed a long time, and it probably was, our ride leaders had time to call this kids sister and get messages out to his family.
Watching them work was really impressive. His body didn't respond. I was surprised to see how violent CPR really is, his gut expanded like a bad pregnant guy joke with every compression. They defibrillated him once or twice, he puked a couple times, but not like he was throwing up, stuff just came out of his mouth. There was the moan of grief and turn away from the scene by those who were close to him when they covered him with a yellow sheet.
One of the firefighters laid a colors jacket over him, and set his helmet by his side. It was very respectful.
I touched base with the other riders, as best I could. I had just met most of them that morning, and the two that I knew well enough to say "whasup" to I knew only by sight.
During all of this the driver of the car was sitting on the curb, in shock, overcome with emotion. A couple of us checked in with her, to provide her comfort, and let her know that she was not to blame, and should not take any guilt on for what had happened.
The rider, John, had looked up at something as they were coming 'round a sweeping right handed bend in the road. He drifted a little wide, and when his focus came back to the road, his front tire started to wobble. This evolved very quickly into a severe tank slapping (handle bars slapping the tank because the wobble in the tire is so severe), and he swerved into oncoming traffic.
The driver of the car didn't have anywhere to go, there was a car next to her, so she hit the breaks, but they were to close to each other for it to make any difference.
John was pitched over the car, and landed 15-20 feet behind it. The force of the impact knocked his shoes off. Odd to see a pair of sneakers just sitting there in the road, still tied, surrounded by debris and fluids from the collision. His helmet stayed on.
I'm not having much of a reaction. Didn't have much of a reaction. Want to make sure that the folks who have been affected get taken care of, but I don't know any of them well enough to do anything.
Kid was 24 years old, parents and two sisters, no wife or kids, but there may be a girlfriend.
A group of us stuck around long enough for the accident investigation team to show up. One of the other bikes and blown it's oil filter out when we turned around to go back to the accident, so we waited to get that guy loaded into a truck, and then headed home. I rode with those guys 'til we got to the freeway and came home.
There was a lot of chatter at the scene, guys trying to figure out what went wrong, trying to suss out a cause, was he familiar with the bike, how long had he been riding, could it have been this mechanical thing or that one, were they speeding and he went wide because of that, was there debris or oil on the road?
I told them, there are thousands of things that can go wrong, and getting worked up or worrying about them doesn't change what happened, or make it make any more ok, or gonna make them feel anything other than what they are. Sometimes shit happens, and it really sucks.
We left him there by the side of the road, investigators doing what they do. There seemed to be an inclination to wait for him to get picked up, but the officers told us that it was gonna be several hours, so we got the other broken bike loaded up and took off.