Feeling Guilty Because of a Bad Luck Motorcycle Crash
My passenger friend also got hurt
INTRODUCTION
It was around 20:30 on a Friday night, and a friend and I had made plans to go watch a movie together. I will be picking her up on the way. By any measure, it looked like it was going to be a normal, enjoyable evening.
MOTORCYCLE SAFETY
I was 19 and had purchased a sport-touring motorcycle after having completed a mandatory motorcycle safety course and obtained my driver’s license a few months earlier. I always wore full gear when riding, including a full-face helmet, leather jacket, long pants, and sneakers or riding boots, even during the daytime on hot summer days. And any time I picked up a passenger with my motorcycle, I always insisted that they wear long pants, some kind of jacket over their shirt that would cover their arms fully, and proper close-toe shoes as well.
ON THE WAY THERE
The sky was clear, the outside temperature a little chilly, and the roads were free of traffic jams but still fairly busy. We’d be crossing a bridge to the neighboring city via a two-lane expressway as we headed to the shopping mall where the movie theater is located.
The expressway and bridge were lined up with light poles, and the road itself was in excellent condition, as usual. There was no way to predict that a few minutes later we would be crashing with the bike.
HOW THE ACCIDENT CAME ABOUT
Traffic was moving at about 60–70Kph, I had just moved into the left lane to pass a car and to get ready for turning left further down the road, after a couple of traffic lights. There was a bend coming up at the end of the bridge, transitioning into the main road we needed to drive on.
For some reason, a section of the road that was mostly dark came immediately after the turn. I slowed down to about 35–40 Kph, although I wasn’t expecting any problems because I’d driven down this road often, usually during the daytime but also occasionally in the evening. We were coming down the left lane, with cars following some distance behind and cars in the right lane next to us as well.
As we came out of the dark area I spotted a construction sign on the left side of the road and noticed a car slowing down significantly upfront in the right lane, and then dropping a little. I started breaking, only to realize that I was about to be driving on a section of the road where the asphalt had been completely removed and there was nothing but gravel, in the form of crushed stones, along with a small drop in height where the road sections transitioned!
So, in the second that it took to run through the above mini-analysis, I chose to simply let go of the gas completely and focus on trying to keep the bike as stable as possible while hoping that we would either make it through that portion safely or, else, come to a safe stop in the middle of it somewhere. For perspective, although it’s hard for me to recall exactly how long this unsafe section of the road was, I can estimate fairly confidently that it must have been at least 10 meters long, but probably longer than that.
THE CRASH
I may have instinctively told my friend to “hold on!”, I’m not sure, but either way it would not have mattered. After having covered a distance of perhaps 3 or 4 meters, my back tire just went sideways and we ended up laying flat and sideways in the middle of the road, with some cars coming to a stop not too far behind us.
IMMEDIATELY AFTER
I was both pissed off (swearing under my breath) and concerned about my friend. I checked on her and helped her walk to the side of the road, in front of some restaurant or other shop. She was crying. I think that she had scraped knees and perhaps also a scrapped hand as she probably tried to cushion her fall with it but fortunately did not break anything. Still, I felt very guilty and couldn’t apologize to her enough.
I walked back to the motorcycle and somehow picked it up (I can’t remember if anyone helped with that) in order to move it off the road and to the side to not block the traffic. This bike model happened to have some protruding round, covered sort of “crash bars” preventing the driver’s legs from getting crushed in case of a side-way fall, too. Not every car was considerate enough to stop and wait for this to happen. Some of them were driving around the bike.
Back on the sidewalk, next to my friend I now had the time to check if I was injured. Now that the adrenaline rush was gone, I could feel the burning sensation on one of my arms, and perhaps a knee, too. I took off my leather jacket and peeled off the sleeve from the wound. There were a few little rocks inside, but it was mainly superficial. Same for my friend’s wounds. I don't think that it left a scar either…
CONCLUSION — LUCKY BUT UNLUCKY
Clearly, we were lucky to walk away with only minor wounds that would heal in a matter of weeks. Psychologically, however, this affected my friend a little more than me in the sense that it, unsurprisingly, made her gun-shy about riding on motorcycles.
But for me, as the driver who saw this completely unexpected scenario manifest in front of my eyes in a matter of seconds, I simply chalked it up to bad luck. And I honestly don’t know that there’s anything I could have done to prevent this from happening. It’s part of the risks you take when you choose to ride a motorcycle on the road. Just like someone driving off-road bikes, or mountain biking down aggressive hills and mountainsides surely does so while knowing, somewhere in the back of their mind, that something unfortunate could happen.
Q, Do you ride motorcycles? Have you ever crashed on one? Feel free to share down below. I’d be interested in hearing what happened and to what extent you were able to control the outcome.
All the best,
Pascal
PS: Let me know if you’d like to read more from me on this topic, or perhaps another topic related to the content I’ve addressed here. You can also read about the time I had to crash my bike on purpose or read more about me here.
