From: rmt@pioneer.uucp (Richard Tweedie)
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles
Subject: Re: Helmet Law Editorial
Keywords: Longish but well worth reading.
Date: 2 Sep 92 20:09:50 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: Network Equipment Technologies

Just a couple of personal data points--My 19 year old son had an
accident 7 weeks ago.  He and 4 other bikes (all with headlights
and most with yoshimura [LOUD] pipes) were on a 4 lane road.
A driver slowed down at a little "T" intersection, like he
was going to stop.  At the last second he *ran the stop sign*
right in front of the group.  There was no time for evasive 
action, and the front two hit at about 40-50 mph. One of them
just hit the rear bumper--knocked off the bike onto his head.
Result--broken femur, one week hospital stay and road rash.
He probably would have been killed without the helmet.

Bruce was not so fortunate--he hit the car broadside just behind
the drivers door.  Total massive injuries everywhere, literally
from head to foot.  Any of us could have had the same accident,
even with loud pipes, headlights on, etc.  Result for Bruce--
Broken femur, skull fracture, face totally destroyed, broken
left wrist, arm and elbow.  Also broken ribs, punctured lung
and heart sac, massive internal injuries and bleeding
(it took 4 1/2 hours just to sew up all the bleeding parts).
Three fractured back vertebra, left arm punched right out of
the back of the shoulder joint, etc, etc.  Originally the
doctors though he was dead, could not find a heartbeat oor
pulse, then a nurse noticed his foot move.  When I first 
saw him 6 hours after the accident, I could only recognize
him by his left leg (also mangled).  The first facial 
reconstruction took 4 surgeons 10 1/2 hours.  The second
(at Stanford) was an additional 4 hours.  There have been 
four major operations so far.  The pain has been indescribeable,
*BUT* he is getting better at a truly miraculous rate.

There will be permanent damage--he will never be able to smell
again--but things seem to be coming together.  Although the
neuro-psychaitrist stated that anyone in a coma for as long
as he was has to have brain damage, they cannot find any!
He does complain sometimes of the 1/2' x 14" steel rod in his
leg and aches and pains all over, but is glad to be alive. If
you think I am over emphasizing this, call me and I will tell
you the really gory and unpleasant parts.

By the way--The hospital bills we have received so far are
closing on $200,000 fast, do not have the surgeons yet, and the
drivers insurance was only for $100,000.

Another young friend of mine died two years ago in a similar
accident but at only a few mph (he was almost stopped).  Not
a mark on the body except for a laceration on the head--died
after 3 days in the hospital.  The doctors said that with a
helmet, he would not even have had a *HEADACHE*.  When I first
started riding (33 YEARS AGO) my neighbor across the street
had a triumph 650.  One day, he came out of the driveway and
hit a slippery spot with water running down the curb, dropped
the bike right there and hit his head on the curb.  He was
21 years old when he arrived dead at the hospital.

Makes you think about helmets.

Rich Tweedie
FJ-1100

(have not got through the e-mail Jodie)e