Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles

    SOME THOUGHTS ON HELMETS, BIKES, AND EMERGENCY EQUIPMENT

(This is being cross-posted to rec.autos.driving because it contains
 some relevence on emergency equipment I will carry in my cars as
 a result of this experience.)

THE STORY (Very condensed.)

I was returning from a week long vacation in Sun Valley Idaho on Saturday.
We had been on the road for 13 hrs and were in the stretch of 2-lane
55 mph highway between Laramie, Wy. and Ft. Collins, Colo (home).
(Also on the Great Roads List.)

Just south of the Wyo.-Colo. border, we came upon an accident. It was
9:30PM, dark, woods on both sides. A motorcyclist was lying in the road,
her bike was on its side about 20 feet away and about 40 yards down the
road a deer was lying dead on the road shoulder.

We were about the 5th vehicle on-scene. 

The unhelmeted motorcyclist had been riding along and had hit and killed
a (big) deer. She had head, neck and probably spinal injuries. 
Her boyfriend and son had been on an accompanying bike. As we arrived, the
boyfriend had zipped off to find a phone and call for help. The earlier
arrivals were busy controlling the scene and protecting the victim from 
cars running into the scene.

My wife and I stayed for about 1 hour and assisted by relaying info from
an EMT who attended the victim to the Colo. State Patrol by way of 
my ham radio. Based upon that info, a rescue helicopter was dispatched.
We cleared the scene just before the big white light landed alongside the
road.

SOME THOUGHTS ON EMERGENCY EQUIPMENT

1. There were a few flashlights among the helpers. But a wiggling white
   light isn't enough to warn or direct traffic on a dark country road.
2. Nobody, including me, had flares or reflective triangles to put in the
   road to warn oncoming traffic.
3. The people waving the flashlights to direct traffic were practically
   invisible. 
4. The ham radio contact may have saved her life. It worked relatively
   well. A cell phone would do as well though. (CB would have been useless.
   We'd been trying Ch 9 for 50 miles coincidentally to report sheep in the
   Interstate to anyone. No result.)

WHAT I AM DOING AS A RESULT OF THE ABOVE

1. All cars get a new flashlight dedicated for emergency use.
   Batteries to be changed when plates are renewed.
2. All cars get road flares (the one we were driving didn't have any)
3. Wife will sew some sort of sash or belt with reflective material to
   be worn by traffic diretors. (Neither the Wyo. or Colo. troopers put these
   on if they had them. They were just wiggling white lights too.)
4. Ham radio will continue to go along for the ride with a better antenna
   to allow the radio to be taken out of the car without loss of signal.
   (I had a magnetic mount antenna on the car.)

SOME THOUGHTS ON HELMETS

The "cost to society" argument for helmets tends to be rather easily dismissed.
I attribute this to the impersonal nature of the argument. 

On a different scale, this lady's choice to (a) not wear a helmet and (b) to
ride at dusk/dark in deer territory, severely traumatized about 12 people who
came to her aid. These individual strangers contributed time, material and
emotional energy on her behalf, all because they felt it to be right. 
(and that the law requires rendering assistance.......)

I think that she made a thoughtless choice that imposed unnecessarily upon
the kindness of strangers. Frankly, MY first reaction was not of compassion
but was of rage. HOW COULD SHE BE SO ALMIGHTY STUPID TO BE RIDING WITHOUT
A HELMET!!!!! She is free to choose to ride helmetless but I, nor any of
the helpers was free to let her die unattended.  Two of the helpful 
strangers remarked that this was the second motorcycle accident that they
had been first on-scene with in 2 weeks. (The other was a squid-boy that
ran off the road when travelling the Masonville Rd. in a pack.) 

When you reject the "cost to society" argument, please remember that you
are also spitting in the face of suddenly involved strangers who will be 
inconvenienced by your decision. They cannot spit back at you as you lie 
unconscious and bleeding on (or off) the road.

The hospital was pretty protective about even telling whether the victim
was alive or not. With pressure, they came across that she was in
"serious but stable condition."  Don't know her name, don't know her
family, may not ever find out the extent of her injuries.

FOOTNOTE

This tends to reinforce my personal policy of avoiding riding at dusk or
in the dark and of wearing lots of protective gear. If I get a helicopter
ride, I want to look out of the windows.

Ride Safe,
Ron Miller
1988 R100GS