ACCIDENTS
Written by Paul Tennyson
It seems that there has been a rash of accidents lately and, if you are like me, you probably think that it won’t happen to you. Maybe you should rethink that. It only takes a second of inattention or a slight miscalculation of how fast you can take a particular curve. It may be that you are going the speed limit and top a hill to find a vehicle stopped in the middle of the road or round a curve and find a lot of gravel. Many of you have heard of deer stories, close calls or collisions. At least one AGWA Rally attendee had an encounter with a deer on the way to the rally (it ran into the side of the truck and trailer) and at least one lady got her bike stopped just in time, but was so close that the deer urinated on her front tire.
I don’t consider myself an expert by any means, but I did pass the motorcycle safety course and won the two-up competition once. (I never entered again - how can you improve on that?) Oh, and I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express once. Besides, I have never had an accident, well, unless you count the time when I was a kid about 14 riding an Allstate Cruisaire (a Vespa sold by Sears) and right after a rain I was crossing a railroad track which was at about a 45 degree angle to the traffic. I jerked the front wheel over the rail but when the rear wheel hit it followed the track and took the scooter out from under me. I luckily landed sitting up and slid down the street about 10 feet on my butt. (ever since I tend to try to take RR tracks as straight across as I can) Or the time when I was riding my trail bike right after a light rain which brought the oil from the road to the surface. I went around a 90-degree turn at an intersection and the bike went out from under me at about 15 MPH. The bike was heading for the oncoming traffic with me sliding along right behind it. I could see myself sliding right under a car so I rolled over onto my stomach and was clawing at the pavement trying to swim upstream in the opposite direction from the skid. I don’t know if that helped or not but the bike and I stopped before getting run over. There was another time, right after I moved up (in 1984) from a 90cc street/trail bike to a 1200 Goldwing and took Linda out for the first time. We went to Cades Cove, which is always crowded, and half way around the loop we stopped at the bathrooms. When we came out many people were looking at the bike in admiration (as they did a lot in the old days when there weren’t so many) so we got on the bike and commenced to get underway slow and easy. I didn’t give it enough gas and just as I got going and started to lean into the turn it stalled. Down we went. Talk about embarrassing, it was, especially with a couple of hundred people watching. Right after that, though, we stopped for ice cream in Townsend and met John and Jo Hitch who got us started in Goldwing clubs and ultimately AGWA.
Well, there was the other time when we were lined up in the center of three abreast waiting for the parade to start when we were at Wing Ding in Knoxville (mid 80’s). I dropped my cap and automatically grabbed at it, which caused me to lose balance, and we went over. Linda reached out to break her fall on the bike next to us and could have sprained her wrist. Several guys ran up to help lift the bike and asked if the bike was ok but no one thought to ask about Linda. Of course, there was one other time when on a ride with several other bikes we rode up to a restaurant with a slant to the parking lot and we all pulled in side by side stretching down the hill. We were about 5 from the end. Every one parked and got off their bikes. I felt mine wasn’t leaning enough for the side stand to work so I let Linda get off so the springs could raise it some and it seemed to hold. I got off and started to walk away and the bike fell over, hitting the next one and knocking it over and so on to the end. No serious damage but embarrassing.
Another time, after I got the ’88, we went on an AGWA Memorial Day weekender to Manassas, Virginia towing our trailer. For some reason we had to make a tight u-turn and being near a rise, which went from one parking lot to another higher one, I decided to use it to help my turn, you know, like NASCAR banks around turns. I got turned 90 degrees with the bike but the trailer had hardly changed direction at all. I felt it tug on the bike sideways and we didn’t have enough speed to counteract it so we went down. Linda was bruised up a little but the foot peg mounted on the engine guard spun around on impact and knocked a hole in the valve cover. We spent a lot of the weekend trying to find a replacement valve cover and having no luck, found an aluminum welder who repaired it well enough to get us home.
The last accident I had I was just across the mountain in North Carolina checking out a route so I could lay out a ride or lead one. I was sort of rushing since the distance was pretty far. I knew what road I wanted to turn onto and was watching for the sign. It was hidden behind tree leaves so when I saw it I was at the point where the road started to widen for the entrance ramp. I braked as hard as I could without locking up and saw that I had enough room to make the turn. I got into the turn, still going faster than I would have liked, and then hit fine gravel, which collected outside where all the cars went. The bike went down so fast that I didn’t even know I was going down until I was on the pavement. Luckily, it was cool so I had on a jacket and heavy gloves. I also had my face shield down and when I hit the ground, on my side, my face shield broke and cut my face, not far from my eye. Even with the helmet on I felt the impact very well and I was lucky to have been wearing one.
Oh, and one other one. I was riding the bike to Thomas’s to load it on the trailer to tow to an AGWA function and Linda was following me in the Suburban to give me a ride back home. We stopped for a light where some shriners were selling papers. I was the third vehicle back. When the light changed the first car pulled away, the second moved up and I followed with Linda following me. Linda decided to buy a paper and reached down to the floor for her purse to get some money. The car in front of me stopped to buy a paper so I stopped. Linda hadn’t looked up yet so she plowed into me, knocking the bike out from under me. I landed on my feet but the bike had some damage. Of course she thought I deserved it because of all the times I had dumped her.
With all that has happened to me you might wonder why I would think that I had not had any accidents. To tell the truth, I felt that I hadn’t until I started writing this. I guess if there is not major damage, either to the bike or to the riders, you tend to forget about them. I suppose there have been some close calls also but I can only remember a couple. Just recently I was riding down a two-lane road not far from home when a car flashed his lights at me. Even though I was not speeding, I started looking for the cop car. I was approaching my turn to the left and still hadn’t seen the cop but a car caught my eye about a quarter mile ahead. I was trying to make out if it was the cop or not when I turned. I had the comprehension to see my turn but I never noticed the car coming toward me that I turned in front of until it just missed my by about six feet. A similar thing happened several years ago when I was focusing on where I wanted to turn into at a business (ice cream, of course). It wasn’t quite as close but it was scary. Since I didn’t see the cars, I can understand how someone driving a car can’t see a motorcycle and turn in front of it.
On to more serious stuff. The week before we left for the AGWA rally a 57-year-old man failed to negotiate a turn on his Harley and hit a small pickup head on, killing the cyclist. On Thursday, the last day of the rally, a 48-year-old man and his 14-year-old son were riding “The Dragon” on a BMW when they missed a curve and went about 30 feet down an embankment striking a tree. The son, despite several broken bones, climbed up the embankment and got help but it was too late for his father who died. About two hours later and about two miles down the same road a 62-year-old man, celebrating his birthday by riding “The Dragon” on his Buell went off the road in a curve, traveled about 100 feet down an embankment and landed against a tree. He was also killed. Just a day later, a 32-year-old man was riding his Big Dog Model 531 motorcycle on his way to work down a county road when a lady turned left in front of him into a private drive. He slid 87 feet and slammed into the car, killing him.
Closer to us, AGWA wise, though not as serious, was a couple of accidents during the rally. I didn’t get first hand information but as I understand it a biker was behind a big truck and a pickup when the pickup apparently passed the truck on the wrong side, getting into the grass, and when returning to the road in front of the truck, lost control. The big truck hit his brakes and the motorcycle following did the same, losing control and sliding into the other lane where it struck an oncoming car, knocking it back into the truck or another car, I’m not sure which. Fortunately, the rider wasn’t seriously injured but the bike was totaled. I don’t know the details but any time a vehicle stops in front of you and you can’t stop then you were following too close. He may have been dumbfounded by the actions of the idiot in the pickup and never thought to start defensive action until it was too late. He may have done everything right and there was just nothing that would work. He could have immediately slowed when he saw what was taking place ahead and covered his brakes, both hand and foot. It doesn’t matter what he did but it is something for us to think about and what we might do in that situation. I feel that if I cover my brakes there is a better chance of coming to a controlled stop rather than when, in panic, stomping and grabbing the brakes in a hurry and locking up the wheels. You have no control and very little stopping friction when the tires are sliding. I always cover my brakes when I am in traffic whether I am on the bike or in my truck.
The other accident at the rally was minor in comparison but enough to ruin the day. The rider was apparently turning when something caught her attention for a second and she went down on gravel. I understand that she wasn’t seriously hurt nor was the bike, but as I indicated before, you need your attention on your riding pretty much 100 percent of the time. I know it is difficult when there is beautiful scenery around but at least don’t look away until you can see far enough in front of you to know the conditions. Even then, conditions can change rapidly, so limit the time your attention is away for only a second or two. I find that if I am near the edge of the road and look at something, I automatically drift toward the centerline. When near the centerline, I automatically drift toward the edge of the road. That way I have a little more time to make corrections when I look ahead again. If you follow me you have probably seen me drift out of my lane of travel. That is the reason for it.
This turned out to be a little long winded, but I wanted to get across to everyone the seriousness of making a mistake while riding. It is difficult to always be alert but it is almost necessary. The results can be catastrophic. One last thought, could part of the problem be that we have an aversion to turning toward danger when we get in trouble. As I’m sure you all are aware, to go right you turn the handlebars to the left so you will lean to the right and therefore go to the right (and vice versa). If you are about to go off a cliff can you turn toward the cliff in a panic? I don’t think so. I have noticed this when trying to dodge a pothole that I didn’t see until the last second.