Hypothetical Crash

B

i always have.
then found myself right in front of oncoming traffic.

once adrenalin kicks in, all i seem to wanna do is get my bike back up and get on it again.

strange aint it.

On both occasions I did B.

My initial memory of the first off was standing in front of the bike attempting to lift it when my knee and wrist told me to stop again.

The second one, a cage driver picked up the bike so I could wheel it to safety and check it over. Didn't realise my wrist was fecked again and I nearly dropped it.

My only crashes were one's where I could not get up, although apparently I tried to.

I think if it were a low speed off then I would probably try to get up slow to see if there was any pain. A guy at our gym had an off a few years back, he'd hit a kerb and broken some ribs bt still got and walked over to his bike, that's when one of the ribs went straight through his heart and he then died instantly. Poor chap. Makes you wonder eh.

First thought was to get out of the road before someone ran over me. I went to get up but I couldn't move my left leg - I thought it was broken. So I rolled onto the kerb and realised that it wasn't pretty.

Mine was A, I stood up carefully thinking, I must have broken an ankle with hitting that bollard - bloody hell, I'm fine!

Followed by, oh no what's my direct access instructor going to say when he see's the state of his bike!

I would get off the road first.

[timwilky]

My one and only experience says, if you can stay down. I was fortunate to have a copper along side and about 30 other witnesses. As I led in the road thinking what did I do wrong. and some old fart shouting sorry. I thought about my bike.

The copper ran the light in front, swang into my lane, reversed between me and the traffic island to park his car to protect me. Only when I was sure I wanted to try to move did he let me. He wouldn't let me shift my bike and having sketched its position did he move it himself and open the road.

He then stayed with me until my recovery arrived. Gave me a list of witnesses names and addresses, brethalised the old fart and cautioned him for due car and attention advising him that there were possible other charges.

He then apolgised and gave me a producer saying it was policy for all parties in an RTA. Nice thing was he disposed of my "illegal" can before the bike was trailered away.

What Lynw said.

B would be tempting but definately not advisable!

I once knew someone who got back on a horse after falling off because they felt fine - 2 hours later was paralysed permanently - they had broken their back without knowing it and it severed the spinal column as they carried on riding .

It's common instinct to get up straight away and check if the bike is OK. Some times crashes happen so quickly that the mind does not have time to react and let you know what is happening. Therefore you do not realise that you have damaged part of your body.

A few examples.

I came off my YZF attempting to take a bend too fast. I never made the corner and was flipped over the side of the bike. I flew threw the air and landed directly on top of my head on a grass embankment. I managed to compress all my neck muscles and squashed a disc in my lower back. As soon as I got up, I went running over to the bike checked it over, and rode it home. It was not until I got off the bike once home that I hurt like hell.

Another one, a car pulled out of a side road directly into my path, I hit is near side rear end and got thrown into the kerb. Again I got straight up and ran towards my bike, tried to pick it up. It was only then that I realised my shoulder would not work. I had completely smashed the collarbone on the kerb. Didn't feel a thing until I tried to pick the bike up.

Last one was a bit different. Sliding into the armco at around 80mph. I got stuck between my bike and under the barrier so couldn't get up even if I wanted to. But at the time I just thought the reason that I was having difficulty in breathing was because I was stuck. I thought at the time that as soon as someone got me out, I would be fine, be able to get up, have a fag and assess the damage to the bike.

It was only once the barrier was lifted that it became quite evident that this was not the case. Broken pelvis, 11 broken ribs, punctured lung, collapsed lung and some good internal injuries to boot.

I don't think there are many people that would actually stay down and assess all possible injuries before attempting to move. Like I said, accidents tend to happen fast. The brain does not react quickly enough. On top of that there could be the rush of adrenaline to disguise any possible injuries.

Normal first thoughts are for the bike and what damage has been done. It's normally when going to check the bike that the pain starts to develop, and even then not always.

My dad used to do grass track racing, he had an accident where he smashed his ankle to bits. He got up after the accident and walked off the track. It was only after he was off the track that he couldn't understand why he was walking funny. He looked down and saw the angle of his foot and went down like a sack of the proverbial.

Yes, it's common knowledge that bikers after an accident will think they are fine when they are not. This is why, should you ever be witness to a bike accident, regardless of what the fallen rider may say, try to make them stay still, at least for 5 minutes. Until the adrenaline wears off and the brain has time to catch up and let the person know if they are really injured or not.