La Bene Vita

On Motorcycles

I'm obsessing...

First, motorcycles are dangerous.

Keith and I were on his Harley, and our brother-in-law Scott was behind us on his. We were headed down a back road approaching town when we came upon a backlog of traffic, with half a dozen cars skewed at weird angles. Keith saw the problem before I did: two crotch-rocket motorcycles on their sides in the middle of the road, missing large chunks of body, with a trail of debris behind them, and no riders.

After a minute, my eyes found one of the riders, quite a ways away from the bikes, on his back in the middle of the road, with maybe two or three people leaning over him. I got off the bike called 911, but I wasn't the first caller. They already knew and were on the way.

Then I ran over to the man in the road, and as I approached, my eyes found the other rider: off the side of the road, in the grass, with a small crowd leaning over him, as well. I never got to see the other driver close up because I stayed with the guy in the road until the ambulance arrived. If you've never been in that situation, the ambulance takes FOREVER.

His buddy knelt behind his head, talking to him, and his girlfriend paced, texting and wiping tears from her eyes. I held the victim's hand and talked to him. For a minute, I held the girlfriend's hand, too. The scene was pretty bloody, but not as bad as it could have been, considering. His face was beat up, his lips and eyes swelling up as I watched, and he had a giant cut - a hole, almost - above his right eye, which, along with the hole in the back of his head that I learned about later, probably contributed to the puddle of blood at my feet, about a foot away from his head.

Two women who had been eating at the McDonald's a couple hundred yards away were off-duty EMT's and responded to the scene before the ambulance did. One gave instructions to the buddy, who told her the victim's name was Eric. She told the buddy to hold his head still by placing his hands over his ears. The buddy took off his shirt and the EMT helped ball it up like a pillow under the victim's head. Eric was squirming and asking the same questions over and over: Where am I? What happened? How did it happen. The buddy gave the same answers: On route 40. You and Travis crashed. I don't know; I think you hit each other. Occasionally, Eric called out for his buddy and his girlfriend, and they reassured him that they were right there.

The EMT asked Eric how old he was. He thought about it a moment then said, I had a birthday. I was born in '89. She asked if he knew who was president, and he didn't. He couldn't remember his birthday. He started complaining that his face hurt, and his buddy, the EMT, another woman, and I kept telling him he had a fat lip and a "little" cut over his eye, but reassured him that it was fine, not a big cut. (Bald-face lies.)

The ambulance eventually did arrive, and they got both men on stretchers. I asked the other EMT how the other guy was, and she shook her head with a grave look and said, "He has an open skull fracture." Since they were loading up the ambulances, I got out of the way, talked to the police, etc. The police spray-painted the locations of the debris and victims and dumped sand over puddles of blood and spilled oil and fuel. A helicopter arrived, and they loaded up Eric, but not the other guy, and that worried me - a LOT. As the emergency vehicles started driving away, Keith, Scott and I got back on the bikes and headed off.

I'd heard Eric's last name, and I was able to find him on social media. Eric's sister and I share a mutual friend (things like that surprise me less and less), so I texted the mutual friend and asked her to message the sister and make sure the family knew they were on the way to the hospital. She did already know but said she appreciated the message.

One of Eric's brothers posted on social media last night, which is how I found out about the cut on the back of his head:

"Update on Eric:

Hes doing as well as we can ask considering the situation. Major cut above his right eye and cut on the back of his head. Both required staples. Minor fracture of his right eye socket that needed no medical attention. Broken left wrist and in alot of pain throughout his body (dr informed us there was nothing else wrong, just roughed up). Continued positive thoughts for a speedy recovery. "

After feeling gratitude that he sounded like he was going to be okay, my next thought was to think, oh, no, I was holding his hand, and he had a broken wrist! Then I remembered it was the right hand, not the left, and felt better.

But I'm still creeping on this family, because I can't figure out who the other victim was or if he's okay, and it has me worried sick. No news outlets responded to the scene, and so far, Google searches have produced nothing. The brother's post about Eric's condition is the only thing I've seen about the accident online, except for Eric's mom posting to ask if anyone would take her work shift today (the commenters all clearly knew why), and I wouldn't have found either of those things if I hadn't known his last name and been able to identify his photo.

Keith was obsessing over it last night, too. He doesn't wear a helmet because he doesn't want to, and I don't because the one we got for me is too tight and gives me a headache, and we haven't gotten out to buy me a new one. But beyond saying we're going to wear helmets from now on, Keith was even talking last night about getting rid of the motorcycle... that he just bought this spring. Don't get me wrong; we ride at slow speeds, on back roads, with caution and close attention to our surroundings, whereas these two kids were riding crotch rockets and, judging by the length of the debris trail, were going way too fast. Still, the whole thing scared the shit out of both of us. These guys had literal holes in their heads.

I just wish I could find some news on the other guy. I lost sleep over it.

Motorcycles are dangerous.