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Emergency (resolved Thanks Again)


il Duce

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I just talked to MY State Farm agent. Both Allen and the truck are State Farm. MY State farm agent said that if the truck drivers name is on the police report (it will be) then he is involved, and Allen's insurance will involve the other policy. FYI.

He is sore, but fine this morning. Power Ranger outfits work.

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Good info to know. I'll stick that away with the info that I hope I never need to know.

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I bet the driver of the truck stated he never saw you, always the excuse. Glad to here you are OK. What type / brand of gear were you wearing and do you have pictures of the jacket / mesh pants? I wear JR mesh jacket and pants. Maybe I should upgrade.

Steve Lewis

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Hey. It's me, Duke. I am home. I haven't heard from Allen (ArkansasAllen on VFRD) yet. He is in a truck with his dad, and the bike is on a trailer. I rode home... in the DARK! Hate that. I am so thankful for the help and the calls. What a good family we have here.

So I am sure you are dying to know what happened.

Allen and I drove across the state yesterday, went to a crawfishboil/party in Rogers, AR, then rode back to Little Rock today. We christened this particular route "The Journey," and henceforth all other rides will be compared to "The Journey." It was possibly the bestest ride I have ever been on, covereing every type of road Arkansas has to offer. We tore up Ponca, Mt. Judea, Highway 16, and more. Beautiful day... I finaly got the machine layed completely over where the back end kind of changes feel and starts to do a little controled slide. That was wild! No more chicken strips now!

Anyhow, we make it through all of the technical and challenging stuff, and we are about an 40 minutes from home, cruising along at around 50mph through Greenbriar, AR going south on Hwy 65. Straight. Boring. Staggered formation, me in the front. I pass this big duel-ie Chevy truck towing a big trailer full of lawn equipment; we are in the right lane, truck in the left. After I pass, the truck decides that he wants to turn right into a neighborhood. Well, Allen is about where the trailer hitch is. No where to go. The truck runs him off the road. There was a big cement curb there, so the front wheel went full lock to the right. Allen goes over the bars to the left and lands on his face and shoulder, the bike flips behind him, and pushes him down the road until friction does its work on inertia.

Get this. I am completely unaware. I look in my mirrors to check on my friend, and he is just not there. I panic, turn around and start hauling ass north. About a mile down the road I see him and the truck and some other cars on the side of the road. I was like What the f? After all of that twisty riding, how on Earth could you wreck here?

Allen is fine. Walking around evaluating the carnage, picking up the pieces. Where his face would have hit the pavement there is a huge worn down destruction of a helmet. Left side of his leather jacket all scuffed up, but it held up. Textile pants are pretty torn up so he has some small brushburns on the tops of his knees, but they are small, and almost like rug burn. Nothing.

PEOPLE. Gear works. Always wear it. Could you imagine how f*cked up he would be without any one piece of that gear? Unbelievable. 80% of the riders in Arkansas wear nothing. That's so cool; I'll bet those folks would feel really cool bleeding on the side of the road. We were not horsing around or sportbiking it up. We were just driving in traffic, just like all those cruiser harley guys do. Sh!t can happen out of nowhere! And concrete will MESS YOU UP, BAD. I am here to testify! I have seen it on this day. Gear works. Oh, and I am getting rid of my mesh summer jacket. All that the mesh does is give you a false sense of security It will fail; it did fail. Leather is the only way to go. I can't belive I have been using textile mesh. It's BS.

He tells me the above wreck story when we were waiting for a ride, but it took awhile for him to piece it all together, shock and all that. Oh, and his shoulder was starting to hurt a bit. ...probably from the impact.

NOW GET THIS:

The truck admits his guilt to the cops. Apologizes to both of us. Allen is walking around in shock. I am too. Almost lost a friend. Then everybody leaves. No citation. No responsibility to the truck. The cops said no collision occured so it was just an "accident." WTF? If the truck would have run him over, then it would be the truck's fault, but since Allen got out of the way, he is responsible for the damage! (any lawyers in here) Hello? I am pretty pissed. Oh, and I'm sure his wife is going to love the idea of him riding a motorcycle again :blink: :blink:

He just called. He's home. I'm home. Once perfect 2003 Silver Interceptor WITH honda factory luggage is in the garage on a trailer, and it's cosmetically TOAST. Son of a buck! ...and we missed the Sopranos. Crap.

We are alive! ALIVE I SAY! Sometimes it's good to be reminded.

Any advice?

Thanks Again,

Duke

P.S. We wired the kickstand switch together. It still wouldn't run while in gear. We tested it both with a closed and open circuit. No dice.

Duke Glad to hear all is well that is a @#$% situation. Unfortunatly I had a similar situation happen to me several years ago. I actually had to got to the hospitol and the driver was not cited, but I was able to sue him for 10K however because I didn't break any bones that was the cap whick barley cover the medical bills. Of course this all happened in arizona and AR might have different laws. The point of this is that you might have recourse with this guy, and with the company he works for. If it was a commerical truck they have some liability. A lawyer will probably need to be retained, but all is not lost. Having said all of that, I am not a lawyer and this advice is based of expirence only. I own my own business in MI and I know if one of my trucks did that to a motorcyclist I would have some liabilty. Hopefully, yaht helps a little.

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I bet the driver of the truck stated he never saw you, always the excuse. Glad to here you are OK. What type / brand of gear were you wearing and do you have pictures of the jacket / mesh pants? I wear JR mesh jacket and pants. Maybe I should upgrade.

Steve Lewis

I have JR mesh jacket and pants. I recently decided to quit wearing them because I know they won't protect anything. Barely better than jeans.

Not having a ticket may not matter. I was in an accident a few years ago (my fault), and could have easily been written a ticket but wasn't. The accident was pretty bad, with significant damage to both cars. The ticket had nothing to do with it since it was obviously my fault, I claimed fault, and I hope the guy got every penny from my insurance company that he could for his injuries.

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What are the laws there on passing on the right? Just wondering. If his statement to the police was that he was passing on the right, and that is unlawful there, he may be limited in his claim against the truck. Again, just a thought.

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I don't have much to add to the legal discussion, but I'd like to chime in on the mesh gear. I've been down twice in varying amounts of mesh gear. No rash, and no injury other than what I'd expect from leather in any case. Went down around 35-40mph in mesh jacket and pants. Low side. No "burn through". Went down around 50-55mph (low side that turned to head-over-heals asphalt surfing) in mesh pants with leather jacket. The pants wore through on my backside where my wallet sticks out a bit. Got through the outer shell but didn't make it through the inner liner (which is less substantial than T-shirt material by the looks of it).

Yes, the leather will protect better, but the mesh isn't horrible. Interestingly, almost everyone I know who wears mesh rethinks it (and opts for leather) after seeing a slide, or sliding themselves. Unfortunately, I also know folks who figure the mesh isn't any better than jeans and a stylish vest, so why bother. Something is better than nothing...

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I don't have much to add to the legal discussion, but I'd like to chime in on the mesh gear. I've been down twice in varying amounts of mesh gear. No rash, and no injury other than what I'd expect from leather in any case. Went down around 35-40mph in mesh jacket and pants. Low side. No "burn through". Went down around 50-55mph (low side that turned to head-over-heals asphalt surfing) in mesh pants with leather jacket. The pants wore through on my backside where my wallet sticks out a bit. Got through the outer shell but didn't make it through the inner liner (which is less substantial than T-shirt material by the looks of it).

Yes, the leather will protect better, but the mesh isn't horrible. Interestingly, almost everyone I know who wears mesh rethinks it (and opts for leather) after seeing a slide, or sliding themselves. Unfortunately, I also know folks who figure the mesh isn't any better than jeans and a stylish vest, so why bother. Something is better than nothing...

I will have to 100% agree with you there. Allen's mesh pants did indeed wear through the outer mesh, but the super thin inner mesh did not tear. I think the mesh holds the armor in place, and the armor is strategically placed to prevent major grindage. But the outer mesh just got shredded. The leather did not. I have one of those Honda/Joe Rocket mesh jackets, and in the Summer I take out the insulated liner. There is nothing after the mesh layer; that's why I was thinking about switching to leather. I don't think one layer of mesh with some armor is going to do too much, but yeah, way better than a t-shirt.

The helmet (duh!) is what really freaked me out.

Looking at where his face would have been sliding across the concrete. That makes me wince. I can't believe ANYONE would ride without a full face helmet. A half helmet, or even a "touring" type helmet would do little to protect your beautiful visage from... ...from some terrible fate.

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Glad he's OK!!!! Just saw this, YIKES!! sad.gif I'm so sorry about the bike - but also glad to be talking about the bike. smile.gif

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