I just saw a dead guy.

[Ripley]

I feel really sick. I was driving to the store to get some food for lunch and I saw lots of cops and a fire truck up ahead. When I got to the scene, I saw a white SUV with scrapes on its side and a Harley lying on the road. Then I saw not 10 feet from my car a biker covered with a white blanket except for his boots sticking out. Since the cops and medics stood away from him and his face was covered I'm sure he had just died.

It's a perfectly blue sky today, no clouds and I am supposed to go on a motorcycle ride this afternoon. But I'm shaken up and feel like throwing up.

Dammit!! :cry:

[mattclearing]

1. Sorry to hear it.

That is the main reason I will never hop on a motorcycle.

[Warpy]

17. I'm an old broad who can no longer bicycle

so I bought an electric moped a few years ago. It's slow enough that I won't kill myself on it (although I can accumulate road rash) and I don't ride it on highways or even the big boulevards.

I live in a city, so I use the moped for all short trips that don't require hauling a lot of stuff. I use it wherever and whenever I used to use a bicycle when my body still worked.

Yes, seeing somebody die suddenly like that is terrible. However, consider that it probably wasn't a bad way to go, astonishingly quick.

So take that ride later today. Enjoy it.

[hippiepunk]

2. That sucks

I hope you get over it

[Clark2008]

3. Awww Ripley

:hug:

I covered police for 10 years as a reporter. I saw the scene you described thousands of times, but, admittedly, the first time you see something like that, it shakes you to the core.

You'll survive. Just chalk it up to another experience in the frailty of life.

[Ripley]

6. Oh, I've seen wrecks before.

It just bothers me because I'm going on my first ride of the season.

I've been riding for years and never felt afraid. Damn, it shouldn't happen in such perfect visibility conditions. I think people do way too much shit in their cars (eating, phone calls, etc.) and they don't look closely enough to see bikes.

All I thought was...that guy is just like me. He woke up saw the gorgeous day and said "I'm going out for a spin!" Now he's dead.

[Robin Hood]

4. sell the bike.

Brain injuries and road rash death suck.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. I knew a kid who died of road rash

wiped out his new bike on an off ramp and slid down the road a ways. He lived for days in pretty horrid pain and then died. Truly sucked. Cured me of any desire to get a bike.

[Lars39]

26. One of my first patients was a former biker.

He had a contagious "road rash" that happened 12 yrs earlier.
I forget how many surgeries he'd had, but he was almost to the point of having his leg amputated.

[ReadTomPaine]

5. Get on the horse.

Even for just a little while, once your nausea clears. Take a favorite, easy route and remind yourself why you ride.

It will help.

RTP

[Ripley]

9. Well I'm going.

And I must admit I am the rider, not the driver. My guy has a Honda VF 1100 (1987). We did decide on another route...one further in the country away from Sunday fricking drivers....

[ReadTomPaine]

12. The ultimate superbike alternative...

http://www.arielmotor.co.uk/

Safer, faster and road legal. Unbelievable.







RTP

[madrchsod]

28. i want one to drive back

and forth to work..they look really cool

[Cannikin]

7. I just saw a dead guy on the front page of MSNBC.

[BigBearJohn]

10. I know what you're going thru. I saw a motorcylist with his head smashed

After seeing that, I sold my motorcycle.
It ain't worth it IMHO. Car drivers simply
do not see motorcyclists. Several of my
friends have lost use of their hands due
to a motorcycle accident. So, as much
as I enjoyed riding, there are other things
I enjoy more ... like living for one.

If I lived out in the country, I might take
it up again. But not until then. It's
crazy to ride in the city. Too many idiot drivers.

[datasuspect]

31. true that about not seeing bikers

man, even in broad daylight, clear conditions, and awesome visibility, it is still hard to see a motorcycle.

[DistressedAmerican]

11. Had A Similar Experience Last year in Mexico.

My experience was with an old newspaper vendor that had just been hit by a bus. Just happened. No cops, no sheet. It really disturbed me at the time.

After some thinking about it. I figure getting hit by a bys while elderly sure beats cancer. Not to make light just telling you that I got a little perspective out of the event.

It should also make us think about our soldiers who are over in Iraq seeing ghastly things that will be seared into their brains for life. Sorry to all of you.

[ClintonTyree]

13. Do you live in a "no helmet" state?

Anyone who rides one of things without a helmet is an idiot.

If you want to see a dead guy, just turn on any one of the MSM "News" channels. It's 24/7 dead guy.

[AlCzervik]

14. I hate to say "I know how you feel" because it sounds so cliché but

about a year and half ago i happend to witness a terrible car accident. i saw the driver coming in my rear view mirror and promptly changed lanes, about a mile later i saw the car hit the median and get launched vertically into the air and then watched it come down nose first and crumple. I pulled over and called 911 and they asked me to stay with or near the vehicle but not to touch anybody that might be inside, i of course looked inside to see if i could get them out. To this day i will never forget what i saw when i looked into what was once the passanger side of the car, i saw what was left of a human being, a 17 year old girl in her senior year high school. I puked while i was being interviewed by the police, after that i went home and puked some more and thought about it a lot over the next few weeks. I drive down that same patch of road although to be honest i try to take an alternate route if i can but whenever i'm there it comes back.

[GarySeven]

15. Dead folks don't always come boxed and wearing a suit

as a police reporter during the 80s I saw all kinds of things that would likely sicken you, like a person torn into three separate parts when his car collided with a telephone pole at 85 mph, or a person instantly skeletonized when he was engulfed in a fireball.

You're not a very good representative of our "culture of death" if a little thing like boots sticking out from under a sheet tosses your cookies.

[Ripley]

18. First of all I didn't throw up.

How nice of you to chastise me for being upset. Most people are not reporters or EMT's or soldiers who are "hardened" at seeing ravaged dead bodies.

As I stated a few times above...I was shaken because I'm going on my first ride today and it hit home.

But hey don't listen to why my nerves are rattled, just tell me some really bad stories. I could tell you a few too, but frankly it's too nice a day to hang around DU with people like you here.

[GarySeven]

20. Here, try this link ...

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=satire

While you're enjoying the sunshine, try not to get stung by a bee and go into anaphylactic shock. Now THAT's gruesome.

[givemebackmycountry]

16. What really sucks is that...

He probably was just tooling along at a safe speed, minding his own business.

Most, not all but most, Harley drivers are pretty responsible, and cruise at a respectable safe speed.

The ones that really get my attention, are those idiots on those crotch rockets, bent over the handlebars screaming down the Interstate at 95mph plus.

I've seen idiots driving down a main thoroughfare, at 60 or 70 mph, with the damn front wheel up in the air.

Sorry, you had to see that.

[humanriteswritlarge]

19. My son is a H-D tech

He has had two close calls when he was test-riding a bike after he repaired it. Both times, a driver turned left in front of him. He had to lay the bike down the first time and was able to escape with only a badly sprained ankle. The second time he swerved into a driveway to save his life. Damn, I hate motorcyles, but I hate inattentive drivers even more. The thing is, there is a visual acuity issue in lots of these accidents---drivers look at the motorcyclists, but they appear to be one-dimensional, so they don't actually SEE them. My son changed his route from the one the dealership devised. It was just too risky. I worry about him all the time, though. BUT he loves his job. What can I say??

[datasuspect]

33. i don't know if it is lack of attention

most of the time . . .

the "configuration" of a bike (especially when it is leading traffic, say when you're right turning onto a highway) makes it virtually impossible to spot until the last moment.

BIKERS - DRIVE WITH YOUR LIGHTS ON!!!!

[Zhade]

21. My first (and only) brush with murder...

...came a few weeks after I moved to Hollywood.

A girl got stabbed out back of the apartment complex (drug thing gone sour). I woke up to cops knocking on one of the apartment's doors a couple down from where I was sleeping, saying "there's been a murder" and carting the guy away, never to be seen again.

Roomie saw the uncovered body on his way to his car to go to work. He came back and threw up.

I still have the words I wrote as it was going down on my computer somewhere. Freaky. Never told my parents, they worry too much as it is!

Sorry for the bummer, my friend.

[corker]

22. rode bikes for years

Too many near misses to count, sometimes it's as if you are invisible. I had a few of my friends checkout early on bikes. It is too bad cause gas mileage is very good and they are a hell of allot of fun to ride. Now I just ride a bicycle for fun. I must be getting old.

[datasuspect]

34. gas mileage and fun on the one hand

and virtual invisibility in a world where new cars are like encapsulated living rooms with awesome noise dampening (and which handle as well at 120 as they do at 65).

hmmm . . . not much of a choice there.

[PittLib]

23. Two people I mention frequently here ...

were both injured in motorcycle accidents. One is my fundy friend ... who became "born again" after an accident left him seriously disabled 13 years ago. The other is my step brother, who is a quad after sliding his bike on some gravel. I've been around bikes most of my life, both street and dirt bikes ... but I have serious concerns, particularly when it comes the lack of respect from other drivers. I'm sorry you had to witness this.

[Renew Deal]

24. There's an old saying about bikers.

There are two kinds of bikers. Those that have crashed and those that will crash.

[Catherine Vincent]

25. I saw "the sheet over dead person" too a while back.

I was driving on the freeway where a couple of lanes were blocked. It shook me up too. And once I was on the bus lane and the south bound freeway was backed up because of an accident and when we came to it, a car was smashed between two 18 wheelers. After seeing that car, I almost cried.:-(

[WatchWhatISay]

27. Is age an issue?

I ask because there seems to be a rash of 40 and 50-ish men being killed in motorcycle accidents around here lately. Several of them had just purchased their bikes (this is a pretty "upscale" area and a Harley and BMW motorcycle dealerships have recently opened).

I was wondering if it is a matter of these things taking more strength and coordination that some of these guys are willing to admit they no longer have - sort of a middle aged crazy thing. I asked my 16 year old daughter if there were lots of kids she knew that ride them, since I don't recall seeing many. To my surprise, she said no, and she thinks of motorcycles as something old ex-hippies do, that yound kids don't think they are cool at all.

[RaleighNCDUer]

29. It might pay to remember that motercycles are only as safe as

the idiots driving SUVs who refuse to share the road with them.

[porphyrian]

30. The media would have us believe that he was not important.

It wouldn't come out and say he wasn't important, but, aside from a day of local news, it won't pay any attention to his death. Of course, we get a month (more if you're from Florida) of fucking Terri Shiavo, and now we'll hear two weeks or more about the Pope, but not a single word about the minorities shot every night on the wrong side of town, or the children starving to death in Africa, or the retired doctor from middle America who saved thousands of lives before succombing to cancer herself.

Edit: added "the"

[bleedingheart]

32. One of my coworkers became physically ill after seeing an accident

A woman was decapitated and due to lack of any common sense the cops had shut down one lane but were trying to alleviate traffic so they opened up a lane next to the accident and let people pass...

Well...my coworker was on his way to work and being that like many...he was curious...he looked and got a view of the woman...(no one had covered her up at that point)...

He had to pull aside a little bit ahead to throw up....then he almost got a ticket when another police officer started screaming at him for stopping...(meanwhile he was actively vomiting..)

[Wcross]

35. I NEVER look as I pass an accident.

If the authorities are on the scene I tend to look at the cars around me. I don't want to see the dead people. I remember driving to work one day and there was a car fire on the shoulder. Nobody was in it, nobody hurt. The idiot in front of me STOPPED right next to the car and was gawking at the flames shooting up out of the engine. I had to lay on the horn to get the brain dead mo-fo to move. No firetrucks or cops were there yet- I guess he didn't care if the thing exploded right next to him but I sure did!

[bluedeminredstate]

36. I had the experience

of having one of my house painters (29 years old) die of a massive heart attack on my front lawn on a beautiful Sunday morning. His boss came in to use the phone saying he had to call 911 b/c one of the guys had "fainted." His name was Mike and he was 29 with a wife and three kids.

I'm a nurse so I went out there to see what was up - probably less than a minute after he went down. I took one look at him and knew he was gone. By that time 911 was on the phone with my husband and they kept the line open as they made sure CPR was started and not stopped until the rescue squad came. I did the CPR, having to yell out the count so the operater could hear me. I asked someone to get down there with me and talk to Mike - I just thought if he was still on his way to where he was going a comforting voice might be nice. A former Viet Nam medic did that for me while I did the CPR.
Two rescue squads came and worked on him for over 40 minutes before moving him to the ambulance, and they were still doing compressions as they loaded him in. I knew what the outcome was, but when I called my painter later on I was very bummed that this young guy had died in an instant.

I was very shook up by it and thought about it every single time I walked across the front yard from my car to the door. It was probably over 6 months before I could look at my front yard and not immediately remember having an audience of at least 20 as I did CPR in my nightgown and then the pandemonium of cop cars, fire trucks and ambulances in my little cul de sac (2 squads responded) and all the neighbors and painters standing around watching them run that code on him.

It's unsettling when it happens and you're not expecting it. You're minding your own business, going about your day and suddenly it's not so normal.
I hope you're feeling better and more like yourself soon.

[natrat]

37. jeez i just got a new bike yesterday

cruiser bikes are not manueverable
i only ride off peak traffic hours
i take only ocasional calculated risks and ride like a granny the rest of the time
some people should stay off bikes period

and the rationalizations could go on forever