Hi Brian, I don't know if it would make the top reading list, as it was such a simple happening, yet I've been over and over it in my head pulling all aspects of it apart, and analysing it
over and over. So maybe for my own sanity and if anyone else is bored, I can jot this down. I know that I've never counted myself someone who has learn and knows it all, but the little
things that I have learnt from this incident are just amazing.
Just to set the scene and bring everyone up to speed on my trip so far that day:
I had a few hour on Thursday and Friday off to travel to Newcastle and have DMME install an MC Cruise and a Starcom Digital to my ST. I left Orange around 13:00, and the wind was extremely
gusty with rain showers most of the way to the top of Kurrajong. My usual shortcut from Kurrajong to Hornsby was the way to go today, as I was getting towards the busy part of the day. I
usually cut out Richmond by turning off at Kurmond and travelling through Freemans Reach to Windsor, then turn off Windsor Rd at Box Hill, head off to Dural, and up to Hornsby the back way
through Galston Gorge. Probably shorter shortcuts, but I like the ride even though it had been a few years.
Stopped in Lithgow for fuel, and put my wet weather pants and gloves on. For the second time this week, I've been caught out riding over the mountains with summer gear on and winter weather
on top of that. 4deg in Lithgow, and I was only slightly wet thanks to the great ST weather protection. Did I mention the wind? It was pretty much as bad as I'd ridden in to the point were
the bike was leaning right on Left hand sweepers, and I was worried that the gusts were going to push adhesion limits, since the angles and side pressure was so un-usual.
Going down Bellbird Hill, the weather had cleared considerably, and by Freemans Reach, I stopped and removed my wet weather pants and gloves. It had been raining there, as there were some
wet patches on the road, but I don't think that the rain extended to where I fell off. It was also a lot warmer, and I don't know if everyone reading this is the same as me, but after
riding through some treacherous weather and tricky road conditions (leaf litter blowing everywhere) I was feeling pretty good about the ride so far, and even more now enjoying the warmer
dryer weather down Windsor way. Over the mountains the tyre pressures had only risen 1 PSI in the cold, but now both were reading 46PSI, which is about right in those ambient temps. I
didn't check the tyre temps, but they would have been around 38 degrees, based on the current ambient temp.
I got out towards Annangrove Road, and took the last left turn on Windsor Rd before Annangrove Rd, knowing that this road led to Annangrove Rd, to continue on towards Dural. I was behind a
Blue Mazda 3 for a couple of K's down this road, and had been giving myself a large buffer space between us. About a km prior to the "T" intersection, a few cars had given way on our left,
and had joined behind us on Edwards Rd. They were also giving themselves plenty of distance behind me. Upon approaching a Give Way sign, I had been thinking that there was a small round-
about somewhere here, just prior to the "T" intersection on Annangrove Rd. The Blue Mazda in front of me had slowed and started to proceed through the give way sign, and I had slowed as
well, but checked over my right shoulder for traffic to give way to. At that point, I think I realised that this was in fact Annangrove Rd, as I had to turn my head much further to the
right than I thought. There was a car probably 100 or so metres back, and at that time, I think I started to break as I turned back to look in front. Then:-
SHIT, It's Stopped, lock everything up, throw it down hard.
Bike hit the road and I hit the road shortly after. I went left, bike right and can remember kicking at it with my feet. I hit the back bumper with my body not quite parallel to the bumper,
head on the back wheel, sliding on my side and the big impact was on my left side chest, great pain just to left of spine, just below shoulder blades. Bike had hit on RHS of car rear, but I
didn't know that at the time. When I stopped, my head was still near the LHS rear wheel of the Mazda, but my body had spun around about 110deg from the cars back bumper. I was largely on my
back, but with the severe back pain, I went through a first aid check list in my mind, and in particular, location of pain and limb numbness. I could feel all limbs, pain in the upper LHS
chest, LHS middle back, but nothing else major of note. I did have a strong smell of fuel, but I could not feel any through my hands or legs. I was severely winded, and no doubt in some
shock, mainly at the thought of actually crashing in such a simple setting.
I was aware of someone asking me if I was alright, but I had trouble hearing them as my phone was still playing music through my BT headset; Crosby Still and Nash, "Wasted on the Way",
which gave me a bit of a laugh! I tried to signal that I was OK. I also tried to turn off my headset with my right hand, but the first aid Nazi's (to their credit) stopped me. More than one
person was there at that point, although I didn't have a great view of how many - probably 4 or so. I told someone that my BT Headset on the LHS of my helmet was still playing music I
turned my head to show them the BT headset. I told them to pull it up, then pull the cable out. They did this and now I could hear everything. I think they thought my head might fall off I
then tried to flip my helmet face up, and they again stopped me, until I pointed out that my face shield rotated up.
It was only then that I had effective two way communication flowing, and my first communications at this point was where was the fuel in relation to myself and them, as I did not want them
to place themselves in danger if they were standing in it, and if I was lying in it, I was going to move myself out of it if they didn't. It turns out that the fuel spill was off to the
right, and I assumed that any run-off was over the other side of the road camber. The concerns that they had about my neck and spine lessened as I assured them that I could feel all limbs
perfectly well, and I could move all joints as well. Georgette, the lady that I had hit, was very upset as she was the one who called 000 when I didn't respond to her call of "are you
alright".
The paramedics arrived and went through the process of checking everything and putting me on a backboard. I warned them of my weight, so they grabbed a couple of coppers and fireys and
managed to *just* lift me onto the stretcher. No one suffered any permanent injuries, but a few of them had to strain. I yelled my thanks out to everyone there as I was loaded into the
ambulance, and I think that was when they gave me some painkillers to enable me to remove my jacket, with their assistance.
After that, a 15 min ride to Blacktown ED, a couple of X-rays and scans, and was then transferred to Westmead ED at 01:00 on Friday.
Since then, I have boiled it down to this:-
*I was slightly confused as to which intersection I was stopping at, until I realised that the "T" was much more like a "Y" with me being at the upper right of the Y travelling to the
intersection.
* I assumed that the Mazda had moved off through the intersection, but it may simply have been moving forward for a better look back over it's right shoulder for traffic to give way to.
* As I looked to my right, I had to turn my head far further than I expected as the road to the right wasn't 90deg to me but more like 45deg (that's when I worked out it was Annangrove Rd). I probably spent twice as much time in looking because of this, which gave me less time when I looked back.
* By the time I looked back up, perhaps .5 of a second had passed, I had washed off some speed (doing about 30 - 40Kmph) but the car was far too close for me to be able to pull up.
* If I didn't lock everything up and hit the road, I was going over the bars and over the car. Broken bones?. Would ABS help? A bit, but I still would have hit it at speed and upright.
* No time to avoid car so choice was to slow as much as possible, or deck it. In the time I had, I chose to lock everything and hit it low. I've never wanted to see if over the bars on a big tourer would break legs.
In the emergency services, they teach you that disasters occur when a number of conditions that would not normally be cause for concern "line up". Swiss cheese. Each of these things above were small problems in themselves, each one less than the sum of the total, but unfortunately for me, I made a number of small mistakes at the same time that caused an impact on a lot of people around me.
It was my mistake(s) and I will probably, and rightly so, get a neg driving conviction, but if this is what I need to tighten up on my concentration and decision making processes when riding, I'm all the better for it.
If I had a pillion at the time, would I have ridden differently? Maybe
Would the result have been worse? Absolutely!
What if I was in the Landcruiser, would I have driven differently? Maybe
Would the result have been worse? Absolutely; 4 kids might have been without their Mum that night.
Hope that's worth reading, as it was worth writing it down for my sake!
regards
Andrew
