Went for a car drive yesterday, came to a round about and saw a bike down on the side of the road. Pulled up to help a fellow rider and found the rider of a sports bike had hit a streak of diesel on the round about and come off. Someone stayed with the bike while I took the rider to a nearby medical centre (closed) then to the base hospital. I arranged for his bike to be picked up, and dropped his helmet and keys off at his house and sent his flatmate (roommate?) to check on him at the hospital.
He was wearing thongs on his feet, short pants, short-sleeved shirt, helmet and no gloves. While the bicycle rider who saw the accident and pulled up to help said he was only doing about 40 km/hr when he came off, he had some pretty nasty injuries.
Palms badly torn, elbow abraded, thigh abraded, knee abraded to the kneecap, calf ripped and toes mangled. He was in a lot of pain, kept in hospital over night and won't be back at work for a fair few weeks.
Please consider what you wear when you get on your bike, even if going 5 minutes down the road to buy a bottle of milk. A pair of Draggin jeans are a good investment, gloves and boots an imperative, a jacket pretty good insurance. And please protect the most important part of your body, spend some money on a good helmet.
This was only a low speed off, and while his injuries weren't life threatening he probably wouldn't have even been hurt if wearing ATGATT.
