Anatomy of a collision

[Venturing Sole]

I’d be curious to know how many riders have experienced survivable collisions with other moving vehicles in the course of their riding careers. I thought others might be interested in some of the details surrounding a collision I had in September 2006.

I got my new 2006 black cherry RSV in January 2006, trading up from a 1500 LC Intruder. I’d been riding for 15 years before my first (and only so far) collision. It was a temperate rainy Virginia morning, riding to work in a light steady rain. The time was 0745 and I was about 12 miles from home on a two lane road. I started from a stop light and had gone about 500 yards and was up to about 30 mph when a young woman pulled out at the last second from a side street on my right (she was trying to turn left, opposite my direction of travel). I locked up the brakes, slightly angling to the right with no opportunity to avoid the collision. When we collided, my left side smacked into her left side back near her sedan’s rear wheel well. My momentum came to an abrupt halt as our vehicles separated and I and the 06 RSV flopped over on the left side – no sliding or tumbling involved. I landed on my left butt and left elbow. I was wearing Firstgear rain boots, a Nelson-Riggs rain suit, HJC full face helmet, and gloves (don’t remember what kind). Underneath I was wearing a polyester dress shirt (sans tie) and dockers. There were no tears or damage to the rain suit, nor my shirt, but I had a silver dollar sized road rash just below my left elbow. Lots of soreness over the next few days, but no other injury.

My poor baby (black cherry 2006 2nd Gen) was lying completely flat on her left side. I had dropped her a few times in a parking lot when I first got her due to the top heaviness (embarrassing moments), but she always just leaned on the engine guards causing little to no damage. In this case though, she was seriously wounded. The most visible damage was the crumpled engine guard, shattered left lower fairing and broken left mirror. At first I though I would ride her home and call it a day, but after the ambulance crew checked me out and the police took my statement, I discovered the shift lever was bent and it wasn’t rideable. The ambulance crew was kind enough to drop me at my office close by and the tow truck took the bike to the dealer. Over the course of the next month, the dealer identified all the parts that would need to be replaced (since it was nearly new, all the damage was a result of the collision) and the parts total not including labor was over $8000. The girl’s insurance (USAA) considered it totaled – paid off the loan, compensated me for 30 days time without the bike and threw in some extra cash (probably because I didn’t have a hospital bill). I was fortunate enough to be able to acquire another black cherry 2006 from the dealer and came away pretty much break-even. I’ve included some photos of the damage.

It’s a sample size of one, and a few milliseconds either way could have changed the nature of the collision, but I believe the big heavy RSV really helped mitigate the impact with the foreign mid-sized sedan.

Now I wear jacket and pants with armor religiously and the first thing I added to the new bike was passing lamps and a rear LED brake light. I also watch very closely as I approach side streets to see if there is any indication some idiot may jump across my path.

[pegscraper]

That's a sad site, but just think, now you have one that's never been dropped.

 

My starter bike was an '82 Honda Twinstar CMT200. It was too small to be seen and people were constantly pulling out in front of me. I'm convinced that bikes that size shouldn't even be on the road, not even as a starter bike. I was in two or three accidents on that bike because of people not paying attention, the last of which put me in the hospital for two weeks and it was six months before I could walk again. My right knee was badly damaged and had to put back together with screws. Other than that I was good. That's been twenty-one years ago now and I have never remembered the accident. The last thing I remember that day was about ten minutes prior. When I was told where the accident actually happened I couldn't believe it. I didn't know I had gotten that far down the road. The bike wasn't too bad, just bent forks and broken headlight assembly. After I was better I fixed it up and sold it and graduated to an '81 XS1100, which has been gone for a while at this point. In several years I never had anybody miss that big bike.

[Eck]

I have never had insurance luck like this..........

Every accident I have been in cost me much loss.....and the cause was by the other driver in every case but one ( I hit a boat.trialer and car one time..unreal!).

The girl’s insurance (USAA) considered it totaled – paid off the loan, compensated me for 30 days time without the bike and threw in some extra cash (probably because I didn’t have a hospital bill). I was fortunate enough to be able to acquire another black cherry 2006 from the dealer and came away pretty much break-even.

[Monsta]

What happened to your old RSV? I take it the insurance company kept it and sold it at auction?

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

That was a good write-up and one I feel was probably not only a warning for all of us but healing of sort for you. Not matter how small an accident it can always be a traumatic thing. Talking about it really helps.

 

That said, I've yet to be in an accident (as he knocks furiously on the wooden tabel) but your actions taken afterward to mitigate those accidents, as well as being prepared in the event that it does happen, is always a good thing to keep in the forefront of every motorcyclists mind. These kind of threads do just that.

 

Here's my advice to my son who will being riding on the street soon and the mantra that has kept me intact. (well...I'm a firm beliver in God so actually he gets the credit. )

 

• Stay visible. (Lotsa lights and highly visible clothing! Black leather may be cool but it sure doesn't help you to be seen.)
  
• Ride like your ARE invisible. (Probably the most important advice.)
  
• Continually SCAN, SCAN, SCAN!
  
• Protect your body from impact and road rash. WEAR YOUR GEAR!
  

[Venturing Sole]

Wise words from the big Kahuna. Thanks Monsta. I talked about it a lot with a lot of folks in the office and other friends, but I found that the only ones who really seemed to "get it" were other riders. There was a guy in my office on a HD dresser who had an amazingly similar accident, but he ended up in a coma for three weeks and some broken bones (similar young woman driver, similar pull out from a side street, similar speed at impact, similar type of bike, etc. - wierd). I'm blessed with never having broken a bone in my body - and I grew up riding and jumping bicycles without a helmet, skiing and going through Army Airborne school at the ripe old age of 38 when everyone else was 17-25 (My knuckles are bleeding from the knocking on wood).

 

Yes, the insurance company took ownership of the bike...after I removed the aftermarket stuff I had added (low windshield, highway pegs, license plate, etc). I can only assume it was sold at some kind of auction, but I didn't follow it.

[Guest CHROME ADDICTION]

I feel you pain... Last year I had a lady pull out in front of me and stop in the middle of the highway. She was pulling out from the police station.

She had incorrectly anticipated traffic in the turning lane.

 

As you can see in the attached pic's I put on the brakes and was riding in the center of the lane when she stopped. When I hit the brakes she looked up in horror...

 

I feel your pain...

 

But now I have a Midnight RSV...

[Rich99]

Sounds almost like a duplicate that happened to me. Some of you might remember as I've had this one before, but it got lost in the internet crash. It all started with a "BLONDE"! Was going through a shopping center parking lot, and this young 23 yr. old "BLONDE" was backing out so fast from a parking place, that I didn't even have time to hit the brakes. Here's the statement to the police that tops this whole thing off. She told the cop, that she saw me coming, and speeded up, thinking I would miss her:bang head: :bang head: ??? . I T-boned her in the right front fender, foot got jamed into the bike as I flew off the bike thinking I broke my toe, and landed on my hip and shoulder, but later found out, nothing broken. It happened across the street from where my father lived, so the crash bar being bent up and stuck in low gear, I just started it up, and drove it over to my dads in low gear to get a heavy hammer, and pound the crash bar back out so I could shift the bike. Estimate to fix the bike was $4000.00, but she had no insurance, all I had was liability, so it was my fix. I told them to get lost, as it didn't look that serious. So I took the bike home, and fixed it myself for $700.00. Instead of taking off the damaged stuff, they wanted to take everything with it, the whole fender, the whole fairing, and this is what drove the price up. It was just the front chome piece on the fender, the chrome around the headlight, the left lower fairing, and then the crash bar. So being the money was coming out of my pocket, I replace the stuff that had to be replaced, $700 bucks.

[Guest Swifty]

but she had no insurance, all I had was liability, so it was my fix.

...so clarify for me...if I'm in an accident in the USA and the other party has no insurance...what can I expect will happen?

[Venturing Sole]

...so clarify for me...if I'm in an accident in the USA and the other party has no insurance...what can I expect will happen?

 

 

...Aside from possibly having to change your underwear:starz:

 

Your insurance should end up covering the cost and your premiums may increase:happy34: . Uninsured motorists are supposed to pay an uninsured motorist fee, but I never quite understood the purpose of it as it relates to the other person involved who may not be at fault.

 

I querried my insurance company after my collision and they said they could handle getting the woman's insurance to cover everything, but they could not guarantee it and I would still have to pay my deductable just to have them involved. Fortunately, her insurance was very accomodating as I went to them direct.

[FreezyRider]

...so clarify for me...if I'm in an accident in the USA and the other party has no insurance...what can I expect will happen?

 

On my policy, I pay an additional small "Uninsured Motorists" fee. That way if I'm in an accident and the other party is at fault and has no insurance, my Ins Co will pay the bill and then sue the other party to recover as much as they can.

[brscooter]

Had my 05 RSV about 6 months, when I came to an intersection and was almost completely stopped. The guy behind me thought I took off and he hit mt at a slow speed. Knocked me and my wife off onto some grass and the bike over on top of us. Neither of us were hurt a lick as we had on leather but the bike had $5000 in damage. Farm bureau paid up (their insurance) with little or no trouble.

[Rich99]

...so clarify for me...if I'm in an accident in the USA and the other party has no insurance...what can I expect will happen?

I immedately called a lawyer, and they told me that when neither party is insured, they won't touch you, as they have no way to collect their fee. Was told to take it to small claims court, but then they told me that if I won, that I would be responsible for collecting from the other party of which they said, good luck. I didn't think is was worth all that trouble for the amount of damage that was involved, so I fixed it myself. If it had been severe, then I would have gone after them!