10 couples had left home on Friday, October 20th for a weekend in Branson. It was our 6th wedding anniversary. My wife and I left by ourselves, since we were wanting to make a couple stops along the way. Half the group left an hour or two later, and the rest left an hour or two after that, with all three parties taking different routes.
We had an hour wait at lunch (Lambert's Cafe). The first group experienced a battery failure on one bike, and running out of gas on another (new bike, unfamiliar, etc). So, now you have, essentially, everybody set to arrive in Branson at approximately the same time. One half of the group approaches a stop sign, just as the other half of the riders ride past. Now, you have 9 out of the 10 bikes all on the same road, traveling together, staggered formation, just like you are taught, while my wife and I are in the living room of a friend, some 50 miles away.
30 minutes later, while traveling down that road, there is a car going the other direction, stopped, wanting to turn left, across the path of the bikes. The person saw the bikes, and waited, but their front wheels were turned instead of straight ahead. Big no-no for the following reason: the person behind them did not see that they had stopped and rear-ended them. With the wheels turned, the first car was pushed straight into the bikes, hitting the couple that we were to room with that night. To give you an idea of the force of the impact, the trunk lid of the car that was rear ended, was folded up and laying on the shelf where the back window used to be. To give you an idea of the force of the collision between the car and the bike, the car, after coming halfway into the bike's lane, came to rest back in it's own lane.
Traveling in our group was a former EMT, a former highway patrol officer, and a Navy corpsman. God had provided in a time of need! The experience of the former EMT allowed for injury assessment in mere seconds, instead of having to wait for an ambulance to show up and then try to figure it out. The former highway patrol officer was able to relay the pertinent information to 911 in such a way that there was no delay in medical being dispatched, including life flight. In fact, the former EMT was so quick off his bike, that he forgot to turn the key off, leaving the lights/ignition on. When everyone was cleared to leave the accident scene (3-4 hours later), they had to jumpstart his bike because his battery had died :)
Mr. E* lost the use of his left arm and lost his left leg above the knee. Mrs. E* lost her left leg at the hip. Despite his injuries, she was in much worse shape. She almost did not make it. She was in ICU for 2 months, hence, the reason she is absent from the end of the video. That, and the fact that she would never had been caught without her nails and hair done, wink wink. She was constantly sick. She'd be fine for a week then ill for 2. Then better for 1 and so on. They finally figured out that her gall bladder needed to come out. She did remember that she wasn't feeling well before the accident, but if you have any experience with stuff like that, you know that most people don't recall much of anything the couple days or weeks before an event such as this. After that, she finally started getting better. The surgeon said it was the worst one he'd ever seen.
A month later, a local rider was able to quickly organize a charity ride, to raise emergency cash for the couple. The turnout was great! Bikers from all walks helping a brother and sister. We held another event a couple months later, which you'll see, in the 2007 video. I'll have that up hopefully in the next couple days.
It's now been, at the time of this posting, about a year and a half since the accident. With God's grace, both are walking again! He even has a Harley Davidson sticker on his prosthetic leg, LOL. Everyday is better than the day before. He still doesn't have any use of his left arm and he's in constant pain, but his sense of humor has never waned. 2 weeks after the accident, we visited them in the hospital. I told him if he didn't want to room with us, he didn't have to go to all this trouble, he should have said something. He said he didn't want to hurt my feelings. I told him it would have been interesting having Mr. Harley and Mr. Non-Harley (myself) rooming together. Maybe some day....
Thanks for watching and God Bless!
Loading...
7:39
Christ Centered Riders 2006 (part 1of 2)by igozumn618 views
Link to this comment:
All Comments (0)