Good day turns into a bad day

[ppark]

I was riding on the freeway coming back from 4-hour ride to the beach and saw a motorcycle accident as it was happening.

I was on the left lane and just passed a group of riders on the diamond lane (Group A). Up ahead I see another group of riders (Group B) on the far right lane moving towards the lane right next to my lane. The traffic speed was going fast but there were a lot of traffic ahead of me.

All of sudden, I see one of the riders in Group B tossed from his bike, hit the pavement and tossed around like a rag doll. I was horrified as the body was bouncing around and thought the person was dead. Cars ahead of me are slamming on the brakes, swerving out of control. During this time, I am thinking I am going to hit one of those cars or run over the body or someone is going to run into me.

What was amazing was that I didn't panic. I apply the brake hard enough to come to a quick stop w/o locking the brakes, managed to miss all the cars and safely moved over to the emergency lane on the left side and parked my bike. I got off the bike and noticed bunch of riders (I believe part of Group B) heading in the wrong direction (of course the traffic has now stopped) towards the guy who fell off. I see alot of people surrounding the guy trying to help. There was a black truck who stopped in front of me and the driver of that truck came out of his truck, looking terrified, and starts to run over to the guy who fell off.

I start to walk towrds the site of the accident and met the riders from Group A. One of them said he believes that a black truck clipped the bike. A few of the riders from Group A were already at the scene of the accident and were heading back towards me. I asked one of them if the guy who fell off was OK. We were told that the guy who fell off was standing and was all right - he just had some bruised around his forearm. When we heard that, everyone was just relieved. I stuck around for a few more minutes and took off. I decided to stop riding for the day and went home. Riders from Group A decided to split and go home also.

I am now safely back at home.

What a day.

[Sledder]

stuff like that can humble you pretty quickly huh.

[Alex214]

ouch! Glad the rider wasn't hurt! You, too~!

[T-man]

Those are sobering experiences...glad to hear the rider was not seriously hurt.

I got a similar dash of cold water when rounding a left curve on a mountain country lane riding two-up with my better half. A pickup came around the turn as I was leaning into the curve. He was half in my lane...that was bad enough and I pulled up and veered toward the right shoulder, but he was going very fast and, as I discovered a nannosecond later, he was pulling a boat on trailer that was further in my lane. The trailer missed my left arm by less than a foot. There was no time to react - we were just lucky. Thank God it missed. I was shaking the rest of the way home. Some time it's just dumb luck. I think about that on all blind turns and try to adjust my speed accordingly.

[2WheelFun]

Seeing posts like this have me holding my breath until I know the whole story.

I'm really glad to hear that the rider was ok as well as everyone else. It's an ugly thing to watch an accident unfold right before your eyes...but always good to hear about a happy ending.

Be safe everyone!