Just witnessed horrific motorbike crash

Yeeaahh... I have a friend who was a police officer and is now a paramedic..

He regularly gives me stories like this and urges me to give up the bikes

Risk versus perceived risk is a funny thing. we freak out about plane crashes where a few 100 die and survivors have life changing injuries. and effectively ignore the 73 who suffer the same fate every day of the week on the roads.

There was a radio 4 program several years ago on this subject and looking at all the statistics for accidental death, by far and away the most dangerous time for individuals is that short period between the alarm going off next to the bed and the first step into the street for the journey to work. More people die during that period of time than at any other time of the day. electrocution by the alarm. slipping in the bedroom/bathroom/stairs. Choking on breakfast. etc etc etc.

All accidents are 'freak' accidents and all you can do is reduce the risk. a good start is not getting out of bed.

As soon as you are born, you are dead, how long it takes is out of your control, once you accept that you are a dead man/woman walking, that is when you become alive and begin to live

In the late 70's early 80's I use to help out a motorcycle dealer go and collect breakdowns when he was on a police rota. they had a list of people to call out to collect bikes that had been involved in crashes. One particular time we got a callout in the early hours of the morning to go and collect a 1000 cc Suzuki that had thrown its rider, near a pub called the worlds end, just outside Northampton. The bike was laying on its side on a grass verge, and there were police, fire brigade and an ambulance in attendance. when we lifted the bike up to get it on the ramp and in the van we could not see any damage to it apart from a broken plastic cowl just beyond the end of the seat.

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE REST STOP READING NOW!!!!!!

we asked the policeman at the scene why all the services were there for a simple off. it turns out the chap was pushing it a bit and lost it on a left hander by the pub and was thrown off onto the other side of the road into the path of a motorhome, which could not avoid him and ran over his neck and separated it from the rest of his body, and his colleague had ended up with the task of retrieving the helmet from beneath the motorhome.

The bike sat in the workshop for just over a week before the owners family turned up. They spoke to Tony, (shop owner) and me about the bike, and told Tony he could do what he wanted to with it, as they did not want it or reminding what had happened to their son by having it in their possession.

what I could never understand was why there was no damage as such to the bike. If you get thrown off at speed the bike is going to keep going until it runs out of momentum, and would normally end up with damage fairings or busted crankcase covers, but this was just laying on a grass verge like it had just fallen over, and from what I could gather no one had moved it to there.

I know this is in really poor taste, but what the hell...

Many years ago a friend of mine witnessed a horrific bike crash when a speeding biker overtook him and a few more cars in front on a right-hand bend and was still so far over the centre line on the exit that he head-butted an oncoming vehicle. My mate dialled 999, asked for the police and an ambulance, but said the latter wasn't urgent because it was a fatality. A pissy operator said "The paramedic will make that decision sir, not you" to which my friend said "Well, I'm not medically trained of course, but his helmet has come off and his head is still in it."

Passed 2 as a kid, both with the same decapitation effect, both due to cars pulling out of junctions and likely the bikes going too fast, one poor guy ended up through the post office window, well his lid and his head, post mistress if that's what they are called never made it back to work after that.

I know this is in really poor taste, but what the hell...

Many years ago a friend of mine witnessed a horrific bike crash when a speeding biker overtook him and a few more cars in front on a right-hand bend and was still so far over the centre line on the exit that he head-butted an oncoming vehicle. My mate dialled 999, asked for the police and an ambulance, but said the latter wasn't urgent because it was a fatality. A pissy operator said "The paramedic will make that decision sir, not you" to which my friend said "Well, I'm not medically trained of course, but his helmet has come off and his head is still in it."

Passed 2 as a kid, both with the same decapitation effect, both due to cars pulling out of junctions and likely the bikes going too fast, one poor guy ended up through the post office window, well his lid and his head, post mistress if that's what they are called never made it back to work after that.

Christ sounds haunting, prob not best to read that before I commute home, speeding on a bike just inst worth it, there are very few roads where ill give it the beans

There must be few seconds, from being decapitated, to complete lights out, when you can visually see what's happened, but your head would be spinning so fast, it probably wouldn't register, not really the sort of thing that can be tried as an experiment

Well this has really cheered me up. I will keep some gaffa tape in my top box in future just in case anything needs reattaching at any stage.

Incidentally, the number of people who die on the bog is huge. A medic told me one of the feelings you get before a fatal coronary is the urge to take a dump. So next time you feel the need...... just remember....it might the death of you.

There must be few seconds, from being decapitated, to complete lights out, when you can visually see what's happened, but your head would be spinning so fast, it probably wouldn't register, not really the sort of thing that can be tried as an experiment

I think you get about 10 seconds before unconsciousness, so definitely plenty of time to think "Ooh - this is strange..."

During the French Revolution there were several reports of the faces of guillotined prisoners making conscious movements (or at least looking distinctly miffed) after the blade fell and their heads were held up to the public...

I know this is in really poor taste, but what the hell...

Many years ago a friend of mine witnessed a horrific bike crash when a speeding biker overtook him and a few more cars in front on a right-hand bend and was still so far over the centre line on the exit that he head-butted an oncoming vehicle. My mate dialled 999, asked for the police and an ambulance, but said the latter wasn't urgent because it was a fatality. A pissy operator said "The paramedic will make that decision sir, not you" to which my friend said "Well, I'm not medically trained of course, but his helmet has come off and his head is still in it."

Is it bad taste to admit I just laughed out loud

I know this is in really poor taste, but what the hell...

Many years ago a friend of mine witnessed a horrific bike crash when a speeding biker overtook him and a few more cars in front on a right-hand bend and was still so far over the centre line on the exit that he head-butted an oncoming vehicle. My mate dialled 999, asked for the police and an ambulance, but said the latter wasn't urgent because it was a fatality. A pissy operator said "The paramedic will make that decision sir, not you" to which my friend said "Well, I'm not medically trained of course, but his helmet has come off and his head is still in it."

Passed 2 as a kid, both with the same decapitation effect, both due to cars pulling out of junctions and likely the bikes going too fast, one poor guy ended up through the post office window, well his lid and his head, post mistress if that's what they are called never made it back to work after that.

 

Christ sounds haunting, prob not best to read that before I commute home, speeding on a bike just inst worth it, there are very few roads where ill give it the beans

You want bad, go to Ball, posted it on here before but it's like a war zone for people on motorbikes and scooters, girl killed reversing her scooter onto main road, was with in laws who were nurses for many years, should we go help, nope she's gone, we were about 30ft away having dinner..

I know this is in really poor taste, but what the hell...

Many years ago a friend of mine witnessed a horrific bike crash when a speeding biker overtook him and a few more cars in front on a right-hand bend and was still so far over the centre line on the exit that he head-butted an oncoming vehicle. My mate dialled 999, asked for the police and an ambulance, but said the latter wasn't urgent because it was a fatality. A pissy operator said "The paramedic will make that decision sir, not you" to which my friend said "Well, I'm not medically trained of course, but his helmet has come off and his head is still in it."

 

Is it bad taste to admit I just laughed out loud

I laughed so much, i thought i was having a heart attack, cos i nearly poo'd myself

Well this has really cheered me up. I will keep some gaffa tape in my top box in future just in case anything needs reattaching at any stage.

Incidentally, the number of people who die on the bog is huge. A medic told me one of the feelings you get before a fatal coronary is the urge to take a dump. So next time you feel the need...... just remember....it might the death of you.

A doctor told me its folks who strain & hold their breath trying to force out the turtle head, he said " breathe breathe "!

Yeeaahh... I have a friend who was a police officer and is now a paramedic..

He regularly gives me stories like this and urges me to give up the bikes

 

Risk versus perceived risk is a funny thing. we freak out about plane crashes where a few 100 die and survivors have life changing injuries. and effectively ignore the 73 who suffer the same fate every day of the week on the roads.

There was a radio 4 program several years ago on this subject and looking at all the statistics for accidental death, by far and away the most dangerous time for individuals is that short period between the alarm going off next to the bed and the first step into the street for the journey to work. More people die during that period of time than at any other time of the day. electrocution by the alarm. slipping in the bedroom/bathroom/stairs. Choking on breakfast. etc etc etc.

All accidents are 'freak' accidents and all you can do is reduce the risk. a good start is not getting out of bed.

interesting post, but i wouldnt agree these are freak accidents. Sounds more like lack of concentration due to being tired.

I think a lot of the people who gleefully remind us how dangerous motorcycling is don't appreciate the distinction between hazard and risk. Motorcycling is undoubtedly an intrinsically hazardous thing to do, but there is a lot we can do to mitigate the risks associated with doing it: being appropriately trained, wearing protective equipment, not riding too fast or beyond our individual abilities, riding defensively, not riding at night or in poor weather conditions - that sort of thing. Obviously that doesn't make motorcycling any less hazardous, but it does reduce the risks associated with doing it.

Petrol is another good way to look at the distinction between hazard and risk. It's an intrinsically very hazardous substance (it's highly flammable in liquid an vapour form, explodes in confined spaces, is toxic, neurotoxic, genotoxic, carcinogenic and teratogenic) but none of us bats an eyelid at driving around with 10 gallons of it sloshing around under the back seat. That's because the risks associated with using it are relatively low, due to the fact that you can only get access to it at proper filling stations where you can't smoke or have other naked flames, where engineering controls on the pump prevent it overflowing out of the filler pipe and spraying all over you, and because modern petrol tanks are designed not to rupture and leak all over the road in a crash - all of which constitute risk mitigation.

Unfortunately in my industry (crop protection) we have moved from risk assessment to hazard assessment. Most pesticides are intrinsically hazardous (their purpose is to kill things, after all) but the risks associated with using them can be mitigated in a variety of ways: only making them available to properly qualified professional users, limiting where and when they can be used, specifying Maximum Residue Levels on a crop-by-crop basis, not using them on flowering crops where pollinating insects may be foraging, establishing no-spray buffer zones around surface water bodies - that sort of thing. That meant you could take a horrifically hazardous pesticide, conduct a risk assessment and still establish a perfectly safe use, say if it was for use on ornamental plants that are not going to be consumed, grown in a glasshouse where there is no exposure to wildlife or the wider environment, and applied by automated spraying equipment at night when there are no workers around. Now risk mitigation plays less of a role in the approval process, which is a fairly significant retrograde step.

Anyway, neither here nor there - that was another of my famous tangents.