Unconscious

What day is it today? Do you know what your name is? Who is the president of the USA? Ever been asked those questions? Did you ever have to stop and think about it a bit before answering? The human body is amazing. The human brain has natural defense mechanisms that we do not fully understand. There are parts of your brain that you have complete control over but many activities of the human brain are automatic and you couldn't change them even if you tried. Many bloggers, perhaps most eloquently, Dan Bateman at Musings of an intrepid Commuter, has written about achieving a level of motorcycle driving skill such that, depending on the hazard presented in front of you, your best response will be automatic. A voluntary decision as to the rider's response may not be necessary. An automatic response to a hazard will occur based upon your level of training and ability. This can be especially important when a hazard occurs suddenly, requiring a quick response. There have only been a few times in my life when when I have been rendered unconscious. Most have been related to a medical procedure such as a surgery. Last Friday there was another brief instance. No need for any suspense. I was involved in an accident, my first on the scooter. There is no longer any question as to "when" or "if" I would ever be involved in an accident, because the "when" has definately now happened. In a strange way I am glad to get that question out of the way. As far as seriousness goes I would rank it maybe a 5 or 6 on a 10 point scale. I am banged up a bit, but nothing broken, just extremely sore right now, and Thank God for the invention of helmets and gear. Without them it could have been much worse. The strange part is that I am having trouble remembering exactly what happened. I was very politely (yes, politely) riding down a 4 lane street in the right lane, when a car surprisingly made a left turn from the opposite direction immediately in front of me. Remember the phrase: "Do not always assume that the other driver will always do the correct thing". Well in this case he screwed up 'major league'. He admitted it to the police and was ticketed accordingly. It happened very quickly, with very little chance on my part for a reaction. All of a sudden, there he was directly in front of me with me bearing down on the rightside of his car at about 25 mph. I remember it being a beautiful afternoon. Sun shining, not too hot, a perfect afternoon for riding. I remember braking hard (probably as hard as I could) when the car appeared in front of me. I just knew that the outcome would not be very good. The next thing I remember is lying on my back on the pavement and someone asking me If I was okay. I briefly took inventory of major body parts and systems and determined eventually that I thought I could stand up. My left shoulder and hip were sore, but the pain was not too bad (yet). I was able to get up and walk around a bit. Time was a bit of a blur at that moment. Obviously some time had passed from the vision of me bearing down on the right side of his car to my waking up and saying I was okay. Have no idea how long it was, probably just a moment or two. I remember police cars. An ambulance showed up too. I was relatively coherent but events are fuzzy and I am sure I was not all there for some of it. They checked to see If I was having any back or neck pain. I was not. I remember someone asking me those questions at the first of this post. I must have passed that part of the test. I called my wife and she showed up very quickly in the car. My son showed up as well. We declined the ambulance ride and they left. We did however go to the hospital a little later to get checked out a little more as the pain was increasing and I was having some trouble walking. It was painful to put weight on my left leg. Suffice it to say that at the hospital, they found no major anomalies other than a large vacuum inside my head that they noted on the CT scan. No broken bones and they gave me a sling for the shoulder and a prescription for Lortab and I was on my way. But ever since it happened, I have been trying to piece together what happened. It has been a little bit like trying to solve a puzzle or becoming a detective and try and figure out what happened based upon the evidence. I, for one, being a supposed eyewitness was not a lot of help because of the amnesia or whatever. I didn't talk to the other driver much either. The policeman kept us apart. I think the policeman thought that I might try and kick his ass. Not sure I was capable of that at the time, but my wife was sure angry. I don't remember hitting the ground although from the evidence I know my left side hit the pavement pretty hard. I know that I didn't hit the car. I am not sure how. The evidence on my gear does not show much of a slide, hardly any in fact. My helmet has some major scratches just above my left ear and the visor mechanism is broken. My gloves show some scrapes on the back side.(?) One guess I have is that in braking so hard I locked up the front wheel, probably hit just enough of a patch of sand or dirt, and down I went. If that was the case, then maybe a more proper response to the situation would have been to brake hard, taking care not to lock the front wheel and look for a possible swerve to the left around the car as I passed by. I fully admit to Irondad, the Jedi Master, that my response to the threat was probably not very sophisticated in terms of ability. But I also do not think that any reaction, conscious or sub-conscious, would have been sufficient to avoid the accident. Given the situation, I believe it would have taken someone like Luke Skywalker to avoid it. I do not have that much of "The Force" in me. (Yet!) But it troubles me that I cannot remember hitting the ground. Why is that? I know that I apparently blacked out for at least a brief moment, why would that memory loss start at a point in time just before the impact. Then it has been suggested to me by my family that at the point when I was bearing down on the car, and impact seemed unavoidable, that my subconscious brain took over. The conscious part of my brain was shut off temporarily and my subconscious brain maybe decided that, in the best interests of the body as a whole, that the best course of action would be to lay the bike down and try to avoid the car, even If it knocked me out to do it. I don't know about that, but it seems sort of plausible. Also sort of makes me wonder If a higher power of some sort intervened. I am not one to normally give a lot of credence to notions like that, but can't rule that out either. But then again I am not going to fret or dwell on what might have happened or what I should have done as much as to be glad that it was not any worse than it was. I do not have a clue as to what I might have done differently. It all happened so fast. But I wish that I could remember a little better what exactly happened. Because I would like to be able to learn from the event and If it happens again, I might be able to react in a better manner. As a relatively new rider, I know I still have a lot to learn. One thing I can guarantee you is a fresh new distrust for other drivers (who I didn't trust much to begin with). I pride myself on being a safe and careful rider. I really feel that what happened to me was rare enough that the chances of it happening again to me are very small. The exact same situation has presented itself to me hundreds of times on the road and never before has a car driver done something quite so stupid. You F***ing A**hole !!!! There, saying it makes me feel a little bit better. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger says in the Terminator movie, I'll Be Back. !!!!! P.S. It has been a bad week for motorcyclists in our area. In 3 separate incidents involving single vehicle accidents, 2 people are dead and 2 others critically injured. All of the accidents involved the failure to negotiate a turn adequately. Only 1 of the 4 people had a helmet on. She is still alive. P.S.S. I was heading home when this accident occurred. Ironically I had just been visiting a local motorcycle dealership and looking at (can you believe it) new helmets. I have one picked out. Guess I need to purchase it a little sooner than I thought. P.S.S.S. Max appears to have just some body panel damage. Mt good friend Lloyd drove him away from the accident site. Thanks to John also for giving Lloyd a ride. Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed