Down

So, SD, DSW and I went for a motorcyle ride on Sunday morning. Up towards The Hutt, out across towards the ocean, brunch and back again. It's a great ride and doesn't take too long. I'm on my 600rr, D is on a 1000rr and S is on a Buell lighting 1200. So we thrash our way out and back and get off the SR1 in Wellington to take Oriental Parade from town to the Eastern Suburbs where we all live. This is usually where D and I leave everyone else behind. I'm used to lane splitting from LA and D is from London. Neither of us are scared by traffic but not everyone is as fearless so we usually end up spread out over the last few minutes. On this particular day, I also had to get home to take the boys back into town to the bolwling lanes for a birthday party. I got home, got my gear off, grabbed the boys and off we went. I had just been out so I knew the traffic was bad so I decided to go back out Oriental Parade to town. It's not nearly as short, but if traffic is backed up through the Mt. Vic tunnel, it can be just as fast. I got about halfway down Oriental Parade and, hey look. there's a crashed motorcycle. I always try to stop to help another motorcyclist out if I can so I started looking for a place to pull over, which is when I noticed the cop, which is right before I thought to my self ... "holy fuck, that's S's motorcycle". Stopped and talked to the cop to find out that he'd been taken to the hospital. Called W who called S's wife with the bad news.

Long story short. He's out of surgery, still in ICU. All the limbs are moving but he's got several impact/deceleration injuries including 7 broken ribs, fractured T5-T7 and a lung contusion. He'll have some titanium rods in his spine for 6-18 months. He doesn't remember what happened. "For fuck's sake, I was taking it easy" he said. He's a competent rider and he really was taking it easier than everyone else. D and I went back later to the crash site after we left the ER, and we couldn't for the life of us figure out what happened. I'm convinced that it was a total freak accident. I don't think that he could've been going more than 30 or 35 kph. I got run over by a car going faster than that and I got up and walked away. We all wear the gear ... just a total freak accident.

So ... you can pray, if that kind of thing does it for you, or at the very least think some good thoughts for S and his family.