Was coming home from a nice ride to Lynchburg TN. was less than 10 miles from home when coming through Chikamuga National Military Park.

A cager decides to make a last minute stop to turn with no warning, he skidded his tires to stop, never used his turn signal and his brakes lights did not work.

Speed limit is 35mph, I was probably running 30mph and 4-5 lengths behind him, the road we were on has some humps in it where the ground is pushing up the pavement.

Realized he was dead stopped grabbed the brakes and rear wheel locked up right as it was going over one of the humps in the road, rear of the bike went airborne and shot me into oncoming traffic.

Was looking head on at a Silver Honda Accord, the lady driving realized what was fixing to happen, she cut sharply to the right and off the road avoiding a head on collision.

I hit the side of her car and went all the way down the side of it and another 15ft before my bike stopped on it's left side throwing me off and into a ditch about 10ft away.

I walked away from it, was dazed for a little bit though, have an ankle sprain on the left, lots of bruising and soreness, but no cuts or broken bones, no one else was injured. I concider myself a very blessed man!

Just waiting on Geico's claim adjuster to contact me so we can get the bike to the dealer to be repaired.

 

witnesses I hope..police report?

if no brake light guy took off, you may be able to claim on your UIM, if you don;t have UIM on the bike, UIM on any other policy will cover it unless your State allows specific exclusions.

glad you are around.

Mike

 

Wow! Glad you are ok...

 

Thanks Mike, Yes the guy stuck around and plenty of witnesses.

Funny thing is the Park Ranger that worked the accident didn't write any citations to the guy, but did put him at fault for causing the accident.

Yes I have full coverage with UIM, my insurance is taking care of the lady that I side swiped and my bike.

The man who caused the accident was from TN. and didn't have insurance, as they are not required by state law to show proof of insurance to register and tag a vehicle, thats how they get away with out having it, until a traffic stop or accident happens.

 

Well, you are a lucky dude for sure. You walked (limped) away.
Is there anything at all that you could have done that would have eliminated your part of the accident? You know, using hindsight.

 

Thank you.

Not much I could have done, it happened so quick, if I hadn't hit the hump in the road I would have gotten stopped.

But it lifted the rear tire off the ground and shot me into oncoming traffic on the front wheel, I was just along for the ride at that point!

I wasn't speeding, was a safe distance behind, when there is no visual warning that they are suddenly stopping, not much anyone could do.

I'm an experienced rider with 40yrs under my belt, had my share of really close calls, this is the first time I've went down, just couldn't avoid it.

 

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. I'm glad the lady in the Honda wasn't one of the "I never saw him" cagers and I'm glad you came away with only a sprain.

Cars with no brake lights scare the crap out of me. If I see a car slow down rapidly or come to a stop and no brake lights come on, I'll back way off when we start moving again so I have plenty of room and I watch that sucker like a hawk. Sometimes a car behind me will pass and get behind the 1st car. Usually that one will have brake lights. I'll let him deal with the 1st guy. I understand you had no previous warning.

 

Glad it wasn't any worse than it already is.

Dennis

 

WOW...That sucks...Yes Glad you are OK!!! Nice bike,get it fixed fast but right and get back on the road!! Hopefully there is some kind of lesson to be learned from this,Learn the lesson and hopefully it wont happen again!! Happy Trails... Tim..

 

Glad you are okay, the bike appears to have minimal damage.