Car hit my dad on his bike at 55mph - Only broke his finger
Note: My dad was lucky and only broke his finger in this accident.
In April of 2006 my dad got his motorcycle license so he could ride for enjoyment and ride to work occasionally. He took the same three day Motorcycle Safety Foundation course that I did and paid good attention to everything it taught. He was using my Honda CB700s Nighthawk while deciding what long term bike he wanted to buy.
On Saturday 5/6/2006 I was at my parent’s house for dinner and my dad checked all the lights on the bike because he was going to ride the bike to work the next day. He works about forty miles south of Tucson. Sunday he left work at 4:30a, driving from Tucson South to Green Valley on I-19. This was his first time driving to work
At about 4:45a on Sunday morning he was going 55mph on I-19 in the outside lane when someone sleeping at the wheel hit him from behind. The car that hit him was going about 75mph. The guy that hit him was about 25 years old and told the police he fell asleep at the wheel. My dad was launched off the bike and he could see it skidding down the freeway in front of him, with sparks everywhere as he tumbled around. In the mean while, the car that hit him slid out of control, went off the road, and stopped when it hit a tree.
As my dad became more aware of his surroundings he took off the full face helmet that had most likely saved his life and stumbled away from the highway. My dad got out of the road and left bike so he didn't get hit by traffic. About two years ago some relatives were killed when a vehicle slid off the highway and struck them (they were changing a tire). Once he had his bearings, he could hear the car near the tree trying to drive away spinning its wheels. The car was caught between two trees. He doesn’t think the guy was attempting a hit and run, he thinks the guy was just confused.
The Border Patrol was driving near the accident and stopped with their lights on to slow traffic and call an ambulance and fire truck. While he was telling me about it on the phone, a Mexican tour bus was going around 80mph and sped past the border partrol and ran over the bike in the road, where it exploded into flames and a ball of fire bigger than the bus. The bus pulled over to the side of the road and caught on fire. The fire was put out before it got too bad; was probably just bike parts under the bus burning.
The pieces of that bike that were scattered everywhere were so small I had to look at the engine from more than one direction to figure out what was top vs. bottom of the engine block. The tow truck driver on site swept that bike up with a broom, except for the engine block and the front rim/tire.
I'm really not worried about that bike, I was just worried about my dad being ok. He could have been killed really easy. The bike is replaceable and he is not. He could have got killed from the initial impact, from the fall at 55mph, or CERTAINLY from that bus if he’d not got out of the way.
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