This story takes place back in 1971.
I was on my motorcycle heading back to my college apartment after a lovely weekend with my family, about 30 miles away or so. It was barely twilight. A woman turned left in front of me, clearly didn’t see me (she didn’t look), and I hit her car roughly at her back wheel, was launched over the car, and literally landed on my face. Three of my teeth were broken, my knee was split open, and I broke a small bone in my foot that required me to get around with a cane for 4 months.
No serious accidents since then, though! That single incident made me paranoid. Now I think that car drivers are out to get me, so I assume that I’m invisible to them. It’s worked well so far.
A friend of mine got in a real bad accident, mainly caused by his own stupidity. He would race through intersections. What he’d do was sit at a red light, and watch the light in the opposing direction go from green to yellow to red. Then it was about to switch to red, he’d gun the bike and fly through the intersection like a drag race. This is pretty stupid, since we all know that intersections are where all the bad stuff happens, where car drivers don’t “see” you.
So, he tried this one time too many. It was around twilight again. He ripped it right into the intersection and got t-boned by an old man who sped up to grab the light. My buddy’s leg was smashed to pieces. When he finally came back to work, he brought an x-ray and showed us all the screws and strapping and bailing wire that they used to put the bones back together.
And he walks real funny now.
Mike LaFontaine
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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