accident update

Hi guys. Two Saturdays ago my wife and I were riding my bike on one of those “perfect weather” afternoons. Joyce was tired from the days gardening and decided to leave her Low Rider in the garage. We went and picked up a friend (Tommy) on his Hoss, and from there intended to go look at a friends “new” 48 Harley.

A few minutes from Tommy’s house we stopped at a red light at a “T” intersection. We were going north, and were going to turn left and head west.
A car coming from the east stopped at the intersection in the left turn lane as the light turned red , and green for us.
We were the only three vehicles at the intersection, and Tommy was on our left. We pulled out and began our left turn. Just as we almost completed the turn and before the bike was straightened out, we were hit from the rear, on our right side by a 93 van and never saw or heard him coming. It was just a loud crash, a very hard hit, and we were both on the ground in the blink of an eye.
We landed near each other on our left sides and she was moaning. Everything from then on happened in abstract time.
I was able to reach out and touch her shoulder but everyone kept hollering for me to lay still. My foot was hurt and some nice guy held my leg in the air for twenty minutes till the ambulances got there. Our new half helmets stayed on and probably kept us from being knocked out or worse. I hollered for someone to get the tag number. I had no idea of what even hit us. My bike was shut off by Tommy and it was lying in a big puddle with antifreeze and steam coming off somewhere.
Tommy started to flip out and verbalize the driver of the van. I looked up and saw some *’n asshole looking at me with a stupid look on his face. Bystanders were trying to keep Tommy cool , and not having much success.
They took my wife first and then I went for my first ambulance ride.

Morphine is good, very good.
I was able to talk with the state troopers in the emergency room. They brought Estaban Ramerez in for his blood alcohol test. The 37 yr old worthless p.o.s. has no license, registration, or insurance, and the van wasn’t his, and the ins. card was a fake. Don’t be surprised, but he can’t speak English either. He is an illegal immigrant and at this point they’re still not certain who he really is.

The witness at the preliminary hearing this morning, saw him coming in her mirror, and then watched him blow thru the red light and run into us. She said his brake lights didn’t come on for about ¼ mile. Apparently he got a flat when he hit me. Probably the crash bar when it broke off. Tommy saw him get out of the van. Then he wandered back to the crash site where he tried to pose as part of the onlookers. Tommy recognized him and tried to kick the **** out of him. But two troopers and three fire police stopped him.
Unfortunately, a 91 yr old man with a new two week old pace maker, also got in the middle of Tommy’s charge, and received a fractured leg when he was pulled out from the bottom of the pile.
So Tommy got arrested for disorderly conduct.

In the hospital we were visited by a very nice old lady. She wanted to see how we made out since she was the one who called 911. And, it was her husband that got creamed. She was funny, and told us as soon as she heard an old man was involved in the tussle, she new it had to be him. She said he “acts like he’s still 71 all the time”. He is doing fine. I’ll have to meet him.

Joyce has a fractured pelvis in two places. But the breaks are in line and will heal in time without surgery. She gets around carefully with a walker.
A good chunk of my right foot was degloved. Two bones were broke in three spots. So the surgeon put two 4” pins in and 60 some stitches and got it back together. I’m over the infection hump and it should be good enough without any further work.
The bike got a rough estimate by email only, and has $8200 in damage not counting the headlight, windshield, and slightly bent frame down by the master cylinder.

We are both just so thankful that the man upstairs was looking over us. I think if the guy didn’t tag us, he might have wiped out a whole family down the road. Who knows ?

So we each loose 3 months of work, we survived with little damage on the grand scale of things. And it ain’t like I can’t rebuild it and make it better and faster ! I didn’t have full coverage on it since I too have the “can’t happen to me “ attitude. Soon as I can I’ll start looking for parts. Now I have the bug again for building a 406 and a new front end and a slight rake !! In time.

Thank you all for the kind words and emails.
Jeff