Motorcycle Accident, 3D recreation and thoughts
As many of you know, I was recently involved in a pretty serious motorcycle accident. I T-Boned a Dodge Intrepid doing around 30mph, and was thrown over the car Below are the details of it, the bike involved in it, the circumstances of the accident, what I learned about motorcycling safety from it, some innovations that came from it, and my own Animated recreation of the actual crash in an attempt to understand my perplexing injuries.
The last major project on the old V-Strom – the Givi Top case with integrated brake lights. Very niiice. This adds significant visibility to your vehicle, and distinguishes it clearly as a motorcycle. Unfortunately I couldn’t quite get the wiring right! When I hit the brakes, the lights TURNED OFF! I don’t know how I would even do that If I wanted to! For the purposes of the ride, I very disappointingly left them disconnected, since lights turning OFF (just the case lights) when I hit the brakes was probably more confusing and dangerous then the benfit as running lights they offered.
Ready to embark on the trip, the tank bag with laptop / tablet GPS, here with it’s water protective cover. My modified seat with extra cushion, hydrophilic cover and hydrophobic spacer, the Givi side cases and Givi top case.
Me! Ready to go! The yellow shirt is a knit Kevlar mesh. Comfortable but highly abrasion resistant.
About an hour later I got into an accident. The result =/
Ouch! My poor V-Strom! And me, I was pretty banged up.
The circumstances are as follows – I entered an intersection traveling approximately 30 mph (my estimate) this was in a 45 mph zone. The light, according to witnesses, had ‘just turned’ red. In the intersection I hit almost dead on a blue Dodge Intrepid, which was traveling perpendicular to my direction of travel. For the light to have just turned red, and for this car to all ready be in the intersection – it must have darted immediately out or, seeing the light on their direction of travel was about to turn green, kept up a high velocity. Either way, it was in the middle of the intersection I entered. The police report indicated where the car was towed, I went there and found it - Here is the car I hit
According to the officer I picked the report up from, my bike hit their car and came to a dead stop, but the car was hit hard enough that it rotated the position of the car 90 degrees on the road. Initially he told me I hit the driver DOOR, which worried me, doors don’t have stellar records for preventing intrusions and thus major injuries, but this picture shows otherwise, I hit the frame between the front and the rear door, which explains the very small amount of intrusion of the wall of the car into it’s cabin (A good rating on Intrusion according to the NHSTA is when the door does not pass the outer edge of the steering wheel, a ‘poor’ score the door would pass the midline of the steering column) In this case, intrusion was not more than a few inches, even though I hit the car pretty hard. Instead the momentum was transferred via the frame directly to the rest of the car, hence the rotation of 90 degrees, instead of the door crumpling and me ending up on the drivers lap! The officer said the driver suffered scratches from the flying glass but as far as he knew nothing serious, she was more concerned about how I was doing, and I am very glad to hear she suffered few injuries.
Consider this picture of the front forks of my bike
The solid green line is the path the forks SHOULD follow, here the dotted line shows their actual orientation now, they were bent pretty good in this crash. Note these are 2” steel tubes. This is a good 3 or 4 degree bend at the lower tree.
My poor VSTROM!!! =(
Vehicle designers like to try to make the fronts of vehicles look like faces, my poor bike here looks like a hawk that has had the crap beaten out of it.
This is the Steering Column – note the curvature of the tube. Again, that’s some pretty serious force, the steering column is usually about 3” tubing with ¼” wall (my guess) This is what makes the bike totaled, the steering column is directly welded to the frame, and since it is collapsed and cracked, the handlebars / fork can not turn, and the column can not be replaced without cutting the whole frame up – you might as well build a new bike.
Last, look at the gas tank. I still can not figure out the circumstances here, this dent for the most part is on the RIGHT side of the tank. The area of ME hitting the tank here would have been my GROIN – but I suffered no groin injuries at all. My LEFT leg was bruised on the inner thigh, but this is on the RIGHT side of the tank! - ?? That’s a heck of a dent. This also is underneath my tank bag, which was mounted to the bike through two strong nylon seat belt like straps.
Groin injuries are very common in motorcycle accidents, and I was aware enough of this to weigh it when bike shopping. The most pressing influence on severe groin injuries (by severe, I’m talking about a SPLIT PELVIS, which usually involves not walking for a year or more) is a very steep tank angle. Look at most sport bikes and you see this –
My V-Strom by comparison, looks like this
For starters, the seat cushion itself rises with the tank for the first part of it – which the brunt of the force would take place. Then it rises *gently* at about 30 degrees. Contrast that to the Honda CBR600RR (red) above, which starts with no padding at a RIGHT ANGLE to the seat. The Hayabusa and Ninja aren’t much better.
Motorcycle Consumer News (probably the best Motorcycle magazine) did a study on motorcycle tank to seat angles against pelvic and groin injuries, and found, not surprisingly, the steeper the tank angle to the seat, the more severe the injuries.
My V-Strom, however, had an extra cushion added ? and so looked more like this
Which you can see here
I think this gentle seat angle of the V-Strom as well as my added seat cushion is what granted me NO pelvis, hip, or groin injuries. Amazing considering that dent on the tank.
The gentle slope helped significantly, and the extra cushion actually put me just above the gas tank, it seems.
So, what injuries DID I suffer?
Here is a quick representation of them
From top to bottom, I had a bloody nose, my helmet chin strap cut my chin up, nothing significant though. I had some kind of major injury on my upper right chest, a bruise was not apparent until 3 days later, but this continues to cause me the most discomfort, breathing deep, laughing, or worst of all, hiccupping, cause severe shooting pain. This must have been a significant muscle tear or pull on the muscles that overlap ribs. My lower left abdomen / rib cage has a similar injury though not as severe. The inside of my left arm has a deep yellow and purple bruise about 5 inches long. Not sure what caused this. My left leg, inner thigh, upper has a very deep purple bruise and my left inner thigh has the largest bruise I’ve ever had in my life to date. Those bruises are below. My right knee suffered something serious, it’s still significantly swollen, I don’t have full range of movement yet, and there is still some numbness in it. Also my lower right leg has a light bruise that covers the whole shin area. And my left ankle has no bruising but feels almost sprained.
Left leg, above knee, inner thigh. This is about 14” long.
Left leg, inner thigh, just below groin. Hmm, this looks suspiciously like, and is of similar size to… a Handgrip! Weird.
Lets take another look at my injuries chart compared to safety gear. Outlined in Blue is my riding gear, helmet, textile jacket, and boots.
Well, I think this shows a pretty clear trend. Where I had riding gear, I had few significant injuries. Where I had none (legs) I suffered the worst injuries. This is pretty common, the most common place of injury for motorcyclists is the legs, and this is also the place that motorcyclists are least likely to wear protective gear. Obviously in this case I am guilty of this as well, even though I was fully aware of this. I had a good set of riding pants that I was going to put on as soon as I got to my brothers house before embarking on the full trip to Chicago. This was textile gear (high strength nylon thread called "Cordura" which is better than leather for abrasion resistance yet can be woven into a light netting) with armor in the knees and hips. The biggest reason, I think, that motorcyclists don’t don leg gear more often is that it is entirely cumbersome to take on and off. Where as a jacket and helmet can be thrown on in a few seconds, pants take a good minute or two to pull on over your boots and zip up and fasten.
Either way, I don’t think the riding pants would have made much difference on the bruises on the insides of my legs, but I think that knee injury would have been much much less severe.
Taking another look at my gear, I added the placement of the armor of the jacket and boots.
Here something else shows up, I had NO injuries where armor was present. Some places armor would be unwieldy, like the inside of the upper arm. But that chest injury, which I think came from hitting my windshield, there certainly could be armor there, and in the abdomen. I’m adding this to my future modification list (perhaps I’ll just get some motocross armor and cut it up and put it inside the jacket)
So, lessons learned, wear full riding gear (even though I had much more than motorcyclists typically do, which the medical personal frequently commented on) and add armor in strategic places to that armor. I’ll have to research this a little more but it seams reasonable enough.
-Accident Recreation-
So, what I’ve been wondering is what actually happened as far as me hitting parts of my bike, given the placement of the injuries, it’s very hard to piece together. Here is what is known
Me – Severe RIGHT knee injury Upper Inner LEFT thigh major bruise upper leg inner LEFT thigh major, large bruise Upper LEFT arm inside significant bruise Upper RIGHT chest, major injury Lower LEFT leg distributive light injury Helmet – abrasion and impact, left side I came to rest far to the left side of the bike and the car, according to police report diagram
Motorcycle - RIGHT side of tank, major dent LEFT side case took major blow, bike probably ended up falling onto left side motorcycle stopped after hitting car, fell over
What is very curious is that huge dent in the tank, being on the RIGHT side of the tank, and yet my LEFT thigh being bruised. The fact that the upper thigh injury looks a lot like the handgrip got me thinking. After some deliberation I believe this is a reasonable estimate of what occurred.
1) As I hit the car, the bike and car being at angles with respect to one other, the motorcycle was violently forced to the ground, falling over to the left. 2) My body, however, continued forward with it’s forward momentum, but also picked up some lateral momentum from the bike being forced violently to fall over 3) With the motorcycle now at an angle, and in the process of falling over, my LEFT INNER LOWER thigh hits the tank bag and left side of the gas tank, since the bike is being forced violently to fall to the left, my right thigh does not hit the gas tank. a. This does not dent the gas tank, but gives me a good bruise, but also forces my left leg to spread further. The tank bag mat is ripped up and to the right, since I hit it from the left. b. This gives my body significant lateral momentum, taking away from forward momentum. c. The Gas Tank and Tank bag also give me some upward momentum. d. When my lower body hit the gas tank, my upper body folded forward and my arms reached far forward 4) I am still traveling forward, but now also traveling up and sideways. My hips and rip cage are folder slightly, my arms outstretched forward. a. At this point my far outstretched LEFT arm hits the LEFT MIRROR of the motorcycle, breaking it and giving me the bruise in my upper left arm. b. Shortly after that, my LEFT UPPER THIGH actually hits the LEFT HANDGRIP! Giving me the major bruise on my upper thigh looks like a handgrip. 5) I am traveling forward, upward, and to the left, while the bike is falling rapidly down and to the left. My left leg has just hit the handgrip, stopping the forward momentum of the left side of my body almost immediately! The result is the right side rapidly rotates. Here is where the Knee injury and gas tank dent come from. a. With the tank bag now torn off and my left upper inner thigh hitting the left handgrip, my entire body now rotates very rapidly around the point of impact of my left thigh, essentially swinging my leg and knee around an arc and ultimately I pound the gas tank with my KNEE! Giving it the one massive dent it had and my major Knee injury. 6) Around this same time, as my body is rotating with my right side moving forward and my whole body yet still moving forward, my upper chest impacts the top of my givi windscreen, concentrating a large force in a small area on my chest.
Other than that, the ankle, shin, and helmet injuries I think came from landing on the ground and sliding. Ultiamtely this is the only scenario I can think of that explains the left leg bruisies, the right side of the gas tank dent, and the knee and chest injury.
Here is a quick little animation I did while trying to understand this, my not so dramatic recreation of my motorcycle accident
http://http://.youtube.com/watch?v=lc95s6k4uW
-Safety Suggestions-
Well, all of this suggests some safety modifications to me, some simple, some elaborate.
Breakaway handlebar grips – Fasten the handgrips using nylon or UHMWPE plastic, so if you hit the grips, the grips break off by shearing the bolts. But under all normal conditions they are held as tightly as a steel tube would.
Liner for windscreen – I think my chest hit either the edge of the windscreen or the right side mirror. This suggests a wide liner on the edge of the windscreen or mirror would be good. Ultimately the mirrors should be moved and placed on the cowling anyway.
fastening to vehicle – All this makes me think some mechanisms which fastens you to the vehicle, BUT breaks away and in the process takes away much of momentum would be very valuable. Such a system might be two teathers that attatch to your bike frame and to your jacket, which has adequate wide strapping sewn into it. The tethers could be weighted to break at various levels of force. I think this is worthy of some research.
Small air bags – Honda has all ready started experimenting with small air bags on their Goldwings, the purpose of these, again, are to take away much of the momentum of your body gently, this significantly reducing injurires.
Very low center of gravity – A low center of gravity would help keep the bike stable in an accident, and make it much harder to do wheelies and stoppies. But a high center of gravity is preferable for sport bike and quick, agile performance. Thus a system which gives you a low center of gravity only under rapid deceleration would be preferable. In My case, I believe the large amount of extra weight added to the vehicle helped to prevent it from actually flipping over the car I was impacting, but the geometry of the crash and car did as well.
Accessory / periphery shedding – aircraft are made to break apart on impacts, but not the fuselage or cabin, only the wings, tails, engines, etc. This is to reduce the momentum of the vehicle which carries the occupants so they can be stopped easier. Windshields, cowlings, cases, could be made to sheer off with nylon bolts, as long as they are not in your path. This will make the vehicle with you on it lighter and easier to stop.
hypextension limiting safety gear – I had few bruises, no broken bones, and many of my bruises did not actually hurt (such as the two on my thigh) yet I was in a lot of pain and very very sore, virtually every joint was sore. This suggests to me that injuries were primarily hyperextension of my joints and or torn muscles.
Chest armor plates – a simple and easy addition would be small hard overlapping armor plates in my jacket covering parts of the chest
-Culpability-
Ultimately I was issued a ticket for running a red light for $143. One of the witness accounts stated the light had just ‘turned’ yellow, why would the other vehicle all ready be in the middle of the intersection? There must have been some confusion about this, one of the EMT’s said the car ran the red light. I don’t remember at all, but I know I was quite tired and was not paying as full attention as I should be in such a situation – I was on my way to my brothers house just a few minutes away to take some rest there. My lessons – always wear leg gear and also never ride if at all tired! (duh!)
-Postscript–
I’m awaiting my insurance check and shopping for a new bike, it will probably be the same model since I can transfer my accessories directly to it, and I loved that bike. I’m always confronted with looks of disdain or condescension when referencing motorcycling. At a recent family gathering a friend of a family member was there and chiding that motorcyclists were just organ donors to be, this he said while puffing away on a cigarette. Motorcycling has an unreasonable reputation regarding safety, consider smoking is about 5 times more dangerous than motorcycling is, for instance, in terms of average years taken off your life. And an average alchohol habit is as unhealthy and as dangerous as smoking is, yet get little attention. Furthermore, the perception of safety in motorcycling is an average of safety minded individuals and irrational irresponsible people who speed, at night, while inebriated, without any safety gear. Were motorcycling statistics made up of only safety minded folks who never the less get in accidents and injured or killed, the numbers would be far far lower. Some 80% of Motorcycle fatalities are SINGLE VEHICLE ACCIDENTS and the majority of those involve alcohol and no helmets. Averaging the perception of safety of motorcycling over helmeted riders and non-helmeted riders, for instance, is absurd. Non helmeted riders are some 10 – 20 times more likely to die if they do get in an accident. Personally, I don’t drink, or smoke, and as such live a life with a higher safety margin than your average person who does EITHER of those (not both) but never the less has a paralyzing fear of motorcycling. And within the context of motorcycling, I am a very safety minded rider. My gear and modifications significantly reduced my injuries in this incident, though much was pure luck. Moreso, this was an entirely avoidable incidence and was due to at least in a major part from a lack of rational judgment on my part. In 8 years I have not dropped my bike a single time, until this accident, and have never had a speeding ticket or citation, and routinely practice emergency stopping and swerving techniques. I ride defensively and attentively, I’m fully confident that I’ll never be involved in an accident even remotely as bad as this because I will never commit this judgment lapse again and undertaken with reasonable care motorcycling can be enjoyable and safe.
Whatever might happen in the future, know I don’t regret for one moment getting involved in motorcycling, I’ve encountered nothing more liberating and indeed intellectually exhilarating and personally rewarding. Originally I started motorcycling purely for pragmatic reasons, but I’ve turned out love it. There is no finer example of advanced technology as the product of the most ingenious minds through centuries to the average person than a motorcycle and nothing more representative of productive human effort in a physical manifestations than the technology and ingenuity that goes into putting that power, technology, and sophistication into such a tiny package. While I believe there is much more to be done still with such vehicles, they are never the less the highest manifestation of technological achievement available to the average man and immersing myself in them, operating and even designing and building one has been an immensely fulfilling and rewarding endeavor
Just after departing at the layover in Frankfurt. With Lufthansa, I was expecting one of the new EU Airbus’s, but this was a Boeing 747. 
On our way to Rome, we passed over the Alps and the Appenine Ridge. 
I love passing mountain ranges from jet flights, but pictures never do it justice. 
About to Land in Rome! I was a little confused, I must have been on the wrong side of the plane, because this didn’t look like a big city at all. Turns out we landed about an hour outside of Rome in some beautiful Italian country side. 
We checked into our hotel, on the outskirts of the city. I was roomed with the father of one of the younger women on the trip, and not the person I was worried about rooming with. My friend from Illianos revealed to me I was originally roomed with him, and she’s been on the trips before and insisted to the organizer to not condemn me to that, knowing what this guy was like. Stories of him walking around in his underwear and toothpaste covered bathroom walls were floated about. I thanked her profusely! confessed my undying gratitude, and told her I’d buy her a drink at every meal. I knew none of the stories, just had the feeling he was those guys you know is going to be weird. Very nice guy, but definately weird. Decent view from our hotel room, but the Hotel was not at all impressive. As our tour host joked, it was a four star hotel but two of it’s stars were out. Apparently the EF Tours usually come up with much better stays. Floors 1 - 5 were electronic and accessible by elevators, floor 6 was stair access only and had old fashioned manual key locks. You were given one key per room, and asked to drop it off at the desk each time you left. 
We unpacked, relaxed for a bit, changed, showered, the all met for dinner. Here are some Random shots in Rome. 
After dinner, we made our way to the famous Spanish Steps, a popular meeting place in Rome which had a spectacular Ambience. I think if I lived here, I’d hang out here frequently. 
At the top was an old Egyptian obelisk 
From the very top, you could see the lighted dome of St. Peters Basilica, probably about 4 miles away. 
Looking down the steps to the street and fountain 
Me at the steps 
The fountain at the base was beautiful, the public fountains in Italy all have continuously fed clean water and are allegedly drinkable, though none of us tested the claim. 
We walked on, I found it odd there was an American Federal style building deep in Rome. This style was popular with the rise of American Federalism after the Revolutionary war, where American style was trying to distance itself from colonial and classical revival. 
And another one, attractively lit 
Walking the streets of Rome we came across a random church that was quite intriguing. 
Then it was one to the famous Trevi Fountain. Rounding a corner, the elaborate façade comes into view. 
Me in front of the Trevi Fountain. 
Closer detail of the elaborate marble carvings 
I liked this view 
And this one 
A close up of the center of the fountain 
This church sat behind the Trevi Fountain 
The elaborate Corinthian capitals were impressive 
A close up 
The front of the church was gated, and had all these small locks on it. I asked the Tour guide what the deal with that was. Lovers, he said, would come and put the locks on the gate together, supposedly their love would last forever, or as long as the lock remained. He said periodically the city comes and cuts them all off. So much for symbolism. 
We all enjoyed some Gelatio (Ice Cream) at the fountain. Seeking out Gelatio became a popular sport during our stay in Italy. A Random statue at the corner of a random building 
I spied an ancient looking temple façade down a side street, turns out we’d see it later though. 
We headed to a random church on reports about the interior of it from someone in the group 
Note the size of the pedestrians about to enter 
The inside was indeed incredible 
There was a service going on, so we quietly looked around. The pictures don’t do it justice. That’s a small choir all the way at the end, to help give a sense of scale. 
The walls are elaborate marble columns supporting giant Roman arches and the whole ceiling was elaborately painted. 
This was a random ‘small’ church in Rome, and was impressive and awe inspiring. 
Throughout the trip, these churches would inspire mixed emotions in me. While their technical skill and achievement is amazing and worthy of worship on their own, like a skilled artist choosing a bad theme, what they were made in the name of, and how the resources were acquired to make them, bothered me as much as the admiration of achievements required to make them inspired reverence in me. Off to the side was this interesting model. Someone asked at another church if this model represented something that someone wanted to actually build. I doubt it, given the sheer scale of it, but the tour guide said it was. 
And this one beside it 
A closer look reveals amazing sculptures 
Next to those, another just as impressive 
We quietly left the church, and a few blocks later was the Roman Pantheon!!! 
The sheer scale of it is hard to capture. Here I am standing in front of it 
The columns alone are a good 5 stories tall, and made of single pieces of granite. Probably 8 feet in diameter at the base. How the Romans even moved these, let alone put them into a standing position without breaking them is perplexing. 
I’m not sure what the inscription reads, but the Pantheon was built on top of the ruins of a previous temple to a Roman general, called Agrippa, so it looks to be something in honor of that. 
It was closed at night, but we would be returning the next day, and the inside was far more amazing. Next we passed the same ancient temple façade that was visible earlier. 
A few blocks away, we visited Hadrean’s Column. Built in the first century AD, by the famed Roman architect Appollodorus. 
After that, it was back to the metro and about a half hour ride and half hour walk to the hotel Some thoughts on Rome and Italy. One thing that immediately jumped out was the vast prevalence of motorcyclists and scooters. Lane splitting was almost a requirement, quiet a contrast to the states where only California allows lane splitting. Scooters and bikes could go and park pretty much anywhere they could fit. This area of Italy, at least, must have 10 or 20 times the motorcycle ridership that the states had. The weather and narrow roads surely is partly responsible for that, the terrain was full of small hills and charming alluring twisty roads, but the absurdly high gas prices was no doubt the primary reason. Geologically most of the land and stone outcroppings were a light sandstone, and the houses all had dark red terracotta roofs, contrasted with the lush green of the landscape they all made for a rich and very different landscape. 
