My worst one was when running down the street, pushing my Schwinn
Giraffe in front of me. This was in 1980 or 81, so a long time ago. The
unicycle started oscillating because I was running as fast as I could,
then it started bouncing around and before I could slow down it tripped
me. I landed on top of it and skidded, scraping various body parts
including both palms, both knees, knuckles on one hand where the
fingers curled down, odd cuts and bruises from the unicycle, and
general pain and embarrassment.
I sat there for probably half an hour thinking about how to get home. I
was near my high school, about 4 miles away, on this 20" wheel 6 footer
with a high gear ratio. I finally decided the easiest solution would be
to ride it home, which I did.
I've never broken any bones (knock knock), but my dad just did last
month. He got out of the hospital yesterday, after exactly one month in
there. On Feb. 23, my dad (the guy who taught me how to ride a bike)
and I set off on the Haleakala downhill. This is where you ride bikes
from the top of Mt. Haleakala on the Hawaiian island of Maui, down to
the beach. It's a 10,000' drop in about 26 miles, with almost no
pedaling.
To ride the top part, you have to do it as a guided tour as it's in a
national park up there. So we were with a group, on bikes set up just
for the purpose. Big heavy Worksman bikes with hub brakes. Anyway, this
ride is not for everybody. But the tour companies don't want to
*discourage* potential customers, so they tend to downplay this fact.
You are riding a bike much faster than most people are used to, around
hairpin turns, with hand-operated hub brakes and VERY distracting
scenery. Speeds may reach up to 30 mph but are mostly in the 15-25
range.
My dad is skinny, and very light for his height. Therefore he tends to
not keep up with the group because of lack of weight. So I was showing
him how to crouch down to be more aerodynamic. We were doing this for a
while, but then he went wide on a turn, clipped a signpost as he left
the road, and dropped out of sight off the edge. This was still in the
Haleakala National Park, near the entrance, at around 8000' or so.
He ended up about 30' from where he left the road, where he'd drilled a
hole in a bunch of national park bushes. He had a big gash and bump on
his head, that was bleeding a lot, and a big, disgusting cut on his
left pinkie finger, where he'd bashed the sign post with his hand on
the handlebar. Good thing he didn't hit the sign head-on, it might have
caused a lot more damage.
But he was pretty damaged. First we had to get him out of there though.
A bunch of park rangers showed up, and fortunately they have a lot of
experience with this sort of thing (I guess it happens a lot). They got
him onto a backboard and up onto the road. Then a flatbed truck came,
to take him about 1/4 mile down the road to where a helicopter was
going to land. But by the time we got down there, the clouds had moved
in and the helicopter couldn't land there. So an ambulance arrived to
take him down to a lower helipad. From there he went to the hospital
(Maui has only one full-service hospital).
He had five broken ribs, and two hairline fractures in his vertebrae
(T6 and T12). The ribs were shattered, with little pieces rather than
simple breaks. Ow, a virtual hole in the ribcage! Your ribs' main job
is to expand so your lungs can fill with air. Meanwhile, the ribs had
caused a little tear in his lung, as well as his liver.
To make a long story short, the next day he had to be put on a
ventilator (breathing tube and mechanized breathing) for four days
until his body could cope with the injuries. At this point the doctor
said he had roughly a 40% chance of not surviving this. Fortunately he
did, and slowly regained his senses, ability to swallow, ability to
breathe, ability to walk, etc. over the following weeks. His wive and I
stayed in Hawaii several extra weeks to be with him and make sure the
hospital wasn't ignoring his needs. Today they're supposed to be going
home!
Sorry, that was a bike crash. But I had to get the story off my
"chest." And mine was a running crash, though it directly involved a
unicycle.
--
johnfoss
John Foss
"jfoss" at "unicycling.com" -- www.unicycling.com
-----------------------------------------------
"Idiot America—where fact is merely that which enough people believe,
and truth is measured only by how fervently they believe it." --
Charles Pierce, in Esquire Magazine
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