It was a gorgeous day. Jim, Jason, Dave and myself decided to take our
trials bikes out for some play time at Jones Beach. There are plenty of
structures, stairs and wall rides to play with.
We started off with some small stuff to get warmed up and we watched each
other to see if we could pull off the same maneuvers and provided advice to
each other on how to do different things. Things were going great. This was
only the 2nd time that Jim and I had been on our trials bikes in over 6
months so were very, very rusty and out of shape. Jason and Dave had been
also injured earlier on in the year but were back on their bikes in no time.
This was turning into a long session. By the time hour number 3 came around
we were all drained and beaten. We were just about to call it a day when
Dave decided that he wanted to try one more thing...
A long cement retaining wall that started off low and elevated to well over
20 feet. I was standing further back when I saw him start to approach the
wall. Jim and Jason were up ahead of me. I saw Dave hop onto the ledge and I
started to get very bad mojo. He slowly balanced and started riding the 12
wide cement retaining wall upwards. 3 feet high, 4 feet high, 5 feet high, 6
feet high...I commented out loud that he was going too high up on the
barrier and carrying it too far...he kept going. He is well known for his
biking skills and doing these kinds of drops that he's done plenty of
time...but this time...I had a bad feeling about this...
7 feet high or so, he decided to finally drop. It would have been a simple
drop to tranny for him, nothing outrageous, just lift the front end up and
land smoothly on his rear tire...but he was tired, he was drained, he didn't
manage to get his front end up as planned...
I was standing on the far side of the wall when he fell out of my view. All
I saw was his front wheel dart straight downwards towards the cement ground.
Jason and Jim were standing in front watching him. I heard a thud, a very
ugly thud as he hit the ground from 7 feet up in the air. I didn't see it, I
only heard it. He was not wearing a helmet. I saw Jim and Jason running
towards the direction where he had fallen and my heart sank into my chest.
It happened in a split second but it felt like everything was happening in
slow motion. I dropped my bike and ran over to where they were. I saw Dave
on the ground, he face was crushed and blood was gushing in all
directions.Every part of his face had been broken and split open. Jason
removed one of his sweaters and wrapped it around Dave's forehead that had
been split open with a 3 inch gash. Jim grabbed Dave's camelbak and I
removed my shirt and he doused it in water so we could staunch the blood off
the rest of his face. His nose had been crushed into his face and his upper
lip was dangling by a little bit of skin. I don't think I had ever seen
anyone lose so much blood in a matter of seconds. He had probably suffered a
minor concussion as well.
We were in the middle of nowhere in a far parking lot of the beach. There
was nothing and nobody around. We all remained calm and decided how to
approach. The choice was that we would either have to walk him back to the
cars (which were a couple of miles away), call 911 (which would have taken
too long for them to arrive at our location), or one of us would have to
haul ass, pick up one of the cars and drive back to pick him up and drive
him to Mid-Island Hospital which was about 10-15 minutes away.
Dave was getting weaker by the minute, there was no way we were going to
drag him back to the car. We decided that Jim and I would stay with him
while Jason would ride back to the car, he took off like a rocket. He must
have been flying like a jet because he was gone and back within 15-20
minutes with his car. We put his bike on the car rack and helped him into
the car. Dave was barely hanging on, it looked like he was starting to go
into shock. We kept talking to him to make sure he was coherent and make
sure he was drinking water to stay hydrated. Jason peeled rubber down the
road in the car on his way to the hospital. Jim and I stood there trying to
take in what had just happened. We were very bummed out.
We rode back to the truck. Jason would give us a call to update us on what
was going on when he got admitted. We got home and got the call with soon
after. The early was prognosis was that he would require plenty of stitches
to close the gash on his forehead. His nose was broken and his upper lip had
been pierced straight through and would require reconstructive surgery to
re-attach and repair that portion of his face. They were waiting for the
surgeon to come and start the procedure when he had called to update us. He
said he would call us back when everything was completed.
He'll probably be in the hospital for a couple days to heal and make sure
everything is ok. I will try to get an update so far on how things worked
out...
- CA-G
a sad day...
Can-Am Girls Kick Ass!