Biker down

After spending time at the 1000 bikes show this weekend, which was a huge success, this morning brought a brutal reminder of the other side of biking.

N1 North, just before 8, a black vmax was heading along the emergency lane (white-next to fast lane) when he struck a car that was being pushed after breaking down. I stopped and cleared some of the debris out the road, while other bikers were doing cpr ... after a while they stopped and covered him.

I never saw his face thankfully, white guy, 30's, he had a big bunch of keys and remotes.

I have to write this, so if you're feeling squeamish just .... look the other way.

The silver polo was stopped in the right hand lane, its right front wheel had been smashed in, and was lying askew, the corner of the car had also been smashed off. marks against the concrete barrier showed that the bike had hit the car and the barrier in close order, a lot of plastic debris littered the area.

The rider was about 30m past that, on his back, in the fast lane, with the bike on it's side about 20m past that. The bike was broken, and had slid along the tar so hard that it had ground away the engine casing, dropping oil and gears and metal parts covering the 2 right hand lanes. Along the tar lay plastic and metal and shoes and gloves and helmets. I can still feel the explosion of plastic and metal that must have occurred, i could almost hear the sickening crunch and scream of metal ... it was just ... that obvious.

Dead. They guy was lying there dead. One of the brave and few, dead. I'm stuck on that word, dead, it's just ... like a full stop. It carries with it the weight of silence. Stupid dead .. which carries the weight of my anger. He killed himself through reckless arrogance and thoughtlessness. Too fast ... way too fast ... wrong place ... he shouldn't have been there ... his helmet come off ... his shoes, gloves, helmet, keys, socks ... i've seen it before in accidents ... where the "victim" is sitting there in bare feet or torn socks, and looking utterly ridiculous. A grown man lying dead on the highway with no shoes on.

And pulling away after, the impatient cagers, irritated at their own pathetic weakness and inability to get where they're going ..... my anger nearly boiled over at their ignorance stupidity and arrogance. I have to go back to the scene ... i don't know why ... settle my own restless mind i think. Maybe it's time for me to put some A3 posters up like i've been threatening to ... suicide lane, emergency ONLY, whatever it takes to get these people's attention.

Sadly before i arrived at the scene i was fuming about those guys riding down the emergency lane, they're scaring the cars over into the biker lane again, narrowing the biker lane, and slowing me down even more, while they fly along at STUPIDLY inappropriate speeds ... years of work on my part (and others) is being undone ... and people are dying for lack of knowledge.