Backstory: In March I was rear-ended on my way home from work in rush-hour traffic (effing Portland). The impact pushed my car into the car in front of me. My car had damage to the rear bumper and the hood, and the insurance company of the guy who hit me decided it was enough damage to just total out my car. I opted to keep it (it was mostly cosmetic damage) and have them cut me a check. The auto body shop had straightened the hood (after they found it would be totaled, for whatever reason) so my car looks perfectly normal and drives just like it did before. No harm, no foul, it's a 1997 with 200k miles on it, KWIM?
The worst thing to come of that was that I had to spend a night in the hospital because I started having contractions (at 8 months pregnant). That turned out OK too; baby and I were both fine and made it to full term after that, and dude's insurance paid for the hospital charges.
Anyway, this morning on my way TO work, I got rear-ended again. WTF, right? We're in the left lane on the freeway, crossing the bridge into Portland and the stupid Ford Taurus in front of me (I hate Ford Tauruses, did you know?) slammed on their brakes. Naturally, I braked hard to avoid hitting them and succeeded, narrowly. The guy on the motorcycle behind me couldn't stop as fast as I did and ran into the back of me. I felt the impact (we had been going probably 40 mph!) and looked in my rearview mirror to see him flying off his bike and on to the pavement. Naturally, I'm terrified for him.
Chris rides a motorcycle so I'm very aware of the dangers to riders, and it seems Portland is especially stupid about that since we don't have many year-round riders here. They all come out in the summer and it's like the people in cars forget that they exist. We hear stories on the news almost nightly about motorcycle riders getting injured or killed when cars hit them, change lanes into them, etc.
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| Put one on your car; raise awareness! |
Back to this morning. I immediately put my hazard lights on and jumped out of my car to go see if he was OK. The stupid Taurus drove away, oblivious. The pickup behind the motorcycle rider avoided hitting him (thanks largely to a big following space; clearly that guy is aware of riders). I ran to the guy as he's picking himself up and trying to get his bike up.
We talked as he examined his bike and I examined him. He was shaken, and told me it was his fault, and apologized and asked if I was OK. I was totally fine, just a little zippy from the adrenaline. I told him my man rides and I was way more concerned with his well being than my bumper.
He was looking at my car and his bike and I could tell he was tallying the damages, but I stopped him short. I briefly explained that I'd been rear-ended (by a car) only a few months prior and my car had been technically totaled and I wasn't concerned in the least about a scratch on the bumper, I just wanted to make sure he wasn't hurt. He was incredulous, but I don't think he'd realized yet how hard he hit. He was wearing an expensive street motorcycle jacket and I know those things are made with Kevlar, and it was ripped open on his shoulder. He'll be feeling that one when the adrenaline wears off, I'm sure of it.
Anyway, when I made it clear that I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it and turn it into an insurance thing, he hugged me! Lots of riders don't have insurance, and by how relieved he was, I'm guessing he's one of them. It's okay; it'll cost him plenty to replace his jacket and repair his bike. It wasn't drivable with the handle broken the way it was, and his exhaust piping was chromed, and badly scraped. Those aren't cheap fixes!
I asked if there was anything I could do to help him, since there's no shoulder on the bridge and he couldn't drive his bike, but he said he was fine and he was just going to walk it off the bridge. I hope he made it off safely and it didn't totally ruin his day, but I guarantee by the time he made it to a safe place he was starting to feel the bruises.
I would like to apologize to the other commuters behind us. I-5 southbound in the AM is hellish enough without having the left lane blocked and stopped. We were only there for maybe 5 minutes, but I'm sure traffic was affected for an hour afterward. So I'm sorry, other commuters! And I'm sorry, rider guy whose name I didn't get. I hope you're not hurting too badly.
Blame the Taurus.
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| Welcome to my hell |
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