Monday, June 4, 2012

The right gear will save your life

When I see the helmet and seatbelt campaigns I always wonder how there are still people who don't see the benefits of safety gear. There's plenty of them though. I'm a career motorcyclist - I've been riding since I was 16 so I've always worn helmets for motorsports, and if the vehicle in question has a racing harness or seatbelt, so much the better. Case in point, last week I flipped a Razr 800 off-road buggy. Not sure how - we think the left front tyre came off the rim in a corner, but it went end-over-end and barrel rolled. I came out of it with an arm fractured in two places. I was harnessed in and wearing a helmet. After some on-site triage by some friends, we drove back to civilisation and I checked in to the ER. The doc said he knew I'd been wearing a helmet because the people he sees who've done the same sort of thing without a helmet typically arrive by air ambulance. There's nothing particularly gruesome here but if you want to see the outcome, here's some pics. Razr crash. Wear the appropriate gear. It will massively reduce the seriousness when something stupid happens.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow! did you ever noticed which movement hurt your arm? like smashed against something... pics sorta looks like roll was short. also land is flat.

Chris said...

As far as we can work out, my arm slammed against the roll cage as it hit the ground on the left side.

Anonymous said...

Ow. At least it's just an arm. Could have been a hell of a lot worse. And here in my neck of the woods, I see organ donors all over the road, speeding down the highway at break-neck speed with maybe a helmet and in t-shirts and sandals. Makes me cringe every time.

Get better soon, man.