Nasty accident this afternoon - long

I popped out for a ride this afternoon and was heading along the A458 from
Stourbridge towards Bridgnorth when a dozen or so cars going in the opposite
direction started flashing their lights and waving to slow down. A quarter
of a mile up the road was the wreckage from a car and bike crash that looked
like it had only just happened , just by the buildings in the centre of this
map.


http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v...dgnorth, England, United Kingdom___&encType=1

A couple of cars had stopped and there were two people lying on the pavement
, one on either side of the road. None of the emergency services had arrived
so I stopped to see if there was anything I could do. I'd been a plod for a
while so I figured I could still remember some first aid and how to direct
traffic as cars were still driving past.

The car was in a hedge to the north side of the road with the front
completely caved in , the windscreen smashed and the roof flattened.
The two occupants had , I think , hit the lowered roof line but didn't seem
too badly hurt other than relatively minor cuts.

The bike , a Hyabusa , was nearby in two big chunks and a pile of smaller
bits. The frame had snapped above the engine and the engine block seemed to
have cracked. The forks and handlebars weren't too far away with the remains
of the front wheel still attached and hundreds of bits of plastic and metal
scattered all over the road.

Twenty metres further along on the pavement on the same side was the rider
who looked very badly hurt. His one leg was bent back underneath him in an
unnatural position but he was breathing and was at least partly conscious.
He was being looked after by a couple of people so I went to check on the
person on the other side of the road on the verge. Worryingly the rider's
helmet was a lot further down the road than he was and had been converted to
an open face lid. The whole front section had been ripped away and the chin
strap had torn away. Luckily he didn't seem to have landed on his head.

The chap further down turned out to have been the passenger on the bike and
was another 20m along the road and was being looked after by someone else.
He was conscious and talking normally and while obviously in some pain
didn't look in too bad a way all things considered. At this point the first
ambulance turned up which was a relief. Whilst I'd stopped with the
intention of doing first aid if needed it's always good to know that those
more suited to the job have arrived. Anyway , I helped them carry some stuff
and then busied myself stopping the traffic and turning them round while
they got on with what they are doing.

Eventually the police turned up and started doing what they needed to do ,
shortly followed by two air ambulances. The two guys were loaded onto them
after a while and taken away and with nothing left for me to do I left. I
did consider taking a couple of pics of the wreckage but decided against it.
It seemed far too morbid for my liking and it had the potential to be a
fatal accident. The police were treating it as such and were already taking
measurements and photos.

The passenger was obviously going to be fine but the rider was much more
seriously hurt. They were concerned about chest and back/neck damage plus
the obviously snapped leg. From the position of the wreckage and what the
couple of witnesses had said , the bike was heading from Bridgnorth and had
been overtaking cars well into three figure speeds. The road is pretty
straight at this point but isn't flat and there's plenty of blind crests.
The car involved had stopped to turn into a driveway , indicated and began
to turn when the bike had come over the crest towards them about 50-60
metres away , midway between the buildings and road junction on the map. The
highway code reckons on 73m stopping distance at the 60mph limit here so a
sports bike should have been able to pull up ok , or at the very worst be
pretty slow at the point of impact. From the damage to both vehicles , the
way the car had been spun back the way it came and the distance the
passenger had been flung I'd guess they were still doing 50ish at the point
of impact. The rider had gone into the windscreen of the car and I think his
helmet had probably split as he hit the roof , with the passenger going
right over the top and off to one side.

I don't think you could put much blame on the car driver as they were doing
what they were perfectly entitled to do and had the bike been slower it
would have been alright. It did just seem like a case of very inappropriate
speed on that particular bit of road as there are plenty of turnings and
slow moving vehicles are to be expected. There are some stretches when you
can clearly see and others where you can't and the potential for something
like this is obvious.

Oh , and the passenger didn't know the rider's surname , was only wearing
jeans , a jacket and helmet but no gloves and looked like he might have been
taken out for a quick spin , with the rider showing off what his bike could
do. I'd imagine that could result in an interesting conversation assuming
that the rider survived.

I'd had my girlfriend with me at the time , and this was only her second
time on the bike so I wouldn't be surprised if this puts her off further
trips.

--
Alex

"I laugh in the face of danger. Then I hide until it goes away"

www.drzoidberg.co.uk www.ebayfaq.co.uk

 

That looks like a nice race track just to the left of Chapel Lane

 

I know folk moan on about 'speed kills' etc, but speed like this nearly
always does as it was very reckless by the sound of it.

Hope he pulls through mind.

Not nice to see owt like that at all.

 

The caravan owners may object :0)
--
Alex

"I laugh in the face of danger. Then I hide until it goes away"

www.drzoidberg.co.uk www.ebayfaq.co.uk

 

It was just the wrong place to give it the beans.

A bit further east is a nice straight section with very clear visibility
that would have been a much better choice and 1XX isn't a problem.

Nope , not at all.
--
Alex

"I laugh in the face of danger. Then I hide until it goes away"

www.drzoidberg.co.uk www.ebayfaq.co.uk

 

It looks like most of them have moved out already

 

Mostly paperwork actually. :0/
--
Alex

"I laugh in the face of danger. Then I hide until it goes away"

www.drzoidberg.co.uk www.ebayfaq.co.uk

 

Hehehe , it's a touring site rather than one for static sheds so I'm
guessing that was taken out of season.
--
Alex

"I laugh in the face of danger. Then I hide until it goes away"

www.drzoidberg.co.uk www.ebayfaq.co.uk

 

Nige secured a place in history by writing:

FFS, Nige, you are never going to avoid abuse in here if you can't learn to
snip....

 

If he does survive then I'm sure the police will have him in court
sharpish to make him feel better.

 

Yes we heard the choppers from where we live, knew something was up
when we stopped hearing bikes on open race pipes giving it welly!
The road is notorious, especially at the weekend.

Boxerboy

 

<snip>

Well done Dr Zoidberg on helping out.

/pats on back

 

Three in total , two air ambulances and the west mids police helicopter
taking photos

It is indeed , though the police know it just as well and are often lurking
--
Alex

"I laugh in the face of danger. Then I hide until it goes away"

www.drzoidberg.co.uk www.ebayfaq.co.uk

 

As it turned out I really didn't do much , but you don't know that when you
stop and it could have been quite different.
--
Alex

"I laugh in the face of danger. Then I hide until it goes away"

www.drzoidberg.co.uk www.ebayfaq.co.uk

 

On the grounds of good taste, I say, well done. You are the Anti-McKev.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

Teach a man to fish and he and his pikey mates will have the
river cleaned out in a day.

 

Woo Hoo!!
That's nice to hear.

It'll possibly show up on a "speed kills" poster anyway , but what I find a
bit more worrying is that the locals were talking about getting the speed
limit lowered as there had been a couple of other accidents recently. This
one was certainly caused by someone blatantly ignoring the limit and the
other two that were mentioned involved a car rolling with nobody else
involved (probably ignoring the limit as it would be very hard to crash
otherwise) and someone pulling out from a junction in front of another car
(either stupidity by car A or huge speed by car B).

In all three cases reducing the limit from 60 to 50 would be totally
irrellevant , wouldn't improve safety and just inconvenience people.

--
Alex

"I laugh in the face of danger. Then I hide until it goes away"

www.drzoidberg.co.uk www.ebayfaq.co.uk

 

"Coming to a Brunstrom Briefing near you soon!"

 

The proper reaction should be to re-engineer the road

 

<snip big off>

In contrast, while out this morning I spotted a bike parked up, rider
stood next to it with helmet off and phone out. They watched me
approach, so I pulled in and checked they were ok.

Turns out she'd passed her test during the week, come to a
crossroads[1] and been caught out by the pretty steep road crown. A
few scrapes, bent clutch lever, snapped the end off the gear change.
She was going to call the RAC - but I put forward the suggestion of
sticking it in first or second and don't change gear at all. I'd have
tried to toe it up and down, but we agreed that it wasn't easy at
standstill and while the bike and she were both new to each other it
wasn't a good idea.

I was trying not to be patronsining, but I don't think I managed. Oh
well.

[1]http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?
v=2&cp=53.609803~-2.470626&style=h&lvl=16&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&sp=Point.srphvygsyfy4_Bridgnorth
%2C%20England%2C%20United%20Kingdom___&encType=1
She'd approached along Smithills

 

Surely the obvious solution was to ride her bike home for her while
she took your 10R...