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April 28, 2009
On hitting the road
Bleeding Edge can now speak with authority on the experience of hitting a bitumen road at 40kph and sliding on your side for what seemed an inordinately long distance, with a heavy motor scooter bouncing up and down on your shin. It was peak hour on Friday, Wattletree Road. The tram lines (and everything else) were wet, and we evidently tried to cross them at an insufficiently safe angle. It all happened too quickly to remember much, although we're unlikely to forget the sense of sheer helplessness as we slid towards the row of parked cars, to miss by a matter of centimetres. Didn't bang the safety helmet on anything, either.
Aside from the shin, Yours Truly is suffering from a badly corked thigh, sprained right thumb, and most painful of all, possibly some torn chest ligaments. It even hurts to breathe. Nevertheless, considering one's age, we didn't come off too badly, and the motor scooter is in better shape than we'd expected.
We would have been worse off, for sure, if we hadn't been wearing ballistic nylon pants and jacket with shoulder, knee, and thigh pads, and boots. (Pity we weren't wearing the full-length boots though. Then we wouldn't have all those bruises and scrapes.) There's a circular hole punched in the pants, which we imagine is the pattern left by whatever corked the thigh.
The insurance excess is $600 - we're just shy of the three years required to stop being an "inexperienced rider" - so we're hoping a replacement mudguard and a couple of other minor scrapes will come in at a low enough price to avoid making a claim.
The policeman who attended informed us that the same thing had happened to him three times. He informed us that he wouldn't be taking any further action. "You couldn't really call it rider error," he said. "Those tram lines are murder."
But it really was a case of rider error. We'd had quite a fright about half an hour earlier when we were riding down Wattletree Road (ironically, to make an appointment with a medical specialist), when we crossed the tram line and the scooter had bucked wildly. We'd never experienced them as being quite so nasty. So when we were riding back up the street, the bloody tram tracks were on our mind. We looked at the bloody things, to make sure we stayed away from them, and that's what undid us. It's called "target fixation". You go where you look, and we were looking at the wrong thing.
Posted by cw at April 28, 2009 07:54 PM
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Comments
Give up the scooter before it is your undoing. Much better to be in a modern fuel efficient 4wd!
Posted by: Danielle at April 28, 2009 11:58 PM
It hurts when I laugh, Danielle, but you cracked me up, nevertheless.
I'll have to borrow the spouse's turbo-diesel Peugeot when it rains, I suppose. It's a more modest polluter than a Toorak tank.
Posted by: cw at April 29, 2009 11:55 AM
You had a policeman attend? Wow, if the cops attended every bike, scooter and motorbike that came off on the tram lines in Melbourne they'd have no time left for anything else!
Posted by: Adrian at April 29, 2009 12:14 PM
I suspect you're right, Adrian. I came down one block from Cabrini Hospital, however, and a passing paramedic vehicle spotted me. By law, apparently, they have to stop at the scene of an accident. And despite my protestations they called an ambulance. The police arrived with it. I suspect that's a legal requirement too.
In hindsight, it would have been far wiser for me to have accepted their advice, and had myself taken to Cabrini to have everything checked out. I wasn't in a good condition to judge the extent of my injuries. And deciding to ride home was equally foolhardy.
Posted by: cw at April 29, 2009 07:54 PM
I had a similar experience (though in High St) forty years ago. Luckily mine was very late at night and there was no traffic around, but those tramlines will do it every time. Glad you're not too badly injured.
Posted by: Frank at April 29, 2009 08:46 PM
Take care of your body - you only get one to last a lifetime!
Posted by: Martn at April 29, 2009 11:34 PM
"And deciding to ride home was equally foolhardy."
Err...Yes CW..
Post accident shock.
Next time think of the Green Guide circulation and take a cab home.
Posted by: Bryan at April 30, 2009 01:45 AM
Well CW its a pity you had an accident.
Imagine my plight when I arrived to be tested for reinstatement of my motorbike licence that I held back in 1948.
I arrived at the testing station and got into some loose gravel applied the Brakes and came off while all the learners were looking on.
Didn't hurt much only had a small gravel rash and was able to reurn home on the scooter.
Anyway it's all a learning curve .
Regards,
Maurie10
Posted by: Maurie10 at April 30, 2009 02:45 AM
Oops. Didn't look at the blog until I came by just now. I haven't ridden a motor bike / scooter since 1975. And I remember the thrills and the spills. My empathy Charles.
Posted by: AnandaSim at April 30, 2009 08:31 PM
Sorry to hear of your motorcycle misadventure, Charles. I hope you have a speedy return to robust good health.
I must say I find difficulty in correlating motorcycle riding and staying intact. Perhaps a neat little energy efficient car might be in order?
Posted by: Extulit at May 5, 2009 07:34 AM