- Location
- Signal Mtn., TN
I'm sure most of you have seen these words on bumper stickers and billboards here and there. I thought I'd share a very personal story with you to show just how important this can actually be.
The last weekend of November 2010, my youngest nephew, Barrett, was riding home on a motorcycle. It was a nice sunny Sunday and he had just been to visit his girlfriend. Coming the opposite direction was a couple in a pickup looking for a relative's house. They had just moved to the mountain where we live and while they knew basically where the relatives lived, they weren't sure of the exact house. The couple in the pickup thought they might have had the right house then decided it was the next one. They started to go on past the first one when the driver of the truck recognized the relative's car in the driveway. At the last second he did a quick turn towards the driveway. He had checked traffic when he was about to turn in at first, but didn't look again after deciding to go to the next house then realizing the first one was the correct one after all. Unfortunately in that short period of time Barrett had come over the crest of a small hill and the driver of the pickup turned left directly in front of him. Barrett hit the truck just behind the passenger side front tire. It wasn't a terribly hard impact, but he went chest first into the A pillar, stopping his heart.
He didn't have any broken bones and no injuries that would have been life threatening, however it was twenty-six minutes until paramedics arrived and were able to get his heart restarted. Unfortunately he was left with severe brain damage from the lack of blood flow for so long. He was in a coma for two weeks and not expected to ever wake up. He fought hard and proved the doctors wrong though and regained consciousness. He eventually recovered to the point of being able to breathe on his own and eat real food and was moved to a nursing home. With over a year of therapy he got to the point of being able to talk and have some movement of his arms and legs although with very limited control. His personality started to return and he was finally beginning to smile again almost two years after the wreck. He would occasionally have seizures due to the brain damage and was on medication to limit them as well as possible.
Unfortunately, he had a very severe seizure and at the 2:00 AM hourly bed check on January 12'th at the nursing home where he was living, he was found without a pulse, unconscious and unresponsive. He was already turning blue and cool to the touch. Somehow they were able to revive him and get him to the hospital. After several hours in the emergency room he was taken to ICU. The neurologist said we should be prepared for the worst and that they would be monitoring his brain closely to see if any more damage had been done. He was completely unresponsive and on full life support. The first brain scan showed the vast majority of his brain no longer had any activity at all. Only an area about the size of a quarter was still working, and that part is what's generally considered to control involuntary things such as heart and lungs. Further scans and test showed that the brain activity was diminishing and his organs were all shutting down. A panel of doctors all agreed that short of a miracle there was zero chance of recovery. The decision was made that the best thing to be done for him was to discontinue life support. He passed away at 12:45 this morning. He was twenty-two years old.
Every vehicle has blind spots. Most drivers are aware of this. What many don't think of is just how little it takes to block the view of a motorcycle. If the driver of that pickup had taken a fraction of a second to look again, he might have seen Barrett coming and none of this would have ever happened. I'm not saying this to place blame on the other driver, but to point out just how fast situations on the roadways can change and how little effort it takes to simply take one more quick look. The pickup driver said the number one most common phrase uttered after a car vs. motorcycle wreck. "I never saw him."
As a motorcyclist who got my first motorcycle at the age of six, I'm well aware of the plain fact that when I'm on a motorcycle I'm generally more vulnerable than when surrounded by several thousand pounds of steel. I'm also aware of just how easy it is to overlook something as small as a motorcycle or bicycle. Even though I know about blind spots and how to position myself to see around them as best I can, I've still overlooked motorcycles the first time I checked. It was looking twice on several occasions that kept me from being another one who "never saw them." One recent incident I never encountered before last week and would like to share happened of all things, on the way home from the hospital one night. It was after dark and I had stopped at a stop sign. I looked to my left and saw headlights of a single vehicle approaching a few hundred yards away. I looked to my right and saw nothing. I knew the vehicle approaching from my left was plenty far enough away that I could easily proceed to pull out and turn left onto the two lane road they were on. As I was about to pull out I quickly looked left again just as a motorcycle was passing by. Apparently the single headlight of the much closer motorcycle had lined up in such a way with the headlights of the other vehicle that it appeared to be only that one vehicle far away. Once again, looking twice possibly saved a life.
I ask all of you to take that extra fraction of a second to take that second look that could save someone's life. Do it in memory of Barrett. Do it so that no family has to go through the pain of loosing someone they love. Do it so you don't have to live with the guilt of being another statistic who "never saw them."
Thanks for taking time to read this and for taking a second look.
The last weekend of November 2010, my youngest nephew, Barrett, was riding home on a motorcycle. It was a nice sunny Sunday and he had just been to visit his girlfriend. Coming the opposite direction was a couple in a pickup looking for a relative's house. They had just moved to the mountain where we live and while they knew basically where the relatives lived, they weren't sure of the exact house. The couple in the pickup thought they might have had the right house then decided it was the next one. They started to go on past the first one when the driver of the truck recognized the relative's car in the driveway. At the last second he did a quick turn towards the driveway. He had checked traffic when he was about to turn in at first, but didn't look again after deciding to go to the next house then realizing the first one was the correct one after all. Unfortunately in that short period of time Barrett had come over the crest of a small hill and the driver of the pickup turned left directly in front of him. Barrett hit the truck just behind the passenger side front tire. It wasn't a terribly hard impact, but he went chest first into the A pillar, stopping his heart.
He didn't have any broken bones and no injuries that would have been life threatening, however it was twenty-six minutes until paramedics arrived and were able to get his heart restarted. Unfortunately he was left with severe brain damage from the lack of blood flow for so long. He was in a coma for two weeks and not expected to ever wake up. He fought hard and proved the doctors wrong though and regained consciousness. He eventually recovered to the point of being able to breathe on his own and eat real food and was moved to a nursing home. With over a year of therapy he got to the point of being able to talk and have some movement of his arms and legs although with very limited control. His personality started to return and he was finally beginning to smile again almost two years after the wreck. He would occasionally have seizures due to the brain damage and was on medication to limit them as well as possible.
Unfortunately, he had a very severe seizure and at the 2:00 AM hourly bed check on January 12'th at the nursing home where he was living, he was found without a pulse, unconscious and unresponsive. He was already turning blue and cool to the touch. Somehow they were able to revive him and get him to the hospital. After several hours in the emergency room he was taken to ICU. The neurologist said we should be prepared for the worst and that they would be monitoring his brain closely to see if any more damage had been done. He was completely unresponsive and on full life support. The first brain scan showed the vast majority of his brain no longer had any activity at all. Only an area about the size of a quarter was still working, and that part is what's generally considered to control involuntary things such as heart and lungs. Further scans and test showed that the brain activity was diminishing and his organs were all shutting down. A panel of doctors all agreed that short of a miracle there was zero chance of recovery. The decision was made that the best thing to be done for him was to discontinue life support. He passed away at 12:45 this morning. He was twenty-two years old.
Every vehicle has blind spots. Most drivers are aware of this. What many don't think of is just how little it takes to block the view of a motorcycle. If the driver of that pickup had taken a fraction of a second to look again, he might have seen Barrett coming and none of this would have ever happened. I'm not saying this to place blame on the other driver, but to point out just how fast situations on the roadways can change and how little effort it takes to simply take one more quick look. The pickup driver said the number one most common phrase uttered after a car vs. motorcycle wreck. "I never saw him."
As a motorcyclist who got my first motorcycle at the age of six, I'm well aware of the plain fact that when I'm on a motorcycle I'm generally more vulnerable than when surrounded by several thousand pounds of steel. I'm also aware of just how easy it is to overlook something as small as a motorcycle or bicycle. Even though I know about blind spots and how to position myself to see around them as best I can, I've still overlooked motorcycles the first time I checked. It was looking twice on several occasions that kept me from being another one who "never saw them." One recent incident I never encountered before last week and would like to share happened of all things, on the way home from the hospital one night. It was after dark and I had stopped at a stop sign. I looked to my left and saw headlights of a single vehicle approaching a few hundred yards away. I looked to my right and saw nothing. I knew the vehicle approaching from my left was plenty far enough away that I could easily proceed to pull out and turn left onto the two lane road they were on. As I was about to pull out I quickly looked left again just as a motorcycle was passing by. Apparently the single headlight of the much closer motorcycle had lined up in such a way with the headlights of the other vehicle that it appeared to be only that one vehicle far away. Once again, looking twice possibly saved a life.
I ask all of you to take that extra fraction of a second to take that second look that could save someone's life. Do it in memory of Barrett. Do it so that no family has to go through the pain of loosing someone they love. Do it so you don't have to live with the guilt of being another statistic who "never saw them."
Thanks for taking time to read this and for taking a second look.
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