----- Original Message -----
From: RLK
To: 'Garry Van Kirk'
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 7:58 PM
Subject: RE: KILL 0R MAIM A MOTORCYCLIST-GO TO JAIL/PAY A FINE


Garry,


Unfortunately, I was one of the victims of an inattentive driver. He pled no contest to a failure-to-yield charge, paid a fine, and walked away free as a bird. He never said he didn’t see me, he said “I thought I could beat him”. Talk about impaired judgment. If he thought he could beat me, how the hell did he hit me with his right front. Where is the justice here? He gets off with a several hundred dollar fine, and I get 2.5 months in a COMA, almost five months in intensive care, 8 months with 24 pins through my leg, amputation after 8 months of all that, and, not to mention the 3 million dollars in medical bills. Here’s another clincher, in the state of PA (where the accident happened), drivers are only required to carry $15,000 of accidental medical, whether they are at fault, or not. In my case, he may as well not even had insurance. Lucky for me, I had better insurance coverage that enabled up to live for the year-and-a-half that me and my wife were out of work.



There are many reasons for this type of accident, many of them listed here. Many tend to forget that driving is a privilege, not a right. The American public has become much too comfortable driving. I have watched drivers that pay more attention to their pet, than they do to their driving. One of my pet peeves has become drivers that make turns with a cell phone in their ear. I have been beside many that are not watching and go wide in a turn, encroaching on the parallel turning lane. I don’t ride a bike anymore, but I do drive a full-size pickup. I am just waiting for some idiot to challenge me in a turn lane. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t miss riding, something that an inattentive driver took away.



If you think I’m bitter, you are right on. An-Eye-For-An-Eye? How about a Leg-For-A-Leg? I am doing better now, but my life ended the day that idiot’s mind was on something else, and I just got in the way.


Keep up the fight,


Ron K.

I was injured in a motorcycle accident by a woman who failed to yield at stop sign.

Hello There!

Amputee Stories
Antony Smith

Hi!, Well here goes. I am a 24 year old amputee of about 6 months. I was injured in a motorcycle accident by a woman who failed to yield at stop sign. Well actually she stopped (why she even bothered I still don't know) then without so much as a glance to the left or right and with impeccable timing, floored the gas pedal just as I entered the intersection. Not a damn thing I could do. After the impact I took a little flight through the air and landed on my head (good thing I had that 300$ helmet on). Skidded abit on that with a few bounces then slid on my left shoulder abit (good thing I had that 500$ leather jacket). Finally when I came to a stop I was MAD AS HELL (If I had a gun probably would have shot whomever had hit me on sight). When I went to get up I was told to stay down by a man who witnessed the accident because I might have a back injury.

Thats when I noticed the strange sensation coming from somewhere down my left leg. After that all kinds of people showed up. I told one of them to call my wife (not even married a year yet). After all she was only about 1/3 of a mile away because I had just left for work. She showed up just after they loaded me on the ambulance. Luckily for me the nearest hospital was 1/2 mile away. Talk about your quick response time. They immediatley took me to Shock Trauma in Baltimore (A learning hospital). For the next two weeks I became the Human guinea pig. Finally when parts of my foot were turning funny shade of green and my fever was still nearing 106 degrees they decided we had better amputate before he dies. Did I mention the pain of them trying to "save the foot" was pure hell three times a day like clockwork. Even with all that Morphine and several other pain medications having them rip off muscle and skin tissue was very painful. The first day the Orthopedic told me 80% chance of losing the foot. After about a week I had had enough but they hadn't they were going to save that foot even if it killed me.

To tell you the truth I didn't want the amputation but when they told me they were going to have to do it I was scared, relieved, angry, and about 100 other emotions all at once. My wife who was with me every day all day saw to it that I got to talk to the amputee liason there. Her name is Dee and she was very helpful and imformative (Her husband is an amputee). She saw to it that I got to talk to Doug Burguine, the prothetist who works out of the hospital, He was very helpful as well. The information I had recieved from these two people was very helpful. Suddenly the idea of the amputation was not as bad as laying there in pain any longer. The surgeon who did the amputation did some really good work. I was no longer in pain untill I got home, when the morphine wore off then the percoset ran out and the healing began.

Still the pain was not as bad as having the foot like it was. Then I just layed there awhile (weeks) healing. Thats how I got this computer life insurance gave me 8000$ for losing the leg (how nice of them) which paid the bills and bought me this computer (I should gone for the gold and spent a whole lot more) After Doug(the prothetist finally got me fitted) I headed back to work Part time at first and within about a month I was full time again. I am a printers apprentice so I get to load lots of paper into presses, climb all over the presses, and do general acrobatics, all day long while I am on my feet. Boy am I tired when I get home (wife doesn't like this). I am doing okay with it now but buisness is slow, don't know what I am going to do when they want me there 12 hours a day 8 is definitly enough .

Well thats about it I guess. I am your typical victim of a motorcycle accident who has lived and recieved the dreaded amputation but I am still alive and trying to keep my life pieced together long enough to get into college (so I can get the proverbial better job) This isn't as easy as it looks. Takes a lot of patience and determination on both my and my wifes part (sometimes she has trouble with this) (ow! she hit me) (see what I mean). For a LBK of 6 months I think I have done pretty good but the future scares the hell out of me. Now how much was that brand new motorcycle I wanted????
Email bikeraccsurvivor@bacsuv.com

Website http://www.amputee-online.com/amputee/intros2.html