After 25,000 miles I got rear-ended by a 68 year old woman in a Hyundai (with insurance). I’m not sure if the bike is totaled or not, I’m guessing they will have to take it apart to see if the frame is bent. I was traveling North on US-93 towards the Hoover Dam at about 50ph (still accelerating from merging onto the freeway) and the Hyundai hit me from behind. It seemed like she was driving at a fairly substantial speed. I heard a very loud bang and then I was sliding along the pavement. Two minutes before this I had taken off the top part of my suit so I have some road rash on both arms. The Sidi boots and the Aerostich suit protected my legs very well. Without them I think I would have fractured my femur, fibula/tibia, and ankle. As it is I have been crutching and wheelchairing around Las Vegas with my cousin and friends. My left leg is very sore and tender but the right leg is fine. I guess something had to go right… The doctors at Kingman Regional asked me for a piece of the lucky rabbit foot they thought I must have been carrying, they could not believe that I hadn’t broken any bones. They took a lot of x-rays (all digital nowadays) to eliminate the possibility of breaks. I had someone from Enterprise pick me up from the hospital still wearing my gown. They gave me a PT Cruiser and some Oreos. I headed back up US-93 to the tow yard to pick up all of my luggage (including my clothes) and then made my way to Las Vegas. I also took pictures of the crash scene, you can see the grooves my bike made in the asphalt. There were a couple of my business cards, my headlight switch, and a bar weight still in the dirt that I grabbed. One of my Pelican cases exploded on impact with the front right corner of her car which is where all the business cards came from. The nice people at Rosie’s Diner across the freeway all ran over to help me out. There was an off-duty paramedic who checked my spine for injury before letting me take my helmet off and someone from the restaurant sent over bottled water.

In defensive driving they teach you that there are no accidents. I could have waited longer before merging (even though I could see no cars) or I could have checked my rear mirrors more often. I had just been thinking that for my next trip I wanted the new BMW F 800 GS but I didn’t know how I’d make the switch. Funny how things work out…

The past week or so before the accident I drove from Tuxpan, MX to Houston in 18 hours (800 miles), stayed with my friends Will and Ben, and drove West from Houston towards Phoenix. There were some huge lightning storms just after El Paso so I stayed at a little Western-themed hotel called Eleven Inn. I’m still trying to figure out if I can get to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Reno before I go back to Seattle.

I’m going to try to stay with my family in Bullhead City while I figure out the insurance claims. Hope you all had a better happiest day of the year than I did. As I’m writing this someone from an insurance company commercial just said “most accidents happen on Fridays between 3 and 6pm” which is when mine happened. If you’re a rider please be safe… I think I lucked out in terms of injuries. This woman hit me in spite of my yellow helmet, yellow luggage with SOLAS reflective tape, and reflective tape on my suit. Next time I will try attaching roman candles or road flares to the back of the bike.