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Biker down on SH121 over I-35

Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
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Location
Bedford, TX
Been on my mind all day. Probably helps to get my mind wrapped around it if I type it out here...

I was driving my wife and kids northbound on SH121 thru Lewisville Saturday morning around 11:30am. She's a photographer and had a family shoot in Plano but felt too tired to drive herself so me and the kids tagged along. As we approached the overpass for I-35 the car in front of me slowed down and moved to the left. I started to see what I thought were car parts on the road. One part right in front of me was a pretty large universal joint, the kind of which you'd see as part of a driveshaft. I was able to easily move to the right lane as I slowed.

Then I saw a rider laying in the road and a couple people around him. I pulled our car over and grabbed the med kit I had only just recently put together for my wife's car. He was bleeding a fair amount. No helmet just jeans, t-shirt, leather vest, and fingerless gloves. What was left of his Harley was 30 yards down the road and the seat was 30 yards back the other direction. He was conscious but in ALOT of pain. Torn jeans and road rash on my left kidney and shoulder. He had a pretty bad laceration to the forehead. Not sure how many teeth he had before the accident but he was bleeding from the mouth. Also was missing some skin from a couple fingertips.

I had loaded the med kit with 5 pairs of nitrile gloves, some tape, band-aids, gauze, and a dozen 4x4 inch medical pads. Me and 2 others put on the gloves, one was a nursing assistant. She applied pressure to his head wound while we tried to calm him and get him to lay down. He was complaining (screaming) that he couldn't breathe but obviously he could. I was initially worried of further spinal damage from his movements but then it occurred to me that if he has a concussion he could start to get combative quickly and none of us there would be able to deal with that. He was a large dude. Lewisville FD and PD showed up pretty quickly. I overheard one paramedic say to another to "cancel the heli" which was reassuring.

A cop asked us if we'd seen what happen but none of us did. As I drove away we past a trailer truck and a minivan parked on the right about another 50 yards past the wrecked Harley. The minivan had at least one flat on his right rear tire. My theory... and it's a guess here... that universal joint which I thought was from a wreck car was probably what he hit. It certainly was big enough to launch a bike. Did the minivan also hit it? Did it come from the trailer truck? No idea but maybe.

Helmets. I always wear mine but if this is what happens when you're "lucky" then I surely don't want to see unlucky. I support a person's right to not have to wear one but I can't understand why anyone would want not to.

Medkit. I'm gonna add them to EVERY car we have and my bike. Don't know why but a couple months ago I saw a sale at Tom Thumb, buy two Johnson&Johnson products and get this little red medkit bag for free and it got my attention. The gloves which I had bought from the hardware store in a box of 100 worked well. The 4x4 pads worked but the wind on that overpass was blowing them away from the opened kit. Never thought about that happening. I refilled the kit and bound the pads together in groups of 3 or so using an office paper binder clip. The kind that looks a little metal clothes pin. We used the pads a few at a time so the next time I'm thinking I can grab one set and be using it while the others are weighed down by the clips. Also added a travel bottle of Purell to the kit inside a ziplock bag so in case the top pops open it won't make a mess of things. The nurse's assistant got some blood on her elbow. After wiping it off a paramedic handed her a squirt of sanitizer from a bottle he had. Seems like something to have handy. After refilling the kit it's now placed back in the lower door pocket of the car.

Anyway, hope the dude is OK and gets well soon. Not the way he wanted to spend a Saturday for sure.
 
i feel sure some of our FIRST RESPONDERS will chime in shortly, but until they do...

have you considered packing some FEMININE HYGINE PADS into your kit, for heavy blood flow issues?

i, also, carry a few clean/white cup towels, in zip-loc bags, for applying pressure(buy 'em @ SAM'S by the bundle)

it is lucky for the downed rider that you stopped to render aid & that you had a kit along with you

also good that others cared enough to stop

WTG :thumb:

sw
 
i feel sure some of our FIRST RESPONDERS will chime in shortly, but until they do...

have you considered packing some FEMININE HYGINE PADS into your kit, for heavy blood flow issues?

i, also, carry a few clean/white cup towels, in zip-loc bags, for applying pressure(buy 'em @ SAM'S by the bundle)

it is lucky for the downed rider that you stopped to render aid & that you had a kit along with you

also good that others cared enough to stop

WTG :thumb:

sw

+1, I have a small medkit in my saddlebag with gauze pads, tape, etc. No maxi-pads, though... that's a good idea I hadn't considered.

+1 on the kudos too. Hope the rider is ok. I ride that same intersection every workday.
 
A single roll of Kerlex will absorb far more blood than a maxi pad. Those don't actually hold a whole lot, they just hold it REALLY well.
 
Maxipads and tampons have no place in a purpose specific medical kit unless you expect a feminine emergency. The proper supplies are two aisles over at the grocery store. :mrgreen:
 
Hope the rider is okay, kudos to the OP for stopping to help!

Sad thing is, the guy probably told people he doesn't need to wear gear or a helmet "because he doesn't plan on having an accident"...
 
A single roll of Kerlex will absorb far more blood than a maxi pad. Those don't actually hold a whole lot, they just hold it REALLY well.

Kerlex is good stuff. I think the maxipads get stuck on the inside of the helmet to absorb sweat.
 
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