A very long way home, and first on scene of fatality...
The Story:
Tootled off to our favourite humped purveyor of clothing bike related's work to get my new gloves. Farking mint looking things, quality test being done now. Going away from airport traffic was murder so I decided that getting east would be just as fast going the long way (as you do) so I decided to head out of Manukau the back way, Franklin, Twilight Rd out to Clevedon then Pohutukawa Coast, Whitford and home.
Got out to Clevedon, headed towards the Pohutukawa Coast and a couple of k's out I see a car coming the other way. Light kink in road and he slightly cuts it (onto my side). No worries, it happens. Except that a nanosecond later I get the feeling something is wrong (the biker feeling). The car is going fast, and is not exactly heading parallel to the road. Sorta see him running wide, then a bit of dust.
Pass him and see a lot of dust. Know that something might be wrong, so hard on the brakes and swing a u'ey. Car has sorta travelled half along the road, but there has been a tree to get in his way. First there, go up to car, smell of alcohol, 2 adults, 2 young kids (not babies) and looks like no seatbelts in useBack to bike to take off gear and get phone out. Call made.
Couple of other cars stop and we all go back to crash. Initially I thought there was one kid, and couldn't figure out the source of a wailing sound. Minutes later, somebody else tells me about the second kid... Heard later he was fading fast. Had checked with emergency services if we could move them, and we couldn't (fair enough too).
Since I basically couldn't do much, it was up the road to slow down cars from walloping the stopped cars. Eventually services show up (felt like an eternity), and actually seems to be considered major (nothing to gauge by), ambo, 3-4 fire, 5-10 cops, westpac, photographer, investigators, coroner, whole shebang basically. They take over. I hang around, not being able to do much, knowing the cops will really need my view (only one to see most of incident).
Eventually cop comes, takes me for statement, took about an hour and 4 pages of info. Turns out, girl behind driver didn't make it (neck was at a weird angle against the front seat) other kid (boy) was fading quickly, one adult was serious, other was bad, but not as bad as others.
Eventually able to go home, late by about 2-3 hours (hence the really long way round bit), and had to ride with the tinted visor up (bugs hurt).
*sigh* no matter how many ads, humans will always realise when it is too late... don't want to blame anything (don't know all the facts) but possible alcohol, possible speed (car looked down on its suspension through the corner) and no seatbelts is always going to be bad.
To be brutally honest tho, in a way, I'm glad he hit the tree. If he was going to have an accident (he did have one by way of proof), if it had been a left hand corner, he could have taken out a family, cyclist (there were several on the road) or me or other bikers...
Please wear seatbelts and don't drink and drive, it may not cost only your life...
edit: older car, so no airbags either... keeps getting worse eh? Thanks for the kind words, not really affected too much... just not really affected...
Originally Posted by Jane Omorogbe from UK MSN on the KTM990SM
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