
Originally Posted by
Firefight
Jack , thank you for sharing this story with us, I can fully understand how you felt, In 18 years as a professional firefighter I have seen many horrible and needless deaths, however an event that affected me deeply occurred while I was off duty, about 8-9 years ago while travelling Whangaeri to Auckland, I came across a two up motorcycle crash just south of Wellsford.
The bike had been north bound, at est speed of 170 ish, went into loose metal LH side of road, up a bank and became airbourne impacting on a large pine tree on rh side of road approx 200m from first point of hitting the metal. There is no point in graphically detailing the extent of the injuries, nor would it be approprate to devulge details of the people involved or the condition of rider or bike , what I can say as that despite efforts of myself(ex ambo) local doctor and an a&e nurse who was passing the rider passed away. The pillon, much younger also suffered hurrendous(sp?) injuries, survied, after a long time in intensive care.this being a credit to the dedication and skill of the ICU staff at AK hos.
A day after the incident I was contacted by the family of the pillon, who asked to meet with me, we meet at the bedside of the patient in ICU, normaly in our line of work we would not do this, but at the time the Doctors did not excpect the patient to recover, and the family needed to try and have contact with the last person who had been with the pillon.
This incident has had a lasting impact of me, I no longer ride up north(some may consider that stupid), I did try , onetime Big Dog and I rode up SH one to wellsford and back down 16, I remember feeling sick as we passed the spot marked by the cross, and did not enjoy my lunch, BD may have found it hard to undestand at the time why I did not accept his offer to stop for a chat and a drink when we got back to West Ak.
So thats my story,This is the first time I have told it to so many, and I feel better for having done so, It has not cooled my love of bikes, nor will I stop rideing, I consider myself to be a average rider, and I ride reasonably fast, I hope to for as long as I am able.
Firefight.
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