Regrets?

This week Steve Williams over at Scooter in the Sticks is talking about how he's recently been forced into the the intimidating thoughts of risk and regret due to a friends accident.  Unfortunately, every person that chooses to ride, rather than drive has to make this evaluation.  But to me, it is an ongoing choice.  One that we have to make for ourselves every day.  Suit up for the ride, or jump in the car.  Either way complacency presents our greatest risk.


Personally, I've taken the position that life is risk, and that the risk of riding is the same as that of getting into the car, or climbing in the shower.  So, I choose to ride most days, but that is my personal choice.  But like Steve, I'm battling some aspects of that choice right now.  You see, a friend of my wife's is currently laying the hospital with broken legs and pelvis as well as other injuries.  At this point, the life-threatening parts are more or less done with, but she's facing 2-3 years of rehab to get her life back.  She was hit by in an incident where a driver in a car crossed  double yellow to hit her head on.  The other driver was not DUI, and as far as we have heard, there was no cause for him to cross the line.  But here is the rub for me;  she was driving her *safe* Volvo tank, and she did nothing wrong. 


But you see, that's part of my own realization: everything we do is risk, all we can do is mitigate that risk.  Does mitigating the risk mean stop riding?  for me, no.  You see, I had a close encounter a few weeks ago, that put me in another mindset, one that left me sitting in a parking lot for about 30 minutes calming down and collecting myself before I could ride safely.


In what started innocently enough, I took off from work to go grab some lunch.  My choices are 2 lanes of traffic laden, strip mall central road at 45mph and 4.5 miles to the restaurant, or 2 lanes of lightly travelled road at 40mph and 5.5 miles through residential and farms.  Needless to say, I chose the latter. Unfortunately, about halfway there, I'm headed southbound when a 30" delivery truck coming towards me drops a tire off the side of the road and overreacts.  With an approaching speed of 80mph, and about 200" I slipped as far to the right as I could, clenched the sphincter, and prayed.  I slipped by on the right side of the white lane marker, with no margin for error as it was a 3-4' drop to the shoulder and 6-8" into the ditch just off the road.  The car behind me found the shallow ditch 100" from where I would have been, and the truck rolled on, oblivious to the destruction. I stopped and helped out.  Fortunately, the injuries were minimal, some scratches and a good bruise from the seatbelt & airbags.  But the thing is.  Had I been in my car, I'd have been dead.  Where the other car had the shallow ditch, I'd have been on my roof, or under the truck.  While the percentage of times that being on a bike will save your bacon is very low, there is risk in driving just as there is in riding.  


For all of the good that riding brings, I've chosen to ride, embracing the rewards of riding over the risk, but knowing those risks and thinking about them helps me be a better rider.

Content by dru_satori, edited on a Mac using SandVox (because I'm lazy)