Enduro Bike Crash on WABDR - Section 3 - Ellensburg to Cashmere

First of all my apologies for re-posting this here in the General Discussions section. I should have posted this here in the first place. This incident is important enough to re-post it here from the 3rd Gen section as it affects each and everyone of us. Just a quick summary of what happened to get you up to speed:

Summary

My family and I were doing the WABDR and encountered two local fellas on bikes in Section 3 - Ellensberg to Cashmere. They had just finished taking a break and swapped leads. They were heading north to south in the opposite direction. The individual that took the lead was on a Husqvarna and it was his third time out. The individual in back is an experienced rider on a KTM with a Go Pro.

This first video you see is from my perspective as I also had a video camera going. I gave you a long introduction to the incident to give you a feel for the road we were on. This section of the route was very "soft" and it would've been easy to push down on the skinny pedal. I slowed down purposely as I approached the corners.

Here's the link if it doesn't embed the way it should. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Qf9Q35Mdw#t=97

The following video is an Instagram video from the perspective of the riders.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJEYY49jEZ5/

Outcome of the Incident

Rider and Bike
The rider sustained a broken rib, a tear in his lung, and some serious road rash. After stabilizing him and ensuring he was alive, I administered some antibiotics and bandaged him up using my IFAK. They were able to limp the bike home. The most damage received was on his helmet. That says a lot in itself. He also needs to replace the speedo, front wheel, kill switch and other components.

2001 4Runner and Family
Obviously, we were in shock as I just finished talking to my family about this very type of situation to look out for less than 5 seconds before. My wife swears we didn't even finish our conversation about it when it happened. Thankfully none of us were injured. The bike impacted my drivers side tire head on and hit the corner of my Shrockworks bumper. My alignment was knocked completely out of whack. My left front quarter panel is ever so slightly buckled. Hardly noticeable. Nothing broken, nothing bent. TBU and bumper now have become my best investments!

I'm still shaken up over this as I can't get the "if's" out of my mind. There could have been one or more fatalities in this incident...."if" That is a bitter pill to swallow.

My family and I successfully completed the WABDR. It was beautiful despite the incident. Upon my return I wanted to reach out to Rob Watt, the Director of Route Development. The following is just a short lead-in to the email I sent him:

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"...The reason for this email is to provide you with the YouTube link to the incident from my perspective and the Instagram link from the rider’s perspective. Please let me know what your thoughts are on:

• Educating the general populace of the WABDR routes (most have never heard of it)
• Educating the folks doing the WABDR of this potential hazard

It’s not a matter of if, but when this happens again, the individuals may not be so lucky. With just the one incident, the trip was fantastic and very enjoyable...."

The following is his reply. T4R folks, this is important and your inputs are greatly appreciated! We all need to be in the business of finding ways to prevent this, and other off-road incidents similar to this from happening again.

Man, good information here. I think from your perspective, you were driving in a suitable way. I think it was just a matter of circumstance that travelers north to south and south to north met at a blind corner. Not that it's anyone's fault, but moto's usually drive faster than cars. Not sure anything could have been done to prevent this, but it seems like just a freak occurrence. In reality, if the bikers were driving slower, they should have been able to stop in time instead of ditching the bike and crashing.

Happy to hear you were prepared and had the appropriate medical kit to help the biker. I hope they appreciated that, and all was fair game and a happy ending.

I've also been through a similar event like this. In my case the rider narrowly avoided colliding with me but instead went off the road and down a vertical embankment into a tree with the bike landing on top of him. He broke his back in 2 places and was airlifted out of there.

techno said:

I've also been through a similar event like this. In my case the rider narrowly avoided colliding with me but instead went off the road and down a vertical embankment into a tree with the bike landing on top of him. He broke his back in 2 places and was airlifted out of there.

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That's awful. Where we go there are a LOT of roads with shear drop-offs and no place to pull over. The only option is either a head-on or over the embankment. The number of off-road recreational (not including ATV's and Boats) injuries and fatalities is startling. Safety, experience, and common sense goes a long way.

Looks like he could squeezed it past on your driver's side if he hadn't freaked the **** out and (guessing) went full lock on the front brake.

Not sure if you were, or were not, but I always run my headlights on both the 4R and the bike on those sorts of roads. Well, the bike lights are always on, anyway... but I always check the 4R and run the lights. Sometimes you can get a "wash" of light coming around a corner, or through the trees, to warn you that someone else is coming at you.

I always try to take it easy around blind corners, but sometimes you just get scooting along at a good clip and the speed just creeps up on you. It's hard on single lane roads, too; I mean, whose fault was that really? He wasn't any more in the middle than you were, if you think about it. Just bad timing to meet there instead of on a straight section.

You must ride (avatar) since you definitely caught the full lock on the front brake. Not much could've prevented this other than a little less speed perhaps. This section of road was nice to ride on. Really soft and easy to open up. He had enough room to go by me, tight as it may have been, even if I didn't move over. Obviously, once I pulled hard right there was plenty of room.

Tough decision to lay it down, but I know he was anticipating the worse. I didn't have my lights on. I have the DRL's disabled and you sure hate to run the PIAA lights all day long. You bring up a good point though. I'm pretty sure the riders that I passed along the way doing the BDR weren't running with their lights. I'll check my video footage.

EDIT: Their lights were on.

Thankful!!!

Yeah, I ride. A lot. Like, it's my only hobby. "Laying it down" is never a decision, it's a reaction due to poor technique and inferior reactionary movements. I think he absolutely could have kept it up and passed by you, but he freaked the **** out and biffed. I get it though, coming around a corner liked that and seeing death coming at you would freak anyone out!

MeefZah said:

Yeah, I ride. A lot. Like, it's my only hobby. "Laying it down" is never a decision, it's a reaction due to poor technique and inferior reactionary movements. I think he absolutely could have kept it up and passed by you, but he freaked the **** out and biffed. I get it though, coming around a corner liked that and seeing death coming at you would freak anyone out!

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Agreed. I never rode dirt, but I saw lots of guys talk about laying down sportbikes if they had to. Makes zero sense.

A bike stops a hell of a lot faster with the rubber side down. Ever seen someone tuck the front of end of a sportbike on a track? Those things slide forever...like hundreds of yards sometimes.

Dude panicked in the video, but I wasn't there and I've never faced a T4R head on so I'm not gonna judge.

Rock_Rat said:

My family and I successfully completed the WABDR. It was beautiful despite the incident. Upon my return I wanted to reach out to Rob Watt, the Director of Route Development. The following is just a short lead-in to the email I sent him:

****************************

"...The reason for this email is to provide you with the YouTube link to the incident from my perspective and the Instagram link from the rider’s perspective. Please let me know what your thoughts are on:

• Educating the general populace of the WABDR routes (most have never heard of it)
• Educating the folks doing the WABDR of this potential hazard

It’s not a matter of if, but when this happens again, the individuals may not be so lucky. With just the one incident, the trip was fantastic and very enjoyable...."

Click to expand...

How fast were you going? It looks like your nose was dipping as you were going into some of those corners so at least you were driving as defensively as you could considering conditions. Also it looks to me like you reacted quickly enough to allow him to skirt past your driver side. I don't ride so I'm gonna assume as other poster noted he had an "oh s***" moment and laid it down. Good on you for helping out. Are you a first responder? In any case glad your family is ok after that!

5ontheFloor said:

How fast were you going? It looks like your nose was dipping as you were going into some of those corners so at least you were driving as defensively as you could considering conditions. Also it looks to me like you reacted quickly enough to allow him to skirt past your driver side. I don't ride so I'm gonna assume as other poster noted he had an "oh s***" moment and laid it down. Good on you for helping out. Are you a first responder? In any case glad your family is ok after that!

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That section of road it's really easy to push down on the skinny pedal. Beautiful drive. I forced myself not to drive too fast. When it came to the corners I always anticipated there being someone else there. I don't think there's anything else I could've done except put my lights on.

I'm not current anymore. When I was guiding I held a WFR and
WMI Adult CPR certs. I need to take a recertification course. I still carry a pretty decent First Aid kit with me all the time. It stays under my seat. I no longer need to carry diamox. hehe!! The attached images show the First Aid kit and my EMERGENCY black kit (Cerro Torre with suunto compass, bottle opener (hey!!), mirror, rescue whistle, flint, lighters, MEC sewing kit. Overkill for this trip, I know, but old habits never die. I was hoping I didn't have to use it.

EDIT: Notice the lovely white comforter! Took these photos at the hotel in Leavenworth on Sunday waiting for Monday so I can get my rig aligned.

Rock_Rat said:

That section of road it's really easy to push down on the skinny pedal. Beautiful drive. I forced myself not to drive too fast. When it came to the corners I always anticipated there being someone else there. I don't think there's anything else I could've done except put my lights on.

I'm not current anymore. When I was guiding I held a WFR and
WMI Adult CPR certs. I need to take a recertification course. I still carry a pretty decent First Aid kit with me all the time. It stays under my seat. I no longer need to carry diamox. hehe!! The attached images show the First Aid kit and my EMERGENCY black kit (Cerro Torre with suunto compass, bottle opener (hey!!), mirror, rescue whistle, flint, lighters, MEC sewing kit. Overkill for this trip, I know, but old habits never die. I was hoping I didn't have to use it.

EDIT: Notice the lovely white comforter! Took these photos at the hotel in Leavenworth on Sunday waiting for Monday so I can get my rig aligned.

Click to expand...

One of my favorite movies has a quote about overkill: "When you need it, and don't have it, you sing another tune..."

I think you did just fine. My two brothers are firefighters and even though I am not, I'd love to take a basic first aid/CPR course.

About two weeks ago, I was on a two lane back road that has some pretty sweet corners. I came around a corner and nearly clipped a guy on a Ducati. Don't know why he was in my lane as I was on the outside line. He had to have been doing 90 at least. I was by myself but man did it make me ponder the what ifs!