Motorcycles are dangerous (even when you wear a helmet)

I'm pretty risk averse anyway, so the idea of cruising down the freeway on a motorcycle, wind blowing by and all . . . not that appealing, frankly. I'd rather be warm and windfree inside a car. With a seatbelt. And airbags. I have heard John sigh once or twice at the freedom of a bike, but after what I saw today, I told him, "No motorcycles. Ever."

I was walking on the esplanade that runs along the FDR at midday today when I heard a loud sound. I look up to see several cars swerving around what looked like large pieces of debris in the road. Because it isn't obvious what the debris is, I am intrigued. Initially, it almost looks as though someone has hit construction cones or something. So, as I walk along, I watch the road.

A few seconds later, I see someone walking on the edge of the FDR. He stumbles along for a bit and then climbs over the wall to come onto the esplande. I happened to be passing right when he sits down on a bench, and I notice that he's bleeding. A few cars have now stopped and several people get out of one. Two are on their cell phones, so I ask if they're calling 911, and they tell me yes. Concerned, I take another look at the guy sitting on the bench. He is concious but not particularly coherent. His pants are ripped, and although he doesn't seem to be gushing blood from anywhere, he is definitely bleeding. I notice a couple of deep abrasions on one arm, at least one of which is down to the bone. His top lip is completely mangled on one side, ground to a pulp and pulled mostly away from the rest of his face. A few minutes later, I see that several of his fingers on his right hand have been partially crushed. Parts of some of the fingers look like they're gone, but by this time, I'm trying to avoid vomiting all over him, so I try not to look too closely.

Not being a trained medical professional, I can't really do much. I hang around along with one of the girls who called 911, watching him, trying to talk to him a little, make sure he is still concious, that kind of thing. He asks if he can take the helmet off, and eyeing his lip again, I tell him he definitely cannot take the helmet off. He needs to wait for the doctors to do it. I try to get him to lay down, but he is too disoriented to do it himself, and I'm afraid he is too tall and heavy for me to be able to keep him safe if I try to help him and he stumbles or trips. The first ambulette comes quite quickly, luckily. The EMTs are taking their time getting out and to the patient - not rushing at all. By this time, a rollerblader has stopped as well, and she starts screaming at them - this is an emergency, you need to hurry, this man is seriously injured, etc. The rollerblader also calls 911 again.

Once the EMTs got to him and started examining him, I assumed I'd be in the way, so I walked on. The rollerblader was still there, keeping careful watch. (Had I actually seen the accident itself, I would have stayed to leave my name and contact information as a potential witness, but I didn't, I just saw the aftermath. I have no idea if he slid out, if someone hit him, what happened). Within a few minutes, I heard sirens and saw fire trucks, police cars, and additional ambulences going toward the scene of the accident. On my way back, I stopped for a minute. Several police and fire officers were at the scene, as well as more EMTs (which frankly, was probably a good thing. I don't know that the ambulette girls could have handled this on their own; the guy was pretty big and they didn't seem that motivated).

I felt so badly for him. He was obviously in a lot of pain, definitely in shock. I think I heard him saying something about insurance. I just felt awful. And this guy walked away from the accident. He'll have scars, certainly, and perhaps long-term problems because of the facial and finger injuries (plus possibly other internal injuries), but I think we can assume he will not die or be paralyzed. Thank goodness he was wearing a helmet. However, no one in a car was injured at all (and I'm pretty sure the motorcycle came into contact with at least one car, based on some dents on one of the stopped cars). I don't know, maybe I'm crazy, but motorcycles, just not that enticing in my opinion.