One person's accident affects many (08/11/2008)

Motorcycles are a dangerous form of transportation. Planes, trains and automobiles are also hazardous. Traveling by horse-drawn buggy carries inherent risks. Bicycles can wreck and cause broken bones, as my daughter found out this past summer. Even something as simple as walking can cause injury if one happens to fall.

I think that certain forms of transportation are more dangerous than others and are accidents waiting to happen. ATV's and motorcycles are at the top of my list in that category.

I have ridden on both as a passenger. Each time I was convinced that I would die before the ride was over. So far, I have been wrong about that.

Recently one of my daughter's friends was in a motorcycle accident. As we all know, cars and trucks don't always look out for motorcyclists. A truck cut him off and he swerved. Apparently he didn't swerve quite enough because the truck clipped the bike and down he went.

Luckily he escaped with minor injuries and possibly a torn up knee. It could have been much worse.

He wasn't wearing a helmet.

I know lots of people who say that is his choice. That he wasn't hurting anyone but himself. He wasn't breaking the law and it's nobody's business but his if he wants to wear a helmet or not.

I disagree.

I can still hear my daughter crying as she raced to the hospital, not knowing how badly her friend was injured. She certainly was hurt by his injury and would have been devastated if he had died.

This guy has two small children. They surely would have been hurt if he had sustained a brain injury or worse. His children play with my granddaughter. She might not have understood what was going on but if her playmates were upset because their dad was hurt, then she would also have been upset.

He has co-workers. Forget that they are all his friends. When a friend is in pain so is everyone who loves them or even knows them. If he had been injured to the point where he could no longer perform his job, his co-workers would have been forced to compensate for him. And what about the lives he could have saved if he had sustained a brain injury that prevented him from ever performing his duties as a paramedic and fireman again?

Those are all people who have been affected by his choice.

He has a mother and father who love him as much as I love my daughter and as much as you love your children and family. Family is always affected when something bad happens to one of their own.

Nobody goes through this world alone. We all have people who depend on us. We all have someone, somewhere who cares. Anything that happens to us also affects them.

So don't tell me that wearing a helmet is a personal choice that affects no one but the cyclist. I refuse to believe that.

Plus all the ones who cared for this guy after his accident were affected. The people who cleaned up the roadway, the trucker who caused the accident, the helicopter pilot who airlifted him to the hospital, and the doctors and nurses who cared for him were all affected by what happened to this one man.

I don't even know his last name but I was still shaking several minutes after I hung up the phone from hearing the news. I prayed that I hadn't lied when I told my daughter that her friend would be all right. I tried my best to impart a calm that I did not feel.

Thank God he survived. It could have been so much worse. I just pray that next time he wears a helmet. Next time he might not be so lucky. Next time I could be writing about my daughter's grief instead of her relief. There's always a next time.

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