Falling and getting hit...gear??

When I started racing(long time ago), My biggest fear was falling then getting run over by someone else.After seeing a guy fall and get hit in the back at Summit I always hoped when I crashed it would be a fast turn so I would slide off the track young and dumb I guess. Anyways the first time I fell, I got hit by another bike, luckily I escaped with a couple basketball sized knees and some war stories. That same weekend, some others weren't so lucky.

Anyways, it seems this year, this has happened a few times with terrible consequences, where we have lost riders or they have suffered catastrophic injuries. In an effort to better prepare folks I thought I'd ask a few question.

Without getting into graphic details>

Were the riders I referred to utilizing every piece of safety gear available?

Is there additional safety gear that should be considered?

I understand at the speeds these incidents happen, sometimes the outcome is inevitable, but is there additional training for riders so they are better prepared when they end up down on-track (ala Hacking/May crash)?

 

Good question. I am in the Southeast where unfortunately we've had some bad luck so far (losing riders) I dont know specifics but I've heard (speculation) that maybe a chest protector would have possibly given the rider a different outcome. I am looking for one this very second.

 

Not sure how much good it will do, but after mulling the idea for over a year and then being at Summit for Alex; I went out and bought some chest protection and I upped the game on hip protection. I got SixSixOne's CORE SAVER and PRO BOMBER SHORTS. I'm planning on doing a full review on the products real soon so I'll post up my thoughts when I do.

 

Outside of equipment, the best protection is to keep laid down on the track after a crash until all traffic passes by improves your chances of survival if a bike collides with you. By being in a prone position lying on the track most of the force of the bike is deflected up and over your body (think of May’s bike jumping Hacking's bike at Barber last year). Sure, you'll have some bad bruising, maybe a broken bone or two, but you will very likely be alive. If you are trying to get up and your body vertical on impact it will take the full, direct impact force of the bike as it collides with you. I don't care what chest protector you are wearing, if a bike directly impacts you at 60, 80, 100+mph you're loved ones are going to have a very bad day. So many times I see guys trying to stand up without waiting until traffic passes by. Last race weekend a Canadian dude I was pitted next to did just this; stood up with his back to the traffic and moved off the track. One bike almost took him out, but he got lucky. Sometime afterward, Jerry Wood came by the pits and gave the guy a stern talking to for like 15 - 20 minutes. After Jerry left, I just walked over and said “you know, he’s right.”
.

 

Luck

I think it has a lot to do with luck. I was recently run over by a liter bike at 100 MPH plus. I was laying down when I got hit. Luckily the other bike basically used my leg as a ramp. If i had been in any other position, if he had hit my upper body at all, I think it would have been a very different story.
I do wear a chest protector though, and am thinking of purchasing some well padded protective shorts for under the leathers.

Here is a link to some pictures of the leg after the crash. *GRAPHIC*
http://forums.13x.com/showthread.php?t=177909&highlight=bruise

 

I got run over while still on the track (I hadn't even stopped sliding) and I almost got killed. Spent 3 days in ICU and 3 more in the hospital. I was very lucky. If he would have hit me 1 foot to the left, I am pretty sure I would have been dead.

 

I will always say the best pieces of equipment I own is a chest and back protector. Buy 'em, Wear 'Em. Other then that it is all luck.

 

I dont wear a chest protector, but I am pretty sure my back protector saved me from haveing even more serious injuries. One of my injuries was a fractured vertebre, but it was just a hairline fracture.

 

I was taught the opposite. As long as you have your bearings straight, and are looking into oncomming traffic, get off the track.

 

I did my first race school at Penguin, and that is one of the things that stuck like glue, mostly because I hadn't even considered that as a danger. I was really excited to be going to a track, and that was a huge eye-opener!!! "Better to be a speed bump than a wall" I think is how they put it.

 

I ended up laying on the track at the exit of turn #2 at Oak Hill on the first lap of a novice meat grinder race. There really wasn't any thought process involved. I was on my feet trying to get off the track before I even knew what was going on. The first two thirds of the pack went right past me. Then some guy who wasn't looking up the track center punched me at about 30 mph. After that it was just chaos with me rolling down the track. At some point my right foot / ankle got run over.

I was wearing Syeds with hard elbow pads, a Dainese back protector and Daytona Security boots. No chest protector.

When I got hit the first time I got my elbows out in front of me and they took the impact (hockey reflexes?). My chest never got touched. I was pretty lucky and had no upper body or brain damage at all.

In the end, the only injury I had was a broken right fibula a couple inches above the ankle. When I showed the orthopedic surgeon my boot, he said "if you weren't wearing such good boots, you would have been lucky to keep the foot". So, I consider those boots to be about the best $600 I ever spent.

 

Sounds like good advice.

 

A chest protector would have not made any difference in the recent incident at Tally.

 

If i hit the ground Im staying right where i am until somebody tells me to get up

 

I'm pretty sure you would have been dead if we had let you go to sleep in your truck like you kept asking. You wern't very hip on going to the hostpital! That was a spleen explosion wasn't it?

Dang underbike exhause on the Buell that hit you is what put the hurtbag on you. Internal injuries are really scary, at least with cuts/broken bones you can pretty much know what is messed up, inside not so much.

 

I never asked to go to sleep in my truck, but I do appreciate you and others for coming back several times to check on me.

Yes, I had a ruptured spleen, liver, and small intestine. Two feet of the small intestine were removed, but I got to keep the spleen and liver

 

Probably not the best idea, unless there is a risk of spinal courd injury.

 

That's my worst nightmare... getting hit or having a hand go into spinning parts.. Ughhhh.

Would a flak jacket type protector have helped you? I saw the "right after" part but not the actual impact.. where was the impact on you?

 

when I crashed & ended up on track the only thing going through my mind was "GET OFF THE TRACK" but I hurt too bad to get up...I ended up crawling -

Don't know if you can actually override the thought process...