Rear ended by a cage on rural road

[C_H_R]

Last sunday I was cruising on a rural road at about 50 km/h. It was a nice, sunny day after a long rain period and I was enjoying the lanscape and freah air. A perfect day.

I suddenly felt a heavy acceleration and found myself lying on the shoulder of the road.

OK - let's make a check:
Can I move my legs - yes.
Can I move my arms - yes.
Can I move my hands - yes.
Can I move my head - yes.
Does anything hurt - no.
OK - let's move to a sitting position.
Take off gloves.
Take off helmet.
Stand up and let's see what's on:

(Photo is taken from the position I was lying).
There's a cage standing - and my bike quite a distance away lying on the road.
Both do not look really nice any more:




First on scene was the ambulance: 'What do you want - nobody ordered you' - 'We are always showing up when there is a bike involved'. They made a quick chek on me but also found that there is no need for immediate medical action.
Some minutes later police arrived and started with the accident report.
Some more minutes later the accident research department's investigation team from the nearby medical university arrived. Once again: 'What do you want - nobody ordered you' - 'We are always showing up when there is a bike involved'. OK - now I know as a biker gone down you are a real attraction for these guys.

The paramedics insisted on taking me to the hospital - I agreed as the train station is near to the hospital and the bike was not rideable anymore. So this was a good plan to reach home.
But first the doctor wants to see me - found no broken bones or other obvious injuries - sent me to X-ray to make a picture of my neck. This also showed nothing. The doctor sounded a bit disappointed when asking me if I would have at least some abrasions...But I had to disappoint her: 'As you see, I wear full gear and not a single centimeter of skin was exposed to the street'.

The gear showed some wear:


but worked verry well.
When I found myself lying on the shoulder of the street I really didn't expect that I will stand up and walk away uninjured from that incident.

I sometimes think I may be a bit paranoid about gear - but now I know I'm not.

My advice is: Buy the best gear you can afford - and wear it: It really works!


For the statistics:
The gear used that day:
*Sidi Crossfire boots -bought just a week before because I found the industrial workers safety boots I used until then were a bit too soft. It was a tough decission for me to spend about 350 EUR just on boots. That's much more then I'm normally willing to spend on that - but investigation showed that these are just the best ones (of course there are some boots from other companies that are similar - but also in the same price range). Now I'm happy that I've made the right decission.
*Draggin kevlar jeans. As this will protect against abrasion only I combine them with knee protectors and protector shorts to add protection against impact.
*Kidney belt
*Heavy cordura jacket with builtin CE-protectors on back, shoulder and ellbow. All exposed areas are reinforced with leather patches.
*HiViz Vest
*Leather gloves with knuckle protectors
*Full face helmet HJC FG-15, version with double-D lock

The bike is probably totalled:
*Pannier rack destroyed beyond recognition. This probably absorbed a lot of the impact energy
*Rear frame bent
*Rear brake disk bent
*Brake pads destroyed from bent brake disk
*Rear tire damaged
*Rear wheel bent
*Left side fairing broken
*Windscreen broken
*Handlebar bent
*Front fender broken
*Left mirror destroyed