Why I remind myself to stay alert while driving

 By Tim Potter

Tim Potter

It was a good thing I noticed that the vehicle several car lengths in front of me was starting to slow down.

That was my first cue to stay alert.

I was on a straight four-lane divided highway in Reno County on a recent afternoon cruising at the speed limit, 65 mph. Right after I spotted the car slowing down ahead, I noticed a motorcycle closing in behind me.

The motorcycle was going noticeably faster than my car and the car directly in front of me and a third car to the left and ahead of me.

I was in the outside lane, already slowing to keep distance from the car directly in front of me. The motorcycle shot around me, then suddenly veered in between me and the decelerating car ahead. That car was now flashing a right turn signal as it approached a side road.

I realized the motorcyclist was not going to slow enough in time.

I heard the sudden concussion of the motorcycle crunching into the car bumper.

In my mind’s snapshot, the motorcyclist bounced and rolled in a churning swirl of hair, jacket and jeans -- but no helmet. Right in front of me.

I don’t consciously remember commanding myself: “OK! Avoid hitting the fallen motorcyclist by pulling to the left right now!” But that’s how I reacted.

I realized afterward that if I hadn’t been alert to what was ahead, then behind, then in front, I might have run over the motorcyclist after he fell and plowed into the car he hit.

I veered away to the inside lane in time to avoid striking them, then pulled back right, slowing down onto the shoulder. I stopped on the grass, pressed the emergency flashers, grabbed my cell phone and race-walked back 100 yards to the crash scene. As I strode, I called 911 and gave the few details to the operator. She said she was already talking to someone else and could let me go.

I immediately felt relief when I noticed the motorcyclist was sitting up and off the highway. I had been mentally prepared to give, or help with, CPR -- thinking he might have been knocked unconscious and might not be breathing.

He appeared maybe a little dazed. He was bleeding, but not profusely, from his scalp, his hair partly matted in blood. I seem to recall gashes around his eyebrow, on his hand. He was trying to punch in a number on his cell phone. His motorcycle, which didn’t look all that smashed considering the impact, was on its side and pouring a stream of gasoline onto the highway pavement.

He stood up, saying he needed to tend to his motorcycle. But I quietly urged him to sit down, telling him that he might be in shock. It was wickedly hot, the sun searing.

I filled out a witness statement for a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper as emergency medical workers treated the motorcyclist and placed him on a stretcher.

Later, I confirmed from the trooper’s crash report that the motorcyclist wasn’t wearing a helmet and that, as the report stated, he was “following too closely to slow down.”

For me, it was a sobering reminder: the importance of staying alert, watching the speed and everything in front and behind, not following too closely and being ready to take an evasive move in a flash.

As the troopers say: Things happen fast.

 

Tim Potter is a Public Affairs Manager for KDOT in Hutchinson