I was knocked off my bike by a drunk local(on a moped, with a gallon of tuba in one hand), just over three years ago, between Bayawan and Santa Catalina on a Sunday afternoon. Having seen him wobbling around, I gave a warning beep on the horn then passed him on the opposite side of the road, as the way was clear. I was second in a group of four riders, with 2 guys behind me who witnessed the entire accident. As I passed him he veered sharply left, perhaps to turn up a track or maybe it was deliberate, the 2 behind me thought so. He hit my swing arm almost half way as his tyre mark was still on the my swing arm when the bike was returned to me, a month later.
I remember thinking as everything slowed down as it usually does during an accident, why the bike suddenly swung left on the rear wheel. That was the last thing I remembered till I woke up on the road side. Having tried to correct swing, I high-sided was spat off, one of the guys behind me said I I spun 180 degrees, landed on my head and left wrist(shattering quite a few of the 26 bones in it), luckily, my Caberg modular helmet which slightly cracked on the very top with the initial impact. I then 360-ed and finally landed on my face, again the helmet took the secondary impact barely cracking on the jaw part of the helmet.
I was wearing full mesh, upper body armour, armoured gloves, which successfully saved me from serious, upper torso, unfortunately, I had worn jeans, instead of armoured trousers, which I had omitted due to it being a very hot day. Naturally, in the course of 'my travels', I found the only large rock around and made contact with it, with my right upper leg.
Both the guys behind me, once they managed to stop and dismount, didn't want to come over to me, as they thought I was dead, after my 'aerobatics and final stop', which I don't blame them for in any way. The first rider came back, luckily, he is experienced as a first responder at the scene of an accident type and did what he could including proper, safe removal of my helmet, once I was conscious.
I am unaware how long the Sta Catalina ambulance took to come, it was a Sunday afternoon after all, but the trolley bed was too short, there were no straps to stop me rolling around the back.
To cut a long story short, the guy who hit me was skunk drunk, no insurance, no license, not even his bike. I ended up with P180k bill at Silliman Medical and P180k for the bike to be repaired. I had a steel plate and 4 screws in my left wrist a dislocated shoulder and ended up having 1.2 liters of blood removed from my right thigh, my bike boots saved my lower legs and feet without a shadow of a doubt as they had to be immediately retired.
I cannot stress the importance of trying to protect yourself as best you can while riding. I bought new body armour, as the old suit had to be cut off me in the emergency room. New gloves with carbon fibre protection for fingers and wrists, new heavy duty, riding boots, etc etc.
The Caberg helmet cost me around two hundred US dollars when new, I went out and bought a replacement Shoei for four hundred dollars, I am always reminded of the old Bell helmet advert, if you have a 10 dollar head, wear a 10 dollar helmet.
There are a couple of points to this story, firstly, I'm alive, my gear did it's job, in the UK they call it A.T.G.A.T.T.(all the gear all the time, something I try adhere to, whenever practical). Secondly, expect the unexpected and be prepared for 'stupidity' whilst driving, not just on bikes but all types of vehicles, drive as defensively as you can. Please remember that the vast majority of locals just pay for their licenses, there is no test of any practical form for any type of driving license here, if one pays the LTO off, which most do. I am reminded also of the old saying, most accidents occur within 5 kms of home, worth thinking about if you're scooting around town.
I have had a few accidents in my time, in all sorts of vehicles, some my fault, some other people's fault, it doesn't really matter. I'm still here and I try to remember what to do better the next time.
Dumaguete Info Search
Best Posts in Thread: Motorcycle Safety - Gear - Accidents - Personal Experiences
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Sorry if I seem to be beating a dead horse here but the recent (and preventable) deaths of two expats have been eating at me since it happened and helmets are a very rare thing to see here.....on both expats (who I would think would be a bit more educated on the subject) and Filipinos. So thought I'd share one of my "experiences" (again) to explain why I always wear a helmet....unless going to the Valencia market on the Honda Scoopy at jogging speeds.
When I first learned to ride I only wore a helmet when I went on a longer rides and even then sometimes I would not wear one. I had completely backasswards thinking and I honestly can't believe how idiotic I was then, if I could go back and slap myself I would. Note: I had never even touched a motorcycle before I came to the Philippines. The closest things I had driven were 3 and 4 wheel ATVs as a teenager. The first motorcycle I ever drove was a Honda Steed (at the time I didn't even know what "cc" meant so couldn't tell you anything more about the bike
) on one of my first vacations to the Philippines (in Pampanga). The first bike I ever owned (which was also the second time I ever rode a bike) was a 650cc Kawi Ninja (not exactly a "true" sports bike but still way too fast and unforgiving for a second time rider). Somehow I managed to put not one scartch on that bike for almost 2 years......which included at least a dozen round trips from Dumaguete to Cebu and Bacolod and 3 round trips to Manila and back.
Two years later I owned a couple scooters and had traded my 650 Ninja for a 1000CC Fireblade, which I still have today, and I had my first and only (knock on wood) accident in Kalibo (Aklan) on the way back to Dumaguete from Manila. It was completely unavoidable, a girl ran....more like teleported....out in front of me from behind a parked vehicle. There was no time to honk, counter-steer or to even touch the brakes.....open road one moment then a split second later all I saw was an 8 year old girl directly in my path. Luckily I didn't hit her dead on and she took a glancing blow from the front and then clipped my handlebar which threw me into a vicious tank slapper. Luck struck again and I went down on the gravel shoulder on the right instead of the Ceres Bus in the oncoming lane (and luckily the girl didn't get knocked into the path of the bus either).
I have no idea how long I was down after hitting the road but it was enough time for a crowd to gather and start taking pictures and for a trike driver to take the girl to the hospital. After I got up it took about 15 minutes before I started to feel the my injuries. An hour after the accident the police showed up, put my bike in the back of their truck and took me to the hospital. Took some x-rays and found out I had torn some rib cartilage (and possibly some some fractured ribs....those x-ray pictures were kinda fuzzy) and a partially torn acromio-clavicular joint (which a nurse and myself figured out on our own by looking at the x-ray image and searching on Google while we waited 5 hours for a doctor to come give his "expert" opinion.....and all he did was confirm the assessment we had already made
). Thankfully, I was wearing this helmet -
- and had no head/neck injuries. Not sure if those marks would have been deadly if they were on my head but I'm quite certain it would have been extremely unpleasant and I most likely would have needed more than a couple minutes to get back on my feet.
BTW: the little girl was perfectly fine. She had a tiny scratch on her head and her initial hospital bill was around 10 pesos (for some Tylenol). The family later pulled some sh*t to get more money out of me but that's in another thread somewhere on the forum.
Here is the original thread: Long Overdue | Dumaguete Info
This accident is one of the main reasons that made me start thinking straight about proper head protection. It still hurts to sleep on my right shoulder for more than a couple hours (it's been more than 2 years since that accident). I know a guy who has chronic head pain and neurological problems from an accident he had almost 3 years ago when not wearing a helmet. My biggest fear is not dying from head trauma in an accident but more from living with those injuries.
I know that this post probably won't change the mind of people who refuse to wear a helmet for whatever reason but hopefully it will, at the very least, get them to think/consider the benefits of wearing one. However, there was another thing that I found that sealed the deal for me putting on a helmet after I had this accident:
There is a website called.........if you go there and search "motorcycle" in the search at the top you will find the true dangers of riding a motorcycle."Best Gore"
Note: If the pictures of accidents Filipinos post/share on FB makes your stomach turn or ticks you off DO NOT GO TO THIS WEBSITE!!!! This site can and very well may emotionally scar you!
I do not enjoy viewing that website and I am certainly not going to link it on this forum but it did make me change my driving habits, get serious about improving my riding skills and it most certainly convinced me that a helmet is the bare minimum protection needed to even sit on a motorcycle....also, if you know someone (or you are that someone) that rides a motorcycle like a retard, drunk and/or refuses to wear any safety gear at all this could very well get them/you to change their/your thoughts on safety gear.
And to close here are some stats on motorcycle accidents (I believe that data was collected from the US but I'm sure we are all smart enough to see how it relates):
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