Last summer a group of us, 6 riders, were taking the back road from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. The trailing pair was a girl on a cbr600, who knew how to ride pretty good, and her new boyfriend on a zx6r. We stopped and waited for them to catch up. After a spell we turned back to see what the hold up was. It turned out the girl had also stopped and waited.. her boyfriend wasnt catching up. We finally arrived at the reason, cars parked on the shoulder and people milling around.

For some strange reason, on a corner that wasnt particularly tricky, the boyfriend left the asphalt, apparently skidded and wiped out on the hard packed dirt, and tumbled with the bike in such a way that the girldfriend (who got there a short while before we did) was holding him when he died. His helmet had come off in the crash. He was a soldier at the Air Force Base and had a small daughter. By the time we got there, everyone on scene knew he was dead, and they were sorting out how to cover him. Someone in a car finally produced a blanket from their trunk.

I found myself sitting where he died this afternoon, not thinking about anything in particular. Just remembering what that day was like and looking over the little memorial the girlfriend made. She made it just before suddenly quitting her job and moving back to Kentucky. Traumatized, confused, and blaming herself.

Lets have a safe season, shall we? Lets pretend we have an inner warning system that is there to help us, if we will only listen to it and not block it out. As they say in boxing before the bell rings: protect yourself at all times.

 

Very hard things to think about...

 

Wow.
That's incredibly sad to hear.
Peace to the fallen rider, and I hope the girl was able to come to terms with what happened and move past it. Hate to see two peoples' lives ruined over the accident. Just makes it that much more tragic.

 

Damn stuff can happen anytime, anywhere. Ride safe, everyone.