The luckiest guy in Florida Easter Sunday!

[Adventurer]

Late afternoon Easter Sunday I was taking the long way south from the Tampa area back to Sanibel, absolutely beautiful day! I had worked my way down from Plant City to Hwy 62 then headed west towards 301. Hwy 62 is pretty much deserted of housing and is more about phosphate mining and the area is rural and quiet with long straight runs of road.

A little bit before the 301 turn, a crotch rocket goes by me....oh 110-120 m.p.h., as I was doing 80 and he just blew by. Shortly I get to 301, turn left and head south. Not 30 seconds later.................

A swore he was dead.

UNBELIEVABLE!

That's the rider standing over his bike. Witnesses said he went about 50 feet in the air over the car rolled and just got up!!! In this photo he had just gotten up, notice emergency vehicle had not arrived yet.

A couple who ride witnessed the whole thing. They said though he may have been speeding a bit, at this point they didn't think it was excessive for the area, as he was approaching a light controlled intersection. The driver of the vehicle (around 80 years of age) was not hurt, neither was his wife. They were exiting a church parking lot. The rider told me he saw them all the way and only at very last second did the elderly man decide to pull out.

Yes to the obvious...full face helmet and armored jacket he had just taken off.

If the rider wasn't the luckiest guy in Florida Easter Sunday I don't know who was!!

[Chiba]

inappropriate speed + inattentive driver = that guy's lucky he's not dead

[Adventurer]

A few more pic's of the earlier post.

[Unity]

Good for the rider that he was wearing a helmet. Florida has a lot of fatals involving helmetless riders (Jody's brother tells us the FL news).

Riding can be scary down there, and not just because of inattentive old-timers. In urban areas such as West Palm Beach and Tampa (our latest observations), everybody seems to be in a huge hurry and lane changes are often abrupt with no room for error. Sorta like commutes around here.

--John

[Adventurer]

Good as time as any to get educated. I examined the helmet and overall it SEEMED OK, but I'm sure it's toast. I guessing I'm answering my own question, it was a modular style (flip-up). When buying my helmet and doing my research, full face was the way to go, thus I settled for the Shoei RF 1100. At the time and even now there seems a push on modular (Shoei's newest NeoTec is an example $ 600 +). Having handled this guy's helmet I'm certainly glad I went full face, that helmet modular system folded like a cheap suit, I still can't believe his face was not ripped off.

Full face hands down?

[redman]

Yep, lived in St. Pete back in the day rode a RD400 Daytona. Twice I had to reach over and tap on the drivers window because they had me squeezed on the double yellow with no where to go changing lanes right into me. Each time the drivers were so startled, then super angry at me. All because they could not hear my Yoshimura super pipe, my horn or my yelling. They just dont see you.