From: Mikey B Subject: G's crash Thought the folks may want to hear a horror tale about my last ride (a city stomp freeride Tuesday a week ago), that left a good friend of ours badly broken... a ride that will change the way I think about drops forever... We had spent the evening riding around the Mpls area with a new friend and avid freerider named Chris, he showed us his favorite drops, and we shared ours with him. The whole ride was going just splendid until I loosened my seat in a crash off of a 6+ foot drop, and developed a small leak in my rear tire (no injuries)... so we high tailed it to Freewheel bikeshop on the west bank of the U of M... I fixed my flat, tightened my seat, and we all weighed our bikes (G's was the heavy hitter at 48 pounds I believe) as G had just put on a new set of extreme DH forks made by Reisse Racing in California called Trixxies (absolutely HUGE forx). We left from there towards the East Bank of the U of M as Chris said he had a stair drop that we just had to see... when we go to the drop site it was truly scary (that really means something when I call a drop scary)... it was a double flight of stairs that leads down from the new bridge that crosses over Washington Av. on the East Bank (just on the east side of the Washington bridge) directly in front of Coffman Union... Chris explained that he had been there with a group of freeriders the Sunday before and all had made the startling drop without incident. The entry to the stairs was the semi-circle shaped stainless steel bridge that crosses Washington and leads into a double flight of stairs each about 15-20 stairs long with a 6-8' flat landing in the middle.... Chris expressed little concern with the drop and proceeded without hesitation to ramp up his speed crossing the bridge and launched off the top completely clearing the first flight and just barely clearing the landing in the middle to land on the second flight of stairs and slip out onto the sidewalk in one fluid motion as G and I stood at the top and kept the stairs clear of people. A crowd had began to gather at the top and bottom of the stairs to watch this insane show.... I noted, to myself unfortunately, the sheer stupidity of trying this drop, as none of us were even wearing helmets... (actually I was glad that I had left my helmet at home because that gave me a good excuse not to try this wicked stunt).... when Chris landed, just barely clearing the flat between with his rear tire, which would have sent him careening out of control had he hit it, I raced down the stairs on my bike and was hoping we were leaving this drop before someone got seriously hurt... that was not to be... G immediately expressed that he wanted to do the drop, and started towards the far side of the bridge to make his approach... I sat and stared at the stairs wondering who was the first to do this drop, as it appeared almost undoable (is that a word?), and moreover why anyone would do this drop without complete body armor, much less no helmet.... G began his approach from the far side of the bridge and I cringed at the thought of what would happen if he missed it... G was moving pretty fast, and as he made the approach I hollered for him to up his speed... his bike was considerably heavier than Chris' and Chris had barely made it, he was approaching with about the same speed and it just didn't add up in my head..... G cleared the first flight of stairs but capped his rear tire on the landing in the middle which sent him careening over the handlebars clearing the second flight sans bike, and face first into the concrete sidewalk below..... he lay there motionless as people turned away in horror... I dropped my bike mid way down the staircase and sprinted to his side... I truly feared that he was dying and/or already dead. G didn't move for the first 30 seconds, he just lay there with his eyes wide open but rolled back in his head.... I kneeled next to him holding his head in my hands and shouting at him to wake up,,,, talk to me,,, hold on,,, anything I could think of.... when he did start to come too it was not a pretty sight... he lay there motionless gurgling and twitching for what seemed an eternity as I screamed for someone, anyone, to call an ambulance.... fortunately someone did (by the response we got from the police, paramedics, and fire department, I would guess at least a dozen people called)... as I sat there hollering at G to "stay alive, help is on the way"... things were not looking good, I feared the worse, I was about to loose my best riding partner not to mention one of my best friends to a stupid stunt that I should have put a stop to.... Suddenly I could see life return to his eyes, and he focused on me, and stopped twitching and gurgling.... I prodded him to stay awake, and searched his head and neck for signs of damage... there was no blood, no scrapes, no signs of damage whatsoever..... I asked him if he knew who he was,, he responded "Mikey G".... I asked him if he knew who I was, he responded "Mikey B".... I asked him if he knew what happened, and he said "I crashed".... I asked him if he could move, he said "yes", but did not move at all... I grabbed his hand and squeezed and asked if he could feel it, he said "yes"... I said "prove it, squeeze my hand back".. he just lay there, I yelled at him "SQUEEZE MY HAND DAMNIT!!".... and he just lay there motionless... I screamed at him "SQUEEZE MY HAND MAN!!!"... to my relief he gave my hand a feeble squeeze... I asked if he could move his legs... he said "yes"... I told him again to "prove it"... to my absolute joy he wiggled his legs a little bit... I was still holding his head in my other hand and he reached up and grabbed my arm and pulled it off of his head... we could hear the sirens closing in and G said "I 'spose that's for me heh?"... I said "yeah man, you took a pretty bad fall, do you think you can sit up?".... he sat up... then immediately hoped to his feet as though he were unhurt... he staggered over to the retaining wall beside him and said he was fine... The ambulance, fire truck, and police cars had all gone to the wrong side of the bridge and were unable to cross over to us from there, so we had a little time to evaluate the situation.... I asked him if he thought he could ride, he said "yeah"... but then said that his ear hurt... I examined the ear and noticed that it was red and inflamed, but not bleeding... I told him this... then he said his shoulder hurt too... I felt his shoulder and immediately noticed that he had a broken collar bone.... I told him that we weren't going to leave, we had to wait for the ambulance... and told him that his collar bone was broken... he staggered away from the wall and then fell back into it, and began to vomit... just then the paramedics arrived.... Of course the questions flew... "what happened?... what was he doing?... who were we?... why were we there?"... none of us felt confident telling the truth to the paramedics while the police were standing there... so we just said that he crashed on the stairs... the police noted that it looked like a pretty bad crash for a guy just riding down the stairs.. and we told them that he was going pretty fast when it happened, and that he face planted at the bottom... the paramedics said that they could not let him go because he was vomiting and had an obvious broken collar bone.. they said they would take him in for observation, and probably release him in a couple of hours, they asked him where he wanted to go U of M, HCMC, or Abbot, he couldn't understand them, so I told them to take him to HCMC....(a good choice it turns out)... They loaded him into the ambulance and Chris and I sat there waiting for a friend to come and get our bikes so that we could go to the ER.... the ambulance didn't move for sometime so I peered in the back window, to see them hooking him up to oxygen and scrambling around inside in an organized panic... I hailed one of the paramedics and explained what really happened... the ambulance raced off, and we sat there waiting for what seemed an eternity for our ride.... during this time we examined G's bike, a 2000 Specialized Big Hit, and noticed that the frame was totaled (the head tube ovaled from the impact), the handlebars were bent, the shifters smashed, among other minor problems.... When we got to the ER G was conscious and coherent, but in considerable pain... the doctors explained that they had to do a CAT scan and some x-rays, so Chris and I went to get a burger at a nearby bar while he was being wheeled off for x-rays... they said they would release him after the CAT scan and X-rays, so we came back immediately after... Then they told us the facts... G has a broken collar bone, a broken rib, some internal bleeding, and a cracked skull, (a 2 1/2" fracture just above his left ear, hence the pain in his ear)... there was fluid draining into his ear and he could barely hear out of that ear... they had doped him up on morphine and he was barely coherent.. We waited for him to fall asleep and then left the hospital in a very somber mood.... I went to see him the next morning, as they had said that he would probably be released then, only to find him in the Neural Trauma Center... and they told me that he would have to stay another day... I visited him that night and he seemed ok aside from the pain, the tubes in his nose, and the IV... the next day, when I went to visit him, they told me that it would be yet another day.... then, yet another day.... all told he spent 4 nights in the ER and Neural Trauma Center... and each prognosis was worse than the one before.... he was having a hard time even balancing when he could muster the strength to stand.... he was not able to eat because of the constant vomiting, and an IV was the only thing keeping him hydrated... it was a damn good thing that he went to HCMC as they have the best Neural Trauma Center in the Twin Cities.... G is back home now and doing pretty good considering.... he spent several days bed-ridden at home.. But soon bored with that and began to push himself to get out some... he returned to work today for the first time since the accident (we found him some things that he can do that don't tax him too much)... he still can't hear out of his left ear very well, his balance is all messed up, his collar bone sticks out kinda funny and he says he can feel it moving when he moves his arm, his ribs hurt, and he looks kinda swollen on his whole left side, but he has managed to keep his sense of humor about it, and isn't letting it hold him down... he can't drive a car because of the dizzy spells, but we arranged for rides for him to get where he needs to go.. The fact of the matter is that he came VERY close to killing himself on that drop.... just a little harder of a fall and his head would have split open like a melon... all because he DIDN'T WEAR A HELMET!!!.... while I can agree that the jump was very risky to begin with, I think we ALL know that he would have gone home with a broken collarbone, broken rib, some internal bleeding (minor), and a CRACKED HELMET instead of a CRACKED SKULL had he been wearing a helmet.... It would have reduced his stay in the hospital to one evening in the ER instead of 4 days in the Neural Trauma Center.... he would be able to balance and drive a car, his head wouldn't ache, and he would be able to hear out of his left ear and, of course, he would need to buy a new helmet! G will live, and most likely make a full recovery, aside from a funny looking collarbone, but only through the grace of god... lets not push it though guys!! NO HELMET IS JUST PLAIN STUPID!!!! this kind of thing does not only happen to freeriding freaks like G and I, it can happen anywhere anytime when you are on a mtn bike... a car, an unseen cliff, a sharp corner, a tree, or any number of things could cause an equal amount of damage or worse in an instant! This CAN happen to you, if you let it! I never even owned a helmet for the first 5 years I rode a mtn bike.. And I shunned them even when I did finally break down and buy one... but I can tell you that a crash I took at Lutsen this year would have resulted in me being medivac'ed off the mountain had I not changed my stupid ways and worn a helmet!! Instead I had a sore neck for several days, and a seriously cracked helmet... I don't think my son would be too happy to see his dad in a wheelchair for his 7th birthday.. Or worse yet dead... I hope you share this story with ALL of your Mtn. Biking friends, but especially with the folks who have come to know and like G from Maah Daah Hey and the 24 hours of Afton race... I am sure this story will scare the hell out of most anyone who reads it... and that's a good thing as I don't want to be attending any funerals for people who were too careless to wear a helmet... I hope that you will take the responsibility for your friends and refuse to ride with them if they won't wear a helmet. I can tell you that it is a horrifying experience, even if your not the one lying in the dirt dying from your own stupidity, to watch this happen. An experience we are all better off not having. And, an experience no one has the right to put you through just because you chose to ride with them.