Yesterday, mid-afternoon, Freedom crashed between Kaslo and Nelson, BC, a few clicks south of Ainsworth Hotsprings if you know the area. I was right behind him when, during a low blood sugar diabetic episode, he drifted off to the right into the ditch. His front wheels caught on the rocks and he was catapulted over the handlebars, coming to rest in the middle of the road about 30ft past the bike.
His pelvic bone was fractured and his hip joint, though intact, was shoved up into his abdomen. He has a huge gash in his chin (open face helmet) and a chunk of his lower lip is missing. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital in Nelson then transferred last night by helicopter to Spokane.
Zmilin and I stopped at the hospital this afternoon but John was in back-to-back surgeries for his face and pelvis. I just got home and talked to him on the phone. Neurologically he is fine. No paralysis, no cognitive issues. He has at least one more surgery to go. He is missing two front teeth.
He was very, very lucky. Lucky that at the rather remote crash site I had cell signal to call for help. The first car to stop had an ER nurse with a big first aid kit. Several Triumph riders attending the Kootenay Raid were in the area, stopped and helped with traffic and such. He didn't hit the rocky cliff face on the right. He didn't go over the rocky cliff drop off to the left. Didn't hit a tree. Another car wasn't coming right when he flew into the middle of the shoulderless two-lane road.
The bike is absolutely totaled. The front end was ripped clean off. The front wheel is a pretzel. It was leaking gas out the cap but when the RCMP officer and I lifted it upright, gas poured out the split bottom of the tank. Not a surface on the thing remained untouched.
I don't have the hospital address but maybe someone could look it up for me. He's in room 425 of Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital in Spokane. He'll be there at least a week if not three.
This was a horrible end to a the worst week of vacation I've ever had. It started with other problems that I will describe in another thread.
