Back To Reality

Mongo didn't ride at all today. I wish I could say it was because I was exhausted from my ride yesterday...but the truth of the matter is that I was too rattled from witnessing a horrible car accident.

I often joke on this blog about my "Highway" riding skills. The reason I do so is because in order to get to where I do most of my riding, I must ride at least half a mile in each direction on a highly trafficked, four-lane road. The posted speed limit is 45, but...you know how that goes! I always hug the right side, hold my line, and hope nobody clips me. I've had some close calls, don't get me wrong, but my overconfidence in my abilities never wavered.

There were two vehicles in front of me before the stop-sign at the intersection leaving the parking lot. I had done this hundreds of times...Wait for the cars to go, look left for traffic, look right for traffic, turn left into the median, merge into ongoing traffic, go immediately to the right lane. As I sat there, one foot unclipped, mindlessly thinking about nothing, the SUV in front of me squealed out of the intersection...and then everything slowed down!

I watched the SUV cross two oncoming lanes, the median, and try and stay in the closest lane going in his direction...he went too wide! A guy in a big pickup truck either didn't see the SUV or thought he would stay in the near lane and hit the SUV almost broadside going at least 40 mph.

The noises, along with the explosion of glass and metal, were horrible to witness. The truck did a nose-wheelie on impact and the SUV spun around once and flipped over. I was less than seventy feet away. It was un-fucking believable!

I wish I could say that some hero-instinct kicked in and I rushed to the aid of the victims. The reality is that I stood there for a few seconds trying to process what I had just seen...and when I snapped out of it, there were people everywhere and a cop car on the scene that happened to be following right behind the accident.

I watched as all the passengers from both vehicles were removed, and though everyone was alive, at least one looked really bad. As the chaos from the accident scene grew with emergency vehicles, rubberneckers, stalled traffic, and more cops, Mongo slowly slipped away and rode home in a daze.