Friend got hurt on a trike this afternoon...

[Billy Golightly]

My mom and I were coming back from her office, and my dad calls me on the radio and tells me that my friends were by the house wanting to ride. But since I wasn't there they left and said they would be back. Well I wasn't real far from the house so I met them on my way in and they followed me back to the house. When we got here I went in the house, grabbed my helmet and took a big swig of Dayquill (Since I was sick). Grabbed my jacket, walked out side and cranked the 250R up after a less then healthy amount of kicks. Took it for a warm up spin real quick, came back and told them "Lets go!" My friend that got hurt was on his 85 250sx, and his friend was on his moms Rancher. As we were heading down the driveway, I veered off into the woods towards the creek infront of our house where I have been working on a new trail. They both followed down the slope, across the creek, around a tricky turn on the side of a hill, over a couple logs, up and down another hill, and then across the creek, and then onto some pretty off camber stuff. I went across it without any problems, but I've been riding this section quite a bit lately. I went on ahead a ways, and then stopped right before the next downhill section. I turned around and looked back as I seen him navigating the off camber stuff without much problems. At this point I start to see it happen, Threewheeler looses balance, rolls, falls 15+ ft to the bottom of the creek with him still on it. I jump off the 250R and run over to him "Are you ok?!?" "Yeah I think so" as he was climbing up out of the bottom of the creek, and then I seen it. The gash on the right side of his cheek down by his mouth, and the blood was pouring out. I seen it and said "Holy trailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro we gotta get you to the hospital". As I get closer and looked at it more, I thought for sure it was all the way through his cheek and into his mouth. The blood was running down his chin and neck and making a pretty big pool of it by the neck of his shirt. The gash had the skin where it was in a strip probably 2 inches long only holding by one side, kind of flapping. His other freind was getting the Rancher turned around and we were walking up to the house when I called the house with my cell and told my dad that he was hurt. We got inside and I got a roll of guaze we have in the medicine drawer and told my dad to get his knife out so we could cut a peice off to stop the bleeding. We got a peice cut and he started holding it on there. I told him "Man your gonna need some stitches" and he didn't say anything and then a few seconds later he said, "Yeah, we need to go". The four of us got in my truck and went to the hospital in town where we waited approx 5 hours for them to stitch him up. I'm not exactly sure how many he got in the spot near his chin, but he got 3 in his neck which is a spot I didn't even see before because of the blood that was running down from the upper one. He had to have got atleast 30-40 in the spot by his chin. They get taken out January 2nd.

So today I learned a very valuable lesson. Even though I ride nearly everyday, I hardley ever think about the possible injuries associated with this hobby. I also learned to ALWAYS wear all the Safety gear you have, and then some. If he had been wearing a helmet, I feel pretty sure to say that we would probably be out riding right now. Be safe and careful everyone, you never know when it might be you or someone you know in that slow motion view of something bad happening.

[J.D.]

Damn that sucks! Did the SX make it out ok too?

[Billy Golightly]

No, after we got done at the hospital I took him and his friend home. The Rancher and the SX are still here. The SX is upside down in the creek in about 6 inches or better of water. I'm not sure on the exact extent of the damage but the seat and fenders came off, front fender is possibly cracked/broken, I'm almost counting on the handlebars being bent and probably a couple levers broken as well. The 250R is still down there where I left it also. My dad and I are going to try and fish the SX out tomorrow morning/afternoon and then I'm going to give him a call and let him know we got it out.

[ScottZJ]

Yeah I hate to say it, but helmets do help from major injury. I had a friend on a 185 trike going up a hill and the rest of the guys in front stopped at the top to look around. It made him stay at a bad angle and when he hit the gas the trike flipped on him. The end of the bars goud the side of his eye and ripped off part of his face(on that side). You could just about see all the bones and skull. Its a bad deal and a helmet would have helped. I hope your buddy is ok and is able to reflect back on this ordeal. He will have something to tell others.............peace

[kwit]

i remember oen time i was out riding by myself at a small construstion site near my house... well i was riding around on my bigred and i was going up a very seep incline.. sept i was in to high a gear to get up it.. ..the bike was kind of over the top a little bit so the skidplate was grounded on the dirt .. well i tryed givin it gas but nothin happend so i put it into 3rd but i had the bike reved high .....my foot got stuckon the shifter b/c of the ground... and when that gear hit the bike did a huge wheelie.. i hit the rear brakes but i wasnt moving so i didnt do anthing but fell backward down the hill... the 3 wheeler right after me.. well i landed on my stomach(long fall lol ) and the trike handle bars landed on my head after falling a good distance.. cracked my helmet in half .. but i was still walkin.. knocked me silly for a few seconds tho

[ATC crazy]

Sorry to hear about your friend's misfortune. :( Thats why I refuse to set foot on my machine until everyone in the group has a helmet on. You should also :idea:

[250SX_rider]

Oh man, that's real bad! That story proved me that it is important to wear my helmet... I will always wear it. Take care of you, guys...

[TeCaTe_MaN]

i remember oen time i was out riding by myself at a small construstion site near my house... well i was riding around on my bigred and i was going up a very seep incline.. sept i was in to high a gear to get up it.. ..the bike was kind of over the top a little bit so the skidplate was grounded on the dirt .. well i tryed givin it gas but nothin happend so i put it into 3rd but i had the bike reved high .....my foot got stuckon the shifter b/c of the ground... and when that gear hit the bike did a huge wheelie.. i hit the rear brakes but i wasnt moving so i didnt do anthing but fell backward down the hill... the 3 wheeler right after me.. well i landed on my stomach(long fall lol ) and the trike handle bars landed on my head after falling a good distance.. cracked my helmet in half .. but i was still walkin.. knocked me silly for a few seconds tho

wierd......that exact same thing hapened to me on my 200x...exept it was a field of sawdust (by a woodmill) and i was going up and i pulled the clutch in at the top to coast down the other side...but it grounded out and then it started to roll backwards so i let the clutch out (motor is still running) and it pulls a wheelie and i fall off on my side on the ground and the bars manded on my helmet and i could feel my helmet squishing down on my head :shock: it was crazy

[REDMAN225]

sorry to hear that...gotta wear those helmets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[renotrikeguy]

So how's you friend doing now? Hope he's doing better..

[Billy Golightly]

Hes doing good, he came by the house Saturday and picked up his SX and rode it home. The damage to the trike was real minimal. Bent footpeg, bent the right side of the bars some, and a brake lever came loose (Not broke, just loose). No real damage. The stitches in his neck look pretty bad, I haven't seen the ones on his face yet but I know they gotta be pretty wicked.

[dz]

I too had a face injury from not wearing a helmet. Big mistake. A helmet would have saved me 8hours in the emergency room and the grief of the month and a half afterwards. My friend and I were riding in the back streets near my house. I was riding a modified go-ped (going about 20-25mph) and I tried to get up a curb cut but the front wheel didn't want to and the back of the ped flipped up and I flew through the air and landed chin first on the concrete and blacked out. When I got up I noticed blood was pouring from my face and my jaw was broken because you could see the bone underneath the skin. My jaw had to be wired for 4 weeks. Not fun, wear helmets.

[TRI-Zbrian]

full face helmits, and not those cheap ass helmits that have the screw on piece ware your mouth is to make it look like a full face this will break very easily in a crash lol buy a true full face you guys know what im talking about. those cheap ones i can puch in with my hand! they may be cheaper but you hospital bill is going to be alot more then what you are saving on a fake full face.

[Cheap250]

i where a helmet whenever im going to be riding fast or on stuff i can get hurt sumtimesw i take my trike up andc down the driveway and around the yards without one but thats it... i get hurt enough with a helmet i probably wouldnt be here if i didnt where them

[compaqkoci]

well thank God. that the 3 wheeler is ok lol
i don't mind as much as if i get hurt. but when i crash my rides tat really pisses me off. lmao i remember a couple summers ago i was down at my creek tearin it up and i decided i wanted to try to hydroplane some water i get up as fast as i could... well its only my moms 200s. but as i get to the water i hit a big ass rock! imean huge atc did an endo over my and broke the light thats all :? :D thank god by as for me i skided about 10 feet on huge rocks and ripped my favorite shorts! that was the worst part of the experiance..i was wearing a helmet and took a nice chuck out if it :-P

[yamaha225dx]

Threewheeler looses balance, rolls, falls 15+ ft to the bottom of the creek with him still on it.
That is where you made your mistake. Not ripping on your friend or anything like that but the three wheeler did not lose it's balance the rider's inexperience. (in this case maybe he wasn't familar with the terrain??)

[Trikeaholic]

when my wife rides, I make sure she has the BEST full face helmet available. A man with facial scars has "charachter" but a woman............................

WEAR YOUR HELMETS!!!

especially if you CANT ride for spit!

[threewheelin-feelin]

hey man thats always bad when some one get hurt but him and the 3wheeler made it though and he got back on it and rode it good for him when u fall off u get back on my cousin broke his leg on r 200s and now wont ride it but good for him

[Billy Golightly]

Well I was out and had to take some pictures of some parts for another member of the forum and while I had the camera I figured I'd try and get some pictures of where we were at when Corey rolled down the hill. The pictures make it look like its not as bad as it is, but where my 200X is sitting I could have tipped it over by pulling on the left fender with my pinky finger. And my 200X is low, its got 20in 250R wheels and tires on it with almost no tread left and the suspension sags pretty good.

This area is part of my trail riding loop that is about 4-4.5miles long. Its one of the more difficult areas because of all the offcamber riding and maneurvering around trees on your way up, down, and across hills. Also have to watch out for old trash in the bottom of the creek that was there before me...tires, sinks, old tin, pipes, just what you need to roll off into to make a shiskabob outa you. Infact my friend rolled over into an old pine stump which is what actually tore his face up.

Honestly if it had been me I think I would have just tried cranking the front wheel towards the bottom and ride it out on the way down but hindsight is 20/20 :P

[ATC crazy]

:o Its a darn good thing that the log didn't get him in the chest, or abdomen. That would've made for a real mess.

[Billy Golightly]

Your telling me, I bought and use a chest protector all the time after that.