This is getting ridiculous! When are drivers going to WAKE UP?!

[Running Mommy]

I am part of the trinewbies online group, and this was posted. The Gage's are a fixture here in the "zonie" (arizona) tri scene. I am really shaken up about this. Add this to the horror off what happened to trek and Ducks friend in Santa Rosa and it just really upsets me. So much so that I've actually had thoughts on what I would want my family or friends to do if something were to happen to me.
By some grace of god it looks like they will be ok,but it's going to be a long road to recovery.
Read on...

George (and Jane) Gage in Phoenix - hit by car- very bad injuries - how you can help Enter the race even if you don't intend to race! See below!

Attention Athletes and Friends:

DCB Adventures will be donating all proceeds from this Sundays final Splash & Dash race to George and Jane Esahak-Gage.

George and Jane were involved in a very serious accident while riding their bikes this past weekend.

Please, even if you will be out of town or maybe do not want to race, go online and fill out a registration http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1329629

or send the registration in to DCB Adventures PO Box 27524 Scottsdale, AZ 85255, entries are only $20!

Details regarding the accident are copied in below, thanks for your help and thanks for keeping George and Jane in your thoughts and prayers! And please forward this email to get the word out, thanks again!


DeeAnn Bonnell

azcoaching.com

An Ultrafit Associate

USA Cycling Expert Coach

USA Triathlon Level 2 Coach

NASM, Certified Personal Trainer

Secretary, USAT SW Region BOD

deeann@azcoaching.com

602.369.257

What happened?

George and Jane were riding over the Chandler overpass heading West towards home - Jane was in the draft. They were traveling at roughly 18mph over the overpass. A 23 year old unlicensed, uninsured man who was late for work exited I10 heading South up the I10 off ramp towards Chandler Blvd. As George and Jane were passing in front of that intersection, the driver entered into the intersection and hit George directly on the right side. They estimate he was traveling between 30 and 40 mph when he hit George. Jane was in the draft position and as a result, hit the left fender and went flying over the hood.



The details of what else happened are unclear. Jane said that when the guy moved into the intersection all she saw was a flash, and next thing she knew she was in an ambulance. George landed in the median and the driver of the car ran into a pole, stopping him there. That driver was given a ticket for no insurance, no license and running a red light...and that was it.



Kudos to Tim Venard, the paramedic that arrived 1st on the scene. Simply put, Tim was the first person to save George's life that day.



George's Injuries...

George's injuries are extensive. The most life-threatening was internal bleeding from a tear in his vena cava, the major vein that receives all of the blood back from your veins and into the heart. It was in a precarious location from what the surgeon explained - buried under some vital organs, making the repair extremely difficult. The surgeon - Jordy Cox, was able to repair the tear and found no other internal bleeding. That was fantastic news!



The surgeons were worried about his right kidney, which was damaged but they said it will heal. After the vena cava surgery, the orthopedic surgeons went to work on his right leg which was broken at his tibia with bone and muscle exposed. It was a long, difficult surgery. They were able to repair his leg by placing a titanium rod into the bone. >From what we were told, the surgery went well.



George is currently in the surgical ICU on a respirator. The trauma to his body also included two broken vertebra in his neck, a punctured and collapsed lung, two broken ribs, a broken scapula, a broken clavicle, at least 5 breaks in his pelvis, and pretty much all of his teeth were knocked out. The cat scan showed no nervous system damage. Thank God.. meaning his brain is fine and he has lost no feeling that they know of - so no paralysis. George was able to move all digits to some extent according to Jordy.



What's next for George?

George will be in the surgical ICU for a while. There are no visitors outside of family allowed while in the surgical ICU, and even then, it's very limited. Jane is going down for her visits and leaving - so attempting to go down and visit there would not be a good idea at this time. George will be just needing family visiting for now. As soon as he's moved out of Surgical ICU and Jane wants him to have visitors, we'll let you guys know.



What is George's Current Status?

George had a fantastic night. He was responsive to the ICU nursing and medical staff when spoken to and was able to nod head. When I spoke to Jane's sister Marty this morning at 11:00am, she said that George has really stabilized, is calm and resting.



Jane's Injuries

Jane had a cat scan which showed she was ok. She suffered from a mild concussion and broken pinkie fingers. Her knees were scrapped up pretty good. She was released from the hospital around 4pm yesterday afternoon. I spoke briefly with her sister today around noon, and Jane is sore but physically doing ok.



What's Jane's Current Status?

Jane has obviously been through hell the past 24 hours...but she's doing very well, all things considered. She's emotionally exhausted and did not sleep well last night. Marty (her sister) is driving her to and from the hospital so she can have a bit more recovery time from the head bump yesterday, and family is with Jane at all times right now. This morning Jane asked her family for time to herself, so she's obviously in need of some privacy / processing time.



What's the family going through?

Many family members and friends of family were with Jane all day yesterday, including Kristin McHardy. She is right on the money when she reports that Jane "has been a brave soul." Jane heard everything from "we may lose him" to "he may lose a kidney" to "he may need the leg amputated" from the doctors. " Jane is an incredibly strong woman - and we all love this family very much...but you have to remember that...

Jane and her family have been through hell yesterday waiting and the Lord brought George through yesterday miraculously. They really need our prayers. Kristen and Marty are going to ask Jane what kind of help she may need. Kristen plans on organizing volunteers for meals. However, at this time I think Jane will have her mother at her house and of course

[mimitabby]

what a horrible story. To answer your question: drivers are not going to wake up. For each guy like the driver in this story, there are hundreds of others.
Sorry, it's true. a person on a 25 lb bike is no match for a pickup truck.
and drivers are going to continue to run red lights, forget to look both ways,
forget to signal. It is human nature. the only thing that we can hope to change is human sentiment, and right now a lot of work could be done to improve the way a lot of folks look at bicyclists. But this is truly not what happened here. The guy was being careless, and didn't have great driving skills.

I hope your friends heal and go on to ride again. I know that their insurance company will go after the guy and get every possible dime.

good luck, i'm sorry.

[Geonz]

There is no reason for drivers to wake up when there's no regard for cyclists. As long as people think and say that they don't belong on the roads, then the penalty for being in the way of a car is severe corporal punishment/ bodily injury or death, and that's considered a fitting punishment. If the administer of that punishment happened to be driving without a license, they get their little penalty, too - but it's for breaking those rules, not for the harm done to the other citizen(s).

A car has no chance against a semi, either. However, if a semi smears a car all over the highway, there are consequences for the driver, and people do not question what the car driver was doing on the road (either explicitly or implicitly).

A small child has no chance against a big bully, either. Should small children not walk down school hallways or visit the bathrooms? WHile I know many people think "that's life," personally I think it is worth striving for a world where big and small *do* co-exist, and might does not give one the right to accidentally maim other people. We're not talking about a wild animal here; we're talking about a car, being driven by a human. Humans should be held responsible for what happens in the vehicles they're supposed to be controlling.

[Crankin]

This happened 5 miles from where I used to live....
Scary. AZ has always had an issue with uninsured and unlicensed drivers. My mother in law was in a vehicle accident with one and it took years to resolve it. Of course, this could happen anywhere, but it shook me up a little more than usual.

Robyn, ex- Zonie

[emily_in_nc]

Reading all the accident posts in TE over the past few months has made me happy that I've decided to focus more on mountain biking over road riding. I love riding on the road, but I go back and forth about whether I feel it's safe enough for me to actually do. Although traffic is generally light around where I live (in the country), there are no shoulders and lots of big pickup trucks. Cyclists are generally not well-liked, from what I can tell.

I manage to bang myself up around half the time I head out on a mountain bike, but I've not come close to doing the damage that a close encounter with a car (or a dog, like my accident in 2005) could do.

I have never heard of the Gages, but what happened to them could happen to any of us. Unfortunately, all our careful riding and defensive tactics can only go so far towards preventing deadly accidents; if a motorist is clueless, careless, not paying attention, we can still get hit and seriously injured or killed through no fault of our own.

I go back and forth about whether that risk is worth taking or not. At the time I added my signature (below), I felt that it was. Tonight, I'm not so sure. There are a lot of other healthy activities I enjoy that do not involve this degree of risk.

What a horrible crash...I hope George will recover in time. My heart goes out to him and his family right now.

Emily

[7rider]

It *is* a horrible accident, there is no getting around that.
But, Emily, horrible accidents happen anywhere. Someone posted recently about a cyclist killed in Massachusetts, and the only likely culprit was a dead mouse on the scene.
You can't give up on road cycling because of this. It makes the cars "win" and only reinforces the notion that "bikes don't belong." Sure, I don't want to prove the point with the blood of cyclists, but retreating in fear is not the answer either.
My best to the Gages. A horrible accident and wish them both speedy recovery.

[Thistle]

This is so awful Running Mommy. I hope that they will be ok, and eventually be back on their bikes. That sounds like such a trite statement, but I just want them to recover and be ok.

It is truly awful.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Sadly, I think we are going to see a continued rise in bikes getting hit by cars for perhaps one reason more than any other- cell phones. Drivers talking on cell phones are having more and more accidents now. Fatal car/motorcycle accidents are suddenly on a rapid rise after more than a decade of steady decline. Why? I'll give you one guess.
Here in NY state is is ILLEGAL to talk on a hand-held cell phone while driving. Yet the law seems to be totally ignored. One out of every 10 or so drivers I pass on the road is holding a cell phone to their ear while driving.
There have to be TOUGH new nationwide laws to stop this. People are getting distracted and people are getting killed. And if YOU talk on the phone while driving, PLEASE rethink it.

[Keely]

What an awful accident. It scares me to hear about these accidents, but it won't stop me riding. I think the more cyclist gettig out there on the road the more likely it is that drivers will finally become aware of the need to be more careful, because they're more likely to know someone who is a cyclist and/or has been hit by a careless driver.

My partner was supposed to go on a hill ride about 2-3 weeks ago but couldn't make it because of work. The next day we found out that the four guys who had gone for the ride were all taken out by a young female driver when she lost control in the rain. Two guys are back on their bikes now, but one has a brain injury and the doctor's aren't sure what exactly is wrong with him and the other guy had a serious gash on his leg.

I'm just glad that it's compulsoy to have third party insurance here in Australia, it's included in your car registration.

Keely

[ridethewind]

I agree on the cell phone issue, Lisa. In September in a town near where I live, a teenager driving her car struck and killed a young man who was riding his bicycle. She was downloading ringtones and changing lanes when she hit him. The coroner ruled the death a homicide. The teen was charged with improper lane usage.

[light_sabe_r]

Sadly, I think we are going to see a continued rise in bikes getting hit by cars for perhaps one reason more than any other- cell phones. Drivers talking on cell phones are having more and more accidents now. Fatal car/motorcycle accidents are suddenly on a rapid rise after more than a decade of steady decline. Why? I'll give you one guess.
Here in NY state is is ILLEGAL to talk on a hand-held cell phone while driving. Yet the law seems to be totally ignored. One out of every 10 or so drivers I pass on the road is holding a cell phone to their ear while driving.
There have to be TOUGH new nationwide laws to stop this. People are getting distracted and people are getting killed. And if YOU talk on the phone while driving, PLEASE rethink it.

Australia introduced these laws a few years back...

Hasn't really stopped anybody. The police will ask you for your phone and check it when you're in an accident (they checked mine when I was in a 4 car bumper to bumper in 2004 to make sure I wasn't talking on it at the time... The only call I had made after 4pm was to 000 when the car had crashed)

Those good kind souls who have stopped using your phone since the law was introduced. I salute you!

I'm also glad we must have third party Keely. ^_^ Of course that means the Rego bill is expensive but it's so worth it.

Poor George. At least he has motor function and touch sensation.

I hope the bastard that hit him pays for his teeth!!! >_< (on top of the rest of the medical costs)

[spokewench]

Hi Runny Mommy:

I want on AZ Cycling website this morning and saw the report that the Gage's had been hit and injured. I'm horrified! I'm sorry to say that I really don't think people in cars are going to learn, but I think education is the key. However, there will always be those people who are willing to break the law, or don't give a D - - - about anything, even their own lives. We need to teach our children courtesy, obligation, and accountability in all things and that includes driving. Hopefully, they will grow up and spread the word!

We also, as a country, need to get over the belief that driving a car is a GOD given right and that if you hit something in a car it is always called an "ACCIDENT". When we hit something because of inattentiveness, breaking the law, drunkeness, etc., IT IS NOT AN ACCIDENT!

We have had a lot of people hit by cars in my small community of Flagstaff in the last couple of years. Some fairly minor, some much more major (very similar to Mr. Gage) and one young man who was killed. The young man who was killed was just really starting out in life, was just about to get his master degree, his wife was pregnant, etc. and he was hit by a drunk driver (who had multiple drunk driving convictions before he struck and killed Matt). This happened just after my friends became board members for our local club of which Matt had been a member and racer.

These kinds of things strike hard and make so many people talk about not riding the road any more. But, I don't think we can let this happen, we have to persevere and be careful.

I'm sure that many more people are killed in vehicular/vehicular collisions than ever are killed or maimed in bike/vehicle collisions.

Somehow we need to make people aware that driving poorly and causing accidents is not acceptable. That it is not an ACCIDENT. That is a major killer in our country just like Cancer or heart problems and that we need to deal with this problem in our society aggressively!

I am praying for Mr. Gage - it sounds like he is lucky to be alive and I am wishing him the fastest recovery that his serious injuries will allow

[Geonz]

THe ringtone-downloader in question *should* have already had her license revoked because of previous infractions (all having happened in the space of about 15 months). Seems the paperwork got lost along the way. Illinois doesn't have a particularly good record when it comes to making sure the drivers are qualified to be on the road

[Grog]

What happened to the Gage family is awful and I hope they all get better quickly...

I think it's been proven that security increases with the number of cyclists on the road. The more cyclists on the road, the more conscious drivers are of their potential presence. I don't think it solves everything, especially not for fast roadies (who sometimes have better bike skills but lesser margin for error - theirs or someone else - due to their speed), but respect comes with numbers. Maybe in part because the more cyclists there are, the more likely drivers are to know someone who is a cyclist, and to be more careful.

So I'm not going to leave the road to the drivers.

[eclectic]

What a horrible and sad thing glad to hear that the injuries though life-threatening are starting to heal.

I don't know what the solution is.

Education would be a good place to start. When I told a coworker that bicycles follow the same rules of the road as vehicles and have a right to be on the road she found that incredulous. She thought they followed the same rules as pedestrians.