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.

[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.

[pooks]

This is so horrible. I hope the Gages recover fully.

The one thing that bothers me about biking is that I've always refused to get on a motorcycle (well, once when I was 14) because they're too dangerous. And here I'm on a bike in traffic? This doesn't make me feel any safer about motorcycles, so why should I feel safe on a bike? The only difference is the speed issue, which is huge. OTOH, if a car is involved, what difference does speed make?

[Trek420]

There's been much debate here on whether or not to post these kinds of things. Cycling can be a dangerous sport, anyone who watches the TdF that is basicly a month long high speed crash usually no cars involved.

The debate here has been there are those even on TE (where we all have a passion for the sport I hope) who will read these and think "that's it I quit".

Others may continue but freeze when being relaxed is key.

Then there's "oh, that would never happen to me, she did _____, I never do ___ I always do _____" and yes always doing _____ makes you safer.

I've read that here in the States about 37 cyclists die each year, I don't know if that figure is true. Many crashes go unreported such as urban poor riders, they are not on this forum or make the news.

When you consider the thousands and thousands of miles ridden each year all in all it's pretty safe. Maybe more so than driving itself

All this makes no difference when that one person is a loved one.

No figures make sense then. Or when it's someone you know, have ridden with.

I want to share something about Kathy. Kathy was my cousin Maurys "stoker", Maury's about my age. He's always been there, he's MY cousin and now we share this sport. We had been talking about some time if he wants to do a double and Kath's not available, he thought he could outfit their Calfee to fit me.

I'm much shorter than Kath but he thought it could be done.

"But tandems go so fast" I said "I might feel out of control, I've never done..." . Maury was just grinning, here's his cousin, fits the tandem and I can do centuries...why not?

He said "we don't ride our bikes to anticipate every danger that could happen"

We ride for the joy (and the food), I hope we always do.

[Blueberry]

These posts do sadden me, and they all make us evaluate the risks of the things we do in our daily lives. That is as it should be. However, we should think about *all* of the risks we take. I doubt that there is good data out there on how safe cycling really is. It's just not that well studied. We have more information on how many car accidents there are, pedestrians are hit, etc.

Sure, we could all never leave our houses, but the fact of life is that we take risks every time we get in a car, walk across the street or get on an airplane. I don't plan to stop any of those. I'm just not convinced that cycling is that much more dangerous than walking in an urban area, or any number of other activities we participate in. We have had lots of pedestrians hit recently. Lots of small cars are totaled by big trucks every day. I drive a small car on a 65 mile round trip commute every day. I think that is much more dangerous that riding my bike could be.

As long as the pace of life keeps speeding up and people are pressed to work more and more hours, with more pressures on their time and more stress in their lives, there will continue to be problems. (as an aside, I think the same things are contributing to road rage). Cell phones are a part of this, sure. So are unrestrained children, lack of sleep and any number of other things. Yes, we absolutely need to take steps to force drivers to be safe, including mandating hands free devices. I won't talk on a cell in a car without one. However, until we as a society address creasing pressures on lives, things will not improve significantly.

I wish I had the answer...I don't. But I'll keep riding my bike.

[Thistle]

I wish I had the answer...I don't. But I'll keep riding my bike.

me too

[emily_in_nc]

I've read that here in the States about 37 cyclists die each year, I don't know if that figure is true. Many crashes go unreported such as urban poor riders, they are not on this forum or make the news.

Lots of good points, Trek, but the 37 fatalities per year is not accurate. Here's a more accurate count: Deaths per year: 725, 629, 665, 732, and 693 cyclists died per year in 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, and 2000 respectively, and were about 89% male. (National Highway Traffic Saftey Administration, and Insurance Institute for Highway Saftey) [Reference: http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/almanac-safety.html

Other interesting statistics from the site:

Where cyclists die or crash

U.S. cyclists are three more likely to be killed than German cyclists and six times more than Dutch cyclists, whether compared per-trip or per-distance traveled. (Reuters, Aug. 28, 2003, by Maggie Fox)

Cyclist fatalities occurred more frequently in urban areas (66%), at nonintersection locations (67%), between the hours of 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. (30%), and during the months of June, July, and August (36%). (NHTSA, 2004)

Riding on the sidewalk is several more times more dangerous than riding in the street. (William Moritz, 1998)

Most deaths on major roads. Fifty-seven percent of bicycle deaths in 1999 occurred on major roads, and 37 percent occurred on local roads. (6)

Streets with bike lanes have a significantly lower crash rate then either major or minor streets without any bicycle facilities (38 and 56% respectively). (William Moritz, 1998)

Streets with bike lanes are safer than those without. Article also has information about the safety of bike paths. (BicyclingInfo.org, 2004)

Texas leads cycling deaths. Texas ranks 14th in number of cyclist fatalities per capita. (5)

Four states lead cycling deaths. Four states (California, Florida, New York, and Texas) accounted for 43% of bicycle deaths in 1999. (6)

Non-Fatal Injuries:

One in every 20 bicyclists is injured annually.(Bicycling Magazine 1987)

A bicyclist can expect a minor injury every three years and a more serious one every fifteen. (Bicycle Forum 1978) [I've had my serious one in about 15 years of cycling, but minor every three years -- obviously they didn't consider mountain bikers!! How about every three rides?!]

Kinds of crashes. Falls account for 59% of all crashes, running into a fixed object 14%, moving motor vehicles were involved in 11%, and another bicycle in 9%. (Moritz, 1998)

But here's the good news:

Health benefits of cycling outweigh the risks. "The gain of 'life years' through improved fitness among regular cyclists, and thus their increased longevity exceeds the loss of 'life years' in cycle fatalities (British Medical Association, 1992). An analysis based on the life expectancy of each cyclist killed in road accidents using actuarial data, and the increased longevity of those engaging in exercise regimes several times a week compared with those leading relatively sedentary lives, has shown that, even in the current cycle hostile environment, the benefits in terms of life years gained, outweigh life years lost in cycling fatalities by a factor of around 20 to 1." -- Mayer Hillman, Senior Fellow Emeritus, Policy Studies Institute, and British Medical Association researcher (7, 8)

So keep on pedaling, gals! I will try to do the same and not let my nagging fears and periodic pessimism immobilize me.

Emily

[Deborajen]

Interesting statistics. The one that really jumped out at me was the streets with bike lanes having much lower crash rates. When I'm driving, I take an extra look for cyclists in the bike lanes but on the road, it's more likely that I could miss seeing them. I really do wish there were more bike lanes throughout the country because it's definitely a win-win means of cars and bikes coexisting.

I'll keep riding, but I'm getting more and more choosy about where I'll ride.

Deb