MOPED ARMY

Definite sympathies! (I suspect you're probably hurting more about your ped than the leg and stitches as well!) Have been lucky so far but have had a few near misses with people pulling out without looking and nearly wiping me out in a similar manner... hope you're up and about and pedding soon!

Jamie

That sucks, take it easy until you are healed enough to get around. how totalled is your bike?

dan

moped army

swarm and destroy

I am in a lot of fucking pain-- that's for sure!

I'll post some pictures for your viewing pleasure!

Un-Zoomingly Yours,

Wayne

it's just a blip on your radar screen, and you'll have a cool story and some scars for the ride. get better!

-s

What a terrible thing to happen! It is my fear every time my son goes riding his moped. Unfortunatly, it is usually the other driver who is at fault in motorcycle and moped accidents.

Very sorry for your pain...but if you are still in the hospital, you should be getting more pain medication. You should always keep ahead of pain..it makes you heal faster.

I hope that you feel better soon and look back at this as just a nasty memory...

Best regards,

Lois

Sorry to hear about you accident, the cars just cant see us, or give a crap.... hope you get going soon..... Doug in VA.

Welcome to the club...ouch, I know exactly how that feels.

>>Didn't lose consciousness, but I did lay on the ground screaming and bleeding. He tried to sneak away.... like instead of stopping he kept rolling slowly away until a guy chased him down.<<

Was I you - I'd prosecute that...just for the principle of the matter.

>>My Targa is totalled<<

Well, depends on your definition of "Totalled" - I could probably fix it, hell...I fixed mine, and it was worse off.

"it's only mostly dead..."

>>I'm sure Ree has all the answers to anything, from getting screwed with insurance problems to rebuilding the bike.<<

You bet, my Email's always open...and if a crisis occurs, I'll give ya the phone#.

>>I'll post some pictures for your viewing pleasure!<<

Believe it or not..I think I might actually have a couple from mine...but they qualify as slasher-horror type stuff, no kiddin !

>>They hadda put a bunch of screws, pins and plates in my ankle. I guess it's fairly toasted..<<

Bah !, the wonders of modern technology...They hadda frankenstein me...the only thing that would keep ya from ridin again is you.

Have fun with those airport metal detectors...I do ! hehehehe.

>>I am in a lot of fucking pain-- that's for sure!<<

Pain means yer still alive, and if yer still alive, yer still kickin ass, so that's a good thing....leastways that's how I always looked at it - tis when it don't hurt that you know it's real bad.

Hope the ambo crew that scraped you up didn't take almost an hour to get there, tho.

>>There is one thing about riding 2 wheelers... we must ALWAYS be absolutely vigilent against the dumbest of actions by car drivers... because our lives are at stake... all they get is a dented fender<<

That is, unless you dump me off my 'ped and soft enough that I ain't really hurt...then it's gonna be a winshield and a fender...or worse.

Anyhows...

Given how far off maine is...it's outta my travel area, but if you want, hang on to what's left of the Targa and I can walk you through Un-totalling it.

The start would be a new rear frame, of course...cause yer old one prolly has a leg-shaped dent in it now, eh ?

And yes...since I've been there, and worse...I can have a sense of humor about it, no sense whinin, and alla that.

Get better and get back out there man, once you do, it's a whole new experience.

-Ree

Wayne,

Sorry to hear about your accident!

Hope that you're up and well again soon...and that the jerk who hit you pays big time!

Take care,

Peggy

To which, my response at the time was "wow..kinky..." to the amusement of the ambo crew.

When I was down, since I did not scream (most folks do..can't help it, or as you say, don't even notice), and just kicked back patiently to wait, not knowing if there were any neck/spinal injuries, unwilling to move - they mistook me for dead.

I was half-in-half-out of the "mortal coil" as shakespeare puts it, but I knew one thing for sure...I wanted a smoke real bad, and so, asked the ambo crew for one, quite shocking them when the unmoving "corpse" not only made what could only be called a coherent request...but one for such a singularly inappropriate item for the sitation !

(tho, given my approximate survival chances, I shoulda asked for a blindfold, too)

I think it freaked them out a bit that once aware of my condition, I remained cool, calm and collected (and conscious!) all the way to the surgery table where they did a trio of split skin grafts, some emergency internal reconstruction and a lotta things ole doc frankie would have been proud of.

They still didn't expect me to make it, I think, cause I woke up and this nurse is sittin there with a tape recorder, notepad and pencil...in case ya say something afore ya die, maybe.

I made her go get me some coffee.

Just don't take too well to dyin I guess.

>>I still don't know where the Moped is-- Accident happened about 5pm sunday night. I assume towed to an impound lot or something. I'll find out today .<<

Best find out, especially if yer unknowingly payin $40/day storage on it.

>>As far as the damage, I'm sure you know what would happen to a targa that ran into the side of a car like I did.<<

Yeah, you were lucky...better to T-bone shot a car with a moped than have the reverse happen, as did to me.

Also much luckier for the Targa, yer front end is prolly trashed, but most of the non-metalwork stuff might be salvageable, you mostly gonna need a new set of forks.

I had thought you took a side hit, and that's kinda much worse on the 'ped, as well as you, but a nosedive into the side of a car, even at 40mph is nothing that's gonna put yer wheels down for the count.

>>I assume they (the insurance co.) will cut me a check for the bluebook value? or what... How does that part work, Ree?<<

Good luck, is all I say to that...I've never seen an insurance company actually pay up for a moped, or be forced to, no matter what the law says about it...with any luck at all, you should recieve some compensory moola for your wheels, tho they might not call it exactly that.

I figure the damage would run about $600 in a dealer shop, and you can do for it at about $200 estimate if the accident is as I believe it to be.

Do not let them take yer wheels as salvage till you have cash-in-hand equalling or exceeding it's blue book value, and you can have my 'professional' (such as it is) estimate of it's blue book value documented for court records if need be.

I would make them replace it with a new one, it's the least they can do, since the other driver is clearly at fault, no matter what BS-story he told to the cops - just don't push that too far, since you don't have a string of multimillion-dollar lawyers at hand, and they do.

Lemme know how this goes.

-Ree

hey ree,

what happened to you when u t-boned? any permenant damage... might be helpfull if it happens to me and also do you still want that tranny?

-mike

(Fair Warning - attached image NOT for the faint of heart!)

what happened to you when u t-boned? any permenant damage... might be helpfull if it happens to me and also do you still want that tranny?<<

First, the simple thing - yeah, I want the tranny, hafta wait till 1st week of sept to have that much in cash cause the boss hasta do the accounts and stuff, is all, but consider it sold.

As fer what happened when I got hit ?

That's a bit of a story of it's own.

First, the insurance companies lawyer calls me in the hospital before I was even halfway out of sedation and tries to jive-talk me, which went nowhere cause imma hardheaded and argumentative bastard with no manners when it comes to such things.

Then, my own (medical) insurance company says I ain't covered...their little game, my employer was changing insurers and the old one ditched me while the new one refused to pick me up...so, no coverage.

Illegal ? sure...find someone to do shit about it.

Then, the other parties insurance company refuses not only to pay anything they might be liable for- but also refused to pay mandatory state PIP coveraged, by law paid immediately to both parties regardless of fault, although it does not cover motorcycles.

By it's nomenclature, a Tomos Golden Bullet is a "MOTORIZED BICYCLE" aka pedestrian, and qualifies for PIP.

PIP (personal injury protection) is a $2500 payout designed to ensure that emergency medical care is cost-assured regardless of insurance, of course...only Allstate (bastards) defied the law and refused to pay.

The state insurance commissioner admitted they were breaking the law and refused to "seek action on the matter at this time"...I asked how much they paid him and hung up in his face.

The hospital, worried only about the money...said it wasn't a problem, medical assistance would cover it then.

Only...they didn't...they refused, and out my ass went, in serious-but-stable and to hell with the law.

So like, for the next 3-4 years I had an ongoing legal brawl while trying to survive in the ghetto in some really bad shape, medically

(See Attached Picture!) and with no money, income, or even help from the state.

So yeah, permanent damage was done...lost the leg, my health is at times precarious and never truely recovered from that, and the whole experience is conductive to a really bad attitude at times.

But I don't whine about it, still bein here is an accomplishment as I figure it..not gonna bother to count up the screws, pins, plates and assorted bits of ceramic and plastic save to say it's prolly at least 20-30 pounds worth of it all told.

As for the legal battle...State of MD medical assistance/Social Services, Social Security, the IRS (who picked that time, of all times to raise hell about $135 in supposed back taxes), and Signet Bank...all found themselves wondering what hit them when I did finally drag em into court...the only one I couldn't do for was Allstate Insurance, but it had ceased to matter at the time.

As for wheels, I rebuilt the moped with junk parts and kept it running, but once I had some cash I got my hands on a Tomos Trike mod, which I loved...toss the bum leg up between the handlebars and go, yannow ?

But I know every way they can stick it to a moped rider after a crash, so I know what to look out for.

So if you wanna figure my email addy in yer "if I ever wreck" plans.

-Ree

Ree,

Where were you abductucted from, how long were you gone, where did they return you to and did they implant a tracking device in youre left nostril so they can pick you up again? : )

Ron

ree,

it looks like you lost alot of tissue and bone, did they remove your leg because of contamination? I wore a contraption similar to that (with four pins) for about 6 months, the pin sites got infected and the docs were worried about blood poisoning, but it healed and i got to keep my leg.

I ripped up alot of bed sheets with that gizmo and when i finally got on crutches, i was banging it into the furniture and the car door, man i was glad to get that thing removed.

gimmyjimmy

I ripped up alot of bed sheets with that gizmo and when i finally got on crutches, i was banging it into the furniture and the car door, man i was glad to get that thing removed.<<

Well, they left it on for over 2 years without an ounce of medical support whatsoever...I was down to buying keflex from the local crack dealers to manage the inevitable and ongoing infections, one of which near killed me - so when the coverage finally came through it was one step shy of gangrene...ergo, it came off.

They refused to even take the stitches out, I wound up carving them out myself after they became badly infected and it was a pretty messy job, all in all.

The staples holding the skin grafts on, I didn't really wanna try cuttin them out, and convinced a med student to steal me a puller so we could get them out before they become any worse.

Yeah, that thing banged around a lot, made it hell to mount/dismount city buses in the middle of winter collectin alla the paperwork for the legal battles...those things do work - if yer in a full-medical-support kinda situation...if yer not, it's just a torture device.

As fer rippin bed sheets...wasn't so much a problem there as figuring out how to do (ahem), err....other things...with it on - but it's possible, believe it.

Damn thing also made a halfway decent TV ariel, might as wella made it useful for something, yannow.

-Ree

It's been almost 2 weeks since I was smashed by the car....

I was picking at two of the cuts that didn't feel right and two fairly large pieces of safety glass from the cars side window came out of the wounds

nasty, but I'm healing. Hope there's no more glass hidden. Still waiting to see some $$ for the demolished Moped.