Saturday, January 2, 2010
Friday night went late for the Harley's to return to the park. I expected everyone back by 5:00 at the latest as that's when it starts to get dark and Eric never rides in the dark. By 6pm I was getting worried and thought that someone must have broken down and although that would have been a good thing, it was not the case. The trip didn't end very well for one of the Albertan Harley riders, John. He was third in line and missed a curve, left the road with his wife aboard, rode the bike down a ten foot embankment and then they both flew off. Eric was last in line and they were right ahead of him and he watched the whole thing happen. He quickly stopped to flag traffic and the other riders returned as they could see what was happening behind them. John's wife was up and okay but John was unconscious. The Mexicans true to form stopped and helped out doing whatever they could, calling on cell phones for a doctor and the police, helping to load the damaged bike into a police truck and just being as helpful as possible. Maurice's wife checked John over and they didn't move him but when he finally regained consciousness he was in great pain. The doctor had him loaded on a back board and he was transported to the Sharp hospital here in Mazatlan. At this point there was nothing Eric and Sam could do so they just headed home in the dark with Maurice and his wife not far behind. Unfortunately for John he was the only rider in the group not wearing a helmet. The law here states one person on the bike must wear a helmet and I bet he wishes now he was one of those people. They all returned shortly after 6pm and I was very relieved.
The word this morning is that John has 11 broken ribs, a broken shoulder, a collapsed lung and internal bleeding apparently from a ruptured spleen that may have to be removed. His holiday is over and he'll take a long time to recover.
I went out with some of the people we've met in the park to a pig barbecue restaurant for lunch and Eric stayed home to take John's motorcycle trailer to pick up the damaged Harley in Rosaraio which is 70km away. Since the Albertans were pulling the heavy car trailer with their motor home they had no way to get out to pick up the motorcycle so Eric offered our truck. When I got back at 3pm they were gone and it is now 6pm and they have just returned without the motorcycle. Apparently they did not have the correct paperwork and the police would not release it so that was a wasted trip through really heavy holiday traffic. Some legwork will have to be done first and they will try again. As the police have no English Maurice had them write down what he needed and will have to get someone to help with that. Since John's wife's name is not on the motorcycle registration she would need her marriage certificate to prove she was his wife to retrieve the bike. We will carry a copy of our marriage certificate on our next trip to Mexico as that could be an issue if both names are not on every vehicle registration.
Statistics show that most motorcycle accidents are single vehicle ones related to speed and usually happen in a curve that has been entered too fast. Moral, slow down going into a curve especially if you have never ridden the road before. A hard lesson learned for Jean. An easy thing to happen.
Other than that all is well here, weather is good and we could use a little less excitement.
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