On Tuesday it was what was going on in our life 10 years ago, today it's what happened to me 39 years ago the very date and day of the week of Wednesday, October 30th, 1974, in that I probably came as close as ever to dying because of a motorcycle against a car accident.
I was in High School way back then, a fairly new car driver and motorcycle rider and I was on my way home in Yucaipa, California, from the school on my few months old, new to me, 1970 Honda CB175.
Back in those days Yucaipa was not much more than a retirement community with a relatively small population and almost no stoplights throughout the town or in the entire area in general. Mostly then it was lots of stop signs with that old 'right of way' problem of who goes first?
An exception to the above was "Yucaipa Boulevard", back then the only two lane road at that part had no stops on the blvd, just side streets, from the off ramp of I-10 all the way up to the plateau of the bulk of the community starting back then at 4th street.
From the high school and going easterly, the hill going up to the plateau part of town was fairly steep, I got up to over 50 MPH a couple of times on my 10 speed bike going to school and going down the hill before I'd gotten my drivers license!
At the crest of the hill was a "T" intersection with the T-being the side street of 7th Street with a stop sign for people entering from 7th to go either east or west on the blvd. That Intersection was a 'blind' Intersection for those people trying get on the main road as 7th had been cut from a hill at that point so there was a large berm blocking the ability to see almost all traffic but the closest coming up the hill and there were often accidents and a lot of near misses there.
My mother and step-father were still out of the area on the weekly 'theater run' to Los Angeles to pick up the new movies for the week and supplies for the two movie theaters that were the family business.
So, as I said I was going east on Yucaipa Boulevard heading toward our home which was located towards the far east end of the town near the foothills. After all these years I don't recall what exactly was going on as I was motorcycling home, it was cool being the day before Halloween so I had on my heavy leather jacket and my almost florescent orange full face helmet that we'd bought at an area Swap Meet in Colton, a nearby town. I do have excellent recollection of what happened just before the impact and then I was told the what happened after accident by some witnesses.
I was coming up the hill, no other car near me, and as I get to the top I see a Mercedes pulling out to dart across and go West down the hill. I saw that the car had plenty of time in the seconds before I would be at the Intersection. So the Mercedes goes and then right on it's tail is a white station wagon that in being behind the Mercedes didn't see me coming, and just went! I new I would hit the station wagon, almost no time to react and then the station wagon just stopped in the street right in front of me!
Last thing I can still remember is the instant before my motorcycle hit the station wagon just in front of the drivers side door of the vehicle.
Next things I remember is being put in an Ambulance, and then being told to turn over while being examined at the hospital. My head was splitting it hurt so much, my left arm also hurt a lot but I had no broken bones, just a 'dent' in my left forearm. My grand mother got me out of the hospital and took me home, I barely remember getting in her station wagon, which made my mom really angry as she said I should have been kept for observation, and I agree! I was basically out of it for over 3 days, mostly sleeping and in a lot of pain.
Turned out that my P.E. teacher had been going home from school also and was behind me close enough to see me hit the white wagon. He said my motorcycle crumpled as it hit the wagon and I flew over the wagon's hood hitting my shoulder on the hood then landing on my head in the street on the other side. I was out cold and had I not had that helmet on I wouldn't be writing this post! It was a fiberglass built helmet and it had a clear crack in the shell!
For this accident, all the fault of a High School girl wanting to meet with her friends back at the school, in the family car, who also ran the stop sign and admitted it, as I was later told by the Insurance Adjuster, I had a concussion, I had double vision and ghosting for over a year, and still can show up if I'm really tired all these years later. I missed weeks of school recovering at home then I was unable to play any sports for P.E. because any exertion caused excruciating headaches for months!
The ghosting and double vision made it very difficult to be a projectionist at the Redlands Theater as I could not tell if the movie was in focus or not! And if it wasn't I couldn't adjust the lens to focus the image because everything had a ghost image around it.
I also lost much of my sense of smell, even now to smell something it has to be a very strong smell, good or bad. That part of the recovery actually worked to my advantage for my career in Animal Control, as I was able to do better at situations that literally stank, because the smell was lessened on me! And no, food still tastes good! I've been asked that a lot when people or doctors find out about this incident in my life.
These were before the days of "getting rich" from an insurance claim as so many do now, I got all my medical bills paid, and I'd had a lot of special exams and scans in an attempt to fix my headaches and double vision. I had enough for a used car, $1,200.00, for my 1967 Camero, my mom wouldn't let me ride motorcycles again for almost 2 years, and I had some in savings. I remember my mom and me were called in by an attorney and we were asked if we wanted to sue the other party. Now it would be $$$$oooooo different!, but back then it was the 'noble' approach we took of "we've all suffered enough" and let it go with that.
But I could also have been a news story in the local paper about an unfortunate motorcyclist in 1974 killed by another stupid car driver! But I'm here all these years later and actually glad about that!!
Tad
I was in High School way back then, a fairly new car driver and motorcycle rider and I was on my way home in Yucaipa, California, from the school on my few months old, new to me, 1970 Honda CB175.
Back in those days Yucaipa was not much more than a retirement community with a relatively small population and almost no stoplights throughout the town or in the entire area in general. Mostly then it was lots of stop signs with that old 'right of way' problem of who goes first?
An exception to the above was "Yucaipa Boulevard", back then the only two lane road at that part had no stops on the blvd, just side streets, from the off ramp of I-10 all the way up to the plateau of the bulk of the community starting back then at 4th street.
From the high school and going easterly, the hill going up to the plateau part of town was fairly steep, I got up to over 50 MPH a couple of times on my 10 speed bike going to school and going down the hill before I'd gotten my drivers license!
At the crest of the hill was a "T" intersection with the T-being the side street of 7th Street with a stop sign for people entering from 7th to go either east or west on the blvd. That Intersection was a 'blind' Intersection for those people trying get on the main road as 7th had been cut from a hill at that point so there was a large berm blocking the ability to see almost all traffic but the closest coming up the hill and there were often accidents and a lot of near misses there.
My mother and step-father were still out of the area on the weekly 'theater run' to Los Angeles to pick up the new movies for the week and supplies for the two movie theaters that were the family business.
So, as I said I was going east on Yucaipa Boulevard heading toward our home which was located towards the far east end of the town near the foothills. After all these years I don't recall what exactly was going on as I was motorcycling home, it was cool being the day before Halloween so I had on my heavy leather jacket and my almost florescent orange full face helmet that we'd bought at an area Swap Meet in Colton, a nearby town. I do have excellent recollection of what happened just before the impact and then I was told the what happened after accident by some witnesses.
I was coming up the hill, no other car near me, and as I get to the top I see a Mercedes pulling out to dart across and go West down the hill. I saw that the car had plenty of time in the seconds before I would be at the Intersection. So the Mercedes goes and then right on it's tail is a white station wagon that in being behind the Mercedes didn't see me coming, and just went! I new I would hit the station wagon, almost no time to react and then the station wagon just stopped in the street right in front of me!
Last thing I can still remember is the instant before my motorcycle hit the station wagon just in front of the drivers side door of the vehicle.
Next things I remember is being put in an Ambulance, and then being told to turn over while being examined at the hospital. My head was splitting it hurt so much, my left arm also hurt a lot but I had no broken bones, just a 'dent' in my left forearm. My grand mother got me out of the hospital and took me home, I barely remember getting in her station wagon, which made my mom really angry as she said I should have been kept for observation, and I agree! I was basically out of it for over 3 days, mostly sleeping and in a lot of pain.
Turned out that my P.E. teacher had been going home from school also and was behind me close enough to see me hit the white wagon. He said my motorcycle crumpled as it hit the wagon and I flew over the wagon's hood hitting my shoulder on the hood then landing on my head in the street on the other side. I was out cold and had I not had that helmet on I wouldn't be writing this post! It was a fiberglass built helmet and it had a clear crack in the shell!
For this accident, all the fault of a High School girl wanting to meet with her friends back at the school, in the family car, who also ran the stop sign and admitted it, as I was later told by the Insurance Adjuster, I had a concussion, I had double vision and ghosting for over a year, and still can show up if I'm really tired all these years later. I missed weeks of school recovering at home then I was unable to play any sports for P.E. because any exertion caused excruciating headaches for months!
The ghosting and double vision made it very difficult to be a projectionist at the Redlands Theater as I could not tell if the movie was in focus or not! And if it wasn't I couldn't adjust the lens to focus the image because everything had a ghost image around it.
I also lost much of my sense of smell, even now to smell something it has to be a very strong smell, good or bad. That part of the recovery actually worked to my advantage for my career in Animal Control, as I was able to do better at situations that literally stank, because the smell was lessened on me! And no, food still tastes good! I've been asked that a lot when people or doctors find out about this incident in my life.
These were before the days of "getting rich" from an insurance claim as so many do now, I got all my medical bills paid, and I'd had a lot of special exams and scans in an attempt to fix my headaches and double vision. I had enough for a used car, $1,200.00, for my 1967 Camero, my mom wouldn't let me ride motorcycles again for almost 2 years, and I had some in savings. I remember my mom and me were called in by an attorney and we were asked if we wanted to sue the other party. Now it would be $$$$oooooo different!, but back then it was the 'noble' approach we took of "we've all suffered enough" and let it go with that.
But I could also have been a news story in the local paper about an unfortunate motorcyclist in 1974 killed by another stupid car driver! But I'm here all these years later and actually glad about that!!
Tad
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