Date: Jun 25, 2007 10:06 PM
Subject ROGER'S ARTICLE
Body: Motorcycle unawareness
By Dan Ehl - Managing editor
— A major occurrence in Roger Ashby’s life happened Aug. 24, almost a year ago, but he doesn’t remember it. He does vaguely remember being pushed down a hospital hallway on the way to get his fractured jaw wired shut - two weeks after a motorist turned left in front of him at the intersection of Industrial Park Road and Dewey Road.
The collision left him with two broken vertebrae, a shattered left wrist, a broken jaw, a collapsed lung and most serious of all, partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.
May was Motorcycle Awareness Month, and Roger’s father, Mike, hopes his son’s story will make motorists more aware of motorcyclists on the highway.
The driver of the other vehicle was charged with an improper turn and her insurance did pay out $100,000. But as Mike pointed out, his son’s medical bills already total $1.5 million with another possible $1 million added on during the next 10 years.
Because Roger is currently receiving Social Security disability payments, he cannot own a car or house.
Roger is considering a lawsuit against the driver, but as Mike noted, the person could slip out of the debt by filing for bankruptcy.
“Everyone thinks you can get big bucks after an accident,” Mike said, when in reality severely injured accident victims usually just get big hospital bills.
Though Roger doesn’t recall the accident or the first couple weeks afterwards, the memory is still all too sharp for his father and brother Robert.
Mike said he was headed to Kirksville, Mo., when he got the call on his cell phone. At first the garbled message sounded as if Robert had been riding with Roger when it happened.
What did occur was Robert hearing over a police scanner about a motorcycle accident near Mike’s motorcycle shop and the bothers’ grandmother’s home. Knowing that his brother had just left for there, he rushed to the accident scene to find his severely injured brother unconscious on the pavement near his mangled motorcycle.
Mike said Robert probably saved his brother’s life by keeping his airway free of the blood until an ambulance arrived.
“I didn’t know if he was dead or alive,” said Mike of Roger when he arrived at the hospital.
Because of his spinal damage, doctors kept Roger heavily sedated until they could operate and place steel rods and a plate in his neck. Since he could move his left arm, they kept it secured to the bed during that time. It took 13 screws and a plate to repair his damaged left wrist.
Roger was in the hospital for two months after his initial three-week stay in the Intensive Care Unit. He returned for another three weeks of physical rehabilitation.
He left this week for more intensive rehabilitation at Quality Living in Omaha, Neb. The facility specializes in spinal cord and brain injuries.
Though Roger can’t move his right arm or legs, he does have partial feelings in them and there is hope that he could recover partial control of his limbs over time.
If he could, would he ever climb onto a motorcycle again? Roger doesn’t hesitate a second saying he would. The near-death experienced hasn’t diminished his ove of mootorcycling. He learned to ride his first miniature motorcycle when he was 2 years old and even posed with one for his high school graduation. Mike said he has already given his son a ride in the sidecar of his own motorcycle and can see Roger someday riding a three-wheeled motorcycle.
And when he does, Mike’s said he is hoping motorist will be more aware of motorcyclists in all the months of the year and not just Motorcycling Awareness.
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Roger Ashby is partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair after a motorist turned in front of his motorcycle.
