I was sitting at the intersection of a side street and Barrett Parkway, a major six-lane road, about four cars back, waiting to turn left onto Barrett. The wind seemed to be blowing pretty hard. To my left the flag at a car dealership was blowing straight out and a balloon was straining at it's tether. In the distance there was lightning so I turned on a AM news station, but it was only some talk show or ball game. I rolled down my window and stuck my hand out to check the wind, which turned out to really not be too bad.
As I was turning from looking at the car dealership I saw a guy on an orange dirt bike on Barrett Parkway was leaning way over, clearly about to wipe out on his motorcycle. Why was he doing that? Then to the right I saw a black truck that had just come from the street I was on entering the intersection, and SMACK! The motorcycle rider bounced off the driver's side of the truck!
I thought the bike rider might writhe and rock around at least, but he was totally still from the second he hit the ground. I grabbed my cell phone to call 911, but as soon as I got it powered up and dialed the guy in the SUV in front of me was already out with his phone and people were sprinting towards the scene. The lady in the SUV was leaned against her car praying. Police usually want to measure out debris in accident scenes and they say don't try to move a accident victim, so I thought it was wise to hang back until an ambulance got there, but a bunch of passersby were already in this guy's face, feeling on his neck.
The lady who had been praying next to her car said her husband rode a motorcycle and they were definitely selling it now. She said she thought the motorcycle guy had been trying to make a red light. Another guy who had gone right up to the motorcyle rider said he was still breathing and moved one leg just a little bit, but both legs and maybe a hip were pretty obviously broken.
An ambulance came pretty quick and police were shutting down the intersection. They asked us to move our cars since everyone had put on their emergency blinkers. I walked back to the scene but the little group of people had dispersed. A cop who was directing traffic said they were getting a Life Flight helicopter. He asked me if I was a witness. Unfortunately I had no idea what the lights were like at that time; I had been thinking about the wind and lightning and then saw the crash, but I didn't feel I could say who ran a light or who didn't.
I told him no, I wasn't a witness and he said, "You're good to go then." As I started to walk off when I realized...this was a public sidewalk! What was he doing dismissing me?! A couple of guys from the Carrabba's restaurant nearby were on the corner, and I noticed at least one of them had fire department logos on his shirt. They were discussing that this major road was about to be shut down. One of them said, "Thanks a lot, stupid ass!" in the direction of the motorcycle. And people say I lack empathy! Geez!
After awhile, as they were loading that guy into the back of the ambulance, I figured I wouldn't get to know the end to this drama. That would be decided on an operating table at Grady Hospital, most likely. That guy may have been gone from this world for a few hours by now, although in the huddle of people who had been at the intersection I floated the idea maybe this would become a story he would one day tell with enthusiasm and pride to his biking pals one day. Nobody seemed to agree with me. A wheelchair, brain damage, or miracle recovery, who knows?
Look left, then right, then left again at intersections, and stay off of motorcycles.
I've taken that road home a couple of times this week and timed the yellow light at 3-4 seconds and the red light at 2 seconds before traffic starts moving. Kind of a quick light, I guess. On a road that crowded with a light every block there's really no reason to go over 30 mph, though. But then I didn't get to see how old this guy was.