Rider down: cnbiker (Norcal, Saratoga Gap disaster)
All,
What started as a beautiful ride ended with no less than 3 fire trucks, ambulance, park ranger and a helicopter.
There were 5 of us that met in the parking lot. Beautiful evening for a ride. Everything was going great. We went all the way out to Peters loop and were coming back. We took one last break at those benches before we bomb down to the cross Skyline and head into the final singletrack section. Cnbiker (Hong I think is his name) was commenting on what a terrific night this was.
Hong was in front of me and we flew down that last hill before coming out on Skyline. Hong appeared to try to catch a little air and then disaster. He crashed like nothing I've ever seen.
I rode up asking if he was all right and came up on a horrifying scene. Hong was laying on his side, face smashed in, gurgling with blood coming out of his mouth. Contusions <-sp? on his neck. His breathing was labored and his upper lip puffed up. God knows how many teeth were gone. To make matters worse, he had this big metal ball attached to his handlebars that normally holds his GPS. I believe that went straight into his face.
We all were horrified and a couple of us ran out to Skyline and flagged down some cars to see if anyone had a cell phone. A lady pulled over and went to the nearby Fire station to get help. Shortly after that Dan took of on his bike and rode to the Ranger station.
In the meantime, Hong passed out and his breathing still seemed labor. We comforted him as much as possible. After about 10-15mins the first fire truck arrived. They showed up with backboard and other stuff. Hong was awake but completely out of it. They asked his name and other questions that he couldn't really answer.
A park ranger asked those who witnessed this accident our contact information, etc. She volunteered to take his bike to the ranger station for later pickup.
Once we realized that the situation was under control, we hauled a$$ back to our cars since we were running out of light. We got to the Gap parking lot to find another fire truck and a helicopter circling above us. The firemen told us to pack up and get out of there so the helicopter could land. We got out of there and pulled over to the other parking lot and got out to see the helicopter land, but both the fire truck and helicopter dissappeared to a different location.
We got back in our cars, shaken and left with our thoughts on the way home.
cnbiker - I hope I got your name right. Here's to wishing you well and a fast recovery. You gave us quite the scare, and we all look forward to hearing from you soon.
"If an illegal alien is an undocumented immigrant, than a drug dealer is an unlicensed pharmicist."
cnbiker - I hope I got your name right. Here's to wishing you well and a fast recovery. You gave us quite the scare, and we all look forward to hearing from you soon.
That's his name. Really great guy. He has a daughter who's ~ two months old. Hong, let us know if you need a hand with anything. I know I live close to you, so just ask.
That's his name. Really great guy. He has a daughter who's ~ two months old. Hong, let us know if you need a hand with anything. I know I live close to you, so just ask.
Sweet! Someone that knows him. We were all concerned on how to contact family members. We all briefly met him and I'm terrible with names. I know he drove up riding a sweet Mini Cooper.
If anyone has any updates, let us know.
-Bullit
"If an illegal alien is an undocumented immigrant, than a drug dealer is an unlicensed pharmicist."
Oh man, that is horrible! I rode with Hong once. Nice mellow guy. Don't worry guys. He'll recover. It's an awful feeling to experience something like that. For those of us that were there when Francis crashed, we all just felt sick. Especially when they're facial injuries. Our face is so much a part of our identity, its just that much more traumatic for all involved. My prayers go out to him and his family.
Yep that's him. He has a really nice Mini and a Motolite I think. Seems like a real nice guy. Total pleasure to ride with.
I feel terrible for him and can only hope that his injuries aren't as severe as they looked. His bike is with the park ranger and I assume he's at a hospital somewhere right now.
"If an illegal alien is an undocumented immigrant, than a drug dealer is an unlicensed pharmicist."
a while ago. Real cool guy if it is the same person. I hope the best for him and his family. bullit71, props to you and your crew for getting help and comforting him. It is not easy playing medic when that is not your profession.
Hong, I do hope you will be ok and recover with minimal pain. Ask if you need anything, this is a great group of people here.
Yeah, that was a pretty tense and emotional event we went through.
We got very lucky that the crash happened 50 feet from the road, and the fire dept was only 1/2 mile away. Thanks to Mark for flaggin down the car and remembering the fire dept was right up the road. Once I heard that it was hammer time to get to the fire dept.
The event made me realize that I NEED to start carrying some sort of useful identification and emergy contact info. None of us knew Hong very well, and really have no idea how to get in touch with him or his family.
I also think a full face helmet could have greatly helped out. He could have gotten up and walked away if he had been wearing one. It's time to invest in one.
-Dan
Those who know, ride a Mojo AND a Mojo HD. Quadzilla
Originally Posted by benja55
Ok, whatever, cold water on my bike boner right there.
I just spoke to someone at Openspaces. He says that Hong is at Stanford hospital. They got his address and info off of his car's license plate and are contacting his family, if they haven't done so already.
Hong was knocked unconscious for a few minutes, but when he woke up he had movement in his legs and arms. He tried sitting up a few times so I think his neck and back/spine are okay.
I realize that I was pretty dazed after all of this:
1) I nearly missed my exit while driving back home. I had to skip over 4 lanes after seeing the sign at the last moment. Luckily there wasn't much traffic.
2) I walked right by the door to my apartment and had to double back.
At 7:21pm we got called out for a unconcious Mt Biker on the Saratoga Gap trail at charcoal fire road. Our Saratoga Summit station responded to the scene along with a Paramedic engine from the city of Saratoga.
Initially we set up the landing zone at the gap but the Pilot of the Life Flight Helicopter vetoed it so we diverted to sempervirons point 2 miles west to shut down hwy 9 and land life flight . It was my first command of an LZ and it figures I was doing it at night. but I got the hwy shut down and the helo safely down.
The Biker had serious head injuries, Per the medics he smashed up good wiping out on a water bar and they did a load and go into the ambulance which got to us 5 minutes later. From there we did a rapid unload from the ambulance and load into the rear bay of the Stanford Life Flight helo and they lifted less than a minute later. He was unconcious when I helped load him into the helo....I hope he makes it....but with the quick actions of his buddies, 9 fire fighters, 2 park rangers and two AMR medics gave him a good shot as he was alive when he lifted with two really good trauma nurses taking care of him in the 8 minute helo flight to the trauma center.
we got back to the station at 9pm
Warning: Consumption of alcohol may make you think the person on the barstool next to you is attractive
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Originally Posted by bullit71
