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If you pay attention to my Twitter updates over there on the sidebar, you may have noticed that I was in a 4 wheeling accident this past weekend. If you don’t read the Twitter updates…then this is news to you. So let me explain.
Dave and I went up north with his dad and brother Friday evening to stay at the family cabin. Saturday we woke up and had big plans to take our quads out on the trails for the afternoon. I didn’t really feel like going, but drug myself out there anyway. All was going well until we got to a small 2 track trail. I was following behind Dave and it was really dusty, so it was hard to see through the dust. The part of trail we were on was flat and fine, no big deal.
All of a sudden as the dust cleared, I was heading straight for a huge divet in the trail. At this point the trail took on a more man-made appearance, with really deep divets on either side of the trail so that in order to ride it safely you really had to ride with one set of tires down in a divet and the other set of tires up on the ditch or center of the trail. I didn’t have time to make this choice, however.
I hit the divet, my hand flew off the handlebars from the impact and I lost control of my quad. It bounced over to the other side of the trail and I was flung over the handlebars. I went straight up and over, nothing was stopping me. Midair, I closed my eyes. I remember hitting the ground head first, and my shoulders and back crumpled over my head and finally the rest of my body landed. All I could think was “I’m goin to get ran over by my own four wheeler…” and then I did. I can’t say for sure, because I don’t fully remember, but I think the right front tires ran over my midsection/ribs and the quad came to a stop. My head was stuck under the quad between the engine and the side of the enbankment of the trail. I couldn’t move.
Again…all I’m thinking is, “I’m going to get ran over by Ryan as he comes around that corner.” I was afraid that Dave’s brother wouldn’t see me in time. My quad was still running and all I could hear was the engine above my head. I had to get out of there. So I dug the sand away from around my helmet and unlodged my head from where it was stuck. I crawled out from under the quad and sat in the trail gasping for air as Ryan pulled up. Then Dave’s dad pulled up and he told Ryan to ride ahead to get Dave. At this point I was pulling my riding gloves off, threw off my goggles and somehow managed to get my helmet off.
My mouth was full of sand and I was spitting to try and clear it out. Dave’s dad asked if I could move, if everything was all right. I said that I thought I was ok. Nothing appeared to be broken. I tried to stand up but lost my balance and quickly sat down with my head between my knees. I was sore, shaky and covered in dirt…but I was alive.
We had to ride back to the cabin, and every bump I hit caused my back to buckle and hurt. My right leg was hurting where the leg connects to the hip, kind of in the pelvic area. Everything hurt. There is a deep 3-4 inch gouge mark on my helmet where the engine scrapped against it as the quad rolled over my head.
I’ve crashed that thing twice in the two years I’ve had it (the first time was similar but I hit a tree and messed my hand up really bad, although I didn’t break anything). I’m not willing to see what a third time will bring. I’ve hurt myself enough and I’m done with it.
Needless to say, we got back, I cleaned up and took some pain killers and worked out a deal to where Ryan is buying my quad off of me. I still owe $1,960 on it and he’s buying it off of me for $2,500. He’ll be making monthly payments of $125, which is $25 more than the minimum that I’m paying. He said he’ll most likely be making payments of more than $125 whenever he can, so that works for me. Whatever he sends is just additional to what we’re used to paying towards all our debt each month.
His $125 will take the place of my $100 payment, and I’ll be using my $100 payment towards whatever debt snowball I’m focusing on at the moment. I’m just glad to be rid of the thing, even though it was fun while it lasted. I know I’ll never be confident or comfortable enough to ride on it again. I’ll be too worried about getting hurt. I’m not willing to take that chance.
