| Author | Message | ||
     Gschuette |
Wish I still lived in JC TN so I could meet him, take him a get well, and a gallon of gas so he can think about getting back on the bike after he's healed. I always think its good to see people get back on and conquer the bike again. I'm sure he will though. Like I said before just glad he's in Johnson City. I mean look at me I'm fine(physically at least). Don't worry guys he'll be up and running in no time. Man I just moved a month ago, wish I could stop in and say hey. | ||
| Buckinfubba |
Ijust got home and off the phone with Ted, this is really hard to hear. I hope pete is gonna be ok in time. Me and Ted both are shook up about this and most of you sure know why. To petes friends, just be there for him and his family. that hospital is a great one , remember it is near britol,TN and there is a nascar track there so they have the best in the trauma center. This was my fear when I beg and pleaded to get the runnin the ridge thing going last year, and I was hoping upon hope that it would be an uneventful event. My thoughts and prayers are with pete and shred more than I can say. This brings back many painful memories for me as I am sure some others here. please ride safe, I am not gonna assume either were taking chances at all, shred hit gravel and pete had a truck come out, its just bad friggin luck, but just the same. please keep us posted on both guys condition. | ||
| Sandblast |
My thoughts are with your boys 3%'s, I hope they can recover quickly and move on stronger. Please post anything the Badweb can do to help. | ||
| Stealthxb |
"stay loose weight the peg look ahead what is here now is already here what's next needs to be sorted out" | ||
| Gschuette |
Beating a dead horse here but in all my accidents I was treated so well there. A friend of mine once broke both bones in his forearm and they cam through the skin. I had to drive him to JC Medical Center. We walked in and within 5 minutes he was in a room with stuff to ease the pain but not that much I guess cause he needed surgery which also was performed before the evening was over. By the next morning his arm was fixed and he claimed to be in no pain. He was pretty high on drugs though. Now all he has is a really cool scar. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I heard he was in JC. Now just hurry up and get out of there! | ||
| Captainkirk |
My thoughts and prayers are there for you guys...riders and friends and family as well. Godspeed. Dyna, don't know why the big increase. I've noticed it as well and it's freakin' me out a little. Ride safe, all of you. | ||
| Court |
I'll add my thoughts and prayers to those of my friends and join you in wishing the injured riders a speedy recovery. I received a most distressing phone call about this last night and suspect there's going to be a lonnnng talk tonight about 11:25PM. I'm sure we'll all talk more about this but for now let's get these fellas healed, back with their families and ordering parts. Court | ||
| BadS1 |
Cameron do ya think you could give me a call.I need some address's.1-262-939-9922. Thanks Dana aka BadS1 | ||
| Tedk |
I think it was time I returned the kindness I rec'd here. I'd like to start a fund for Pete and his family. I'll put the first $100 up, just as Bubba did for me. I know first hand what he will be going thru with this injury and I will be here to give him support. | ||
| Anonymous |
Are you willing to organize the donations Ted? you got paypal? If you take Visa through them, paypal will ding you a percentage, but all in all its not a bad "cost" for the service they offer. Blake, Can we get a banner add up? | ||
| Daves |
I'm in. Dave | ||
| Bigdaddy |
Ted, Sorry to bounce back on the scene and see this. I don't know them, but I'm in. Set it up and I'll PayPal it in. Greg | ||
| Torqer |
We appreciate everyone's support in Pete and Mike's time of need. Mike (Shred) is being released from the hospital today. Pete is in surgery right now. I spoke with him this morning and he had some tingling in his legs (this is a good sign). The surgery is too remove the crushed vertebrae and install a metal rod. We are hoping and praying this will relieve the pressure on his spinal cord. If anyone wants to send donations to help Pete or Mike, you can send them to Stone Mountain HD/Buell at 2060 Ross Rd. / Lilburn, Ga 30047. Put them to my attention and I will make sure everything is handled properly. I love the motorcycle community and will do everything I can to repay the support we get when someone else needs it. I will post more info when I get it. Thanks to all of you. Cameron | ||
| Stealthxb |
I am the Director of the 3% BRAGging rights club and both of the riders involved in these accidents were my troops. If you would like to make a donation to assist these individuals financially please use my email address travis.mccutcheon@gmail.com with PayPal. https://www.paypal.com/ This account will not be used for any other purposes and all proceeds will go to Pete Anziano (Torqer) and Michael Buffington (Shred). If you would like to send cards, flowers or gifts please address them to: Stone Mountain HD/Buell Attn: Cameron 2060 Ross Rd. Lilburn, GA 30047 Thank you all for your concerns and please keep these individuals in your thoughts and prayers. Travis J. McCutcheon (StealthXB) | ||
| Firemanjim |
Done. | ||
| Tedk |
That sounds like a plan. Both of these guys need help. I'll send my donation of $100 and if someone matches it I will give them a shop manual for the 03' XB9s...any takers??? | ||
| Tedk |
Who do we make checks payable to? Stone Mt. HD? | ||
| Torqer |
You can make checks payable to Stone Mountain HD. Please put Attention Cameron on all checks. Thanks for all your help. Cameron | ||
| Black_sunshine |
Ted..... I will match your $100 for Shred and $100 for Torqer. | ||
| Stealthxb |
Pete's surgery went well today. Although there was some damage to the spinal column, there were no cuts and it looks promising. His family is hoping to return him to Atlanta on Tuesday or Wednesday. Jim, Hugh and Dennis thank you for your contributions. | ||
| Paulinoz |
Paul Rogers in Transit will put in $100.00 as soon as I am not on a public PC. I hooked up with Pete,Mick, Dick and Craig at the start as was in that group for both Accidents have left NC headed for NYC. I hope the news in the post above is acurate. Will post some more when I have haD some rest. | ||
| Tedk |
Black_sunshine, I'll send XB9s manual to same address w/check?? Attn: to ??? | ||
| Whodom |
Travis- glad to hear things went well and that things look good. Ted- just wondering, do you know how common serious back injuries are in motorcycle accidents? Maybe we're all spending too much money on our heads and not enough on our backs. I sure wish somebody would tell us something good about this meet. So far, all we've gotten is bad news. Hugh | ||
| Jlnance |
Hugh - As to good news, I had a great time. Met a bunch of great people, had fun riding. Took my wife who doesn't ride, and she had a great time too. Two of the people I rode with had Joe Rocket jackets which had padding down the back. My HD jacket has padding in the sleeves and shoulders but none in back. I think I'll be getting a jacket like theirs soon. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Anybody know the kind of timeframe for the recovery process for that sort of spinal cord trauma (effected but not cut)? | ||
| Black_sunshine |
TedK...Attn: Cameron with the check..Attn: Will Holbrook with manual. | ||
| José_quiñones |
This is hard to write but I'll do it once and try not to think about it anymore (I can't sleep since Friday) This is what happened w/Pete: All morning long different groups of Buellers had been leaving the Quality Inn to go on the "North Loop". The Map given to us by BRAG had one mistake in it which caused a lot of people to hit US421 heading north into Shady Valley instead of South away from it as originally intended. Minor detail, but people were a bit frustrated/disoriented because of this. I don't think it had any influence. We started up with a group of about 7 and ended up with 4 as some people decided to stop and go back and find where the route actually went. So Mike Miller led, I followed and Paul from DCBRAG and Mike's wife Beverly were behind us. We were on US421 headed North into Shady Valley, in the heart of the "Striped Snake" (I think that's what they call it), which rivals and exceeds Deals Gap in many ways. Excellent Road. We came upon a Fuel Truck. The whole road is solid double yellow, so we just slowed up and rode behind the truck for what seemed like half a mile or so. This gave people behind us a chance to catch us. As we putted along behind the truck the truck signals that he's turning left. Mike later mentioned that he did not notice it but with the sun it was hard to see, I'm sure the people behind me did not notice it. I saw the flashing signal, so I held up my left arm out with my hand out to let everybody know behind me not to pass. Everything seemed fine, the truck was going to turn left and we would have a clean run to the Shady Valley General store, which is where we were supposed to stop and hang out anyway. Suddenly I hear a bike engine racing coming up behind me, I look in my mirror long enough to see a Buell coming at me, then by me right by my outstretched arm/hand, then by Mike, hugging the center stripe and beginning to turn right, going for a pass on the truck, which had just begun to turn left. The truck notices Pete and stops turning, but Pete at that point looked like he would have hit the truck had he tipped into the turn. He stood the bike up and went down the middle of the split between US421 and the side road that the truck was turning into. I lost sight of him at that moment, when I finished the turn I was able to see down into the area where he went to and saw his bike in the grass, but I did not see him. The local homeowner, a very nice fellow, said he was in the garden behind the house, heard a noise and looked up just in time to see Pete flying through the air into the stream. We all pulled off to the shoulder and I believe Gator and Mike were the first to get to him in the stream where he landed. I'll let them tell that part of the story if they wish. They basically had to move him out of the water or he would have drowned. I did not race down into the ditch to go find Pete partly due to shock but mainly anger at how this completely avoidable event (I won't call it an accident, Mike's gravel crash on Thursday was an accident) had just happened. This is what is keeping me up at night. I should have been there first or second at Pete's side. Sorry about that Pete. When I saw that other people had gone in after him I just directed traffic on 421 a bit and tried to keep everybody and myself calm. Fortunately the Fuel Truck driver was a volunteer fireman and had his radio, so help arrived rather quickly. Everybody that stopped was very helpful, nobody panicked. Gator, Paul and others kept Pete calm by joking and just letting them know they were there. Pete seemed like he was alert the whole time, he kept complaining that he could not feel his feet, his ankles yes but not his feet, but his feet were in the water for 10-15 minutes and the water was very cold, so Paul kept telling Pete that's that the water was the reason, not anything else, just trying to keep him calm. The ambulance showed up, they slowly put him on the stretcher and they took him to Shady Valley, put him into a helicopter and took him to Johnson City. The Sheriff showed up eventually (they have the timing of showing up after everything settles down to a science), got everybody's statements and wrote Pete a Ticket, I think for passing on the double yellow. He was just doing his job, he had no choice. The bike was left in the gentleman's home I mentioned earlier, I believe Glitch has already picked it up. The left clipon was bent, the shifter rod was broken and it seemed that the forks were tweaked cause the bike did not want to go straight when I pushed it up to the house. Everything else was fine, just mud/grass stains. After that, I almost just decided to go back to the hotel and not ride anymore. We hung out at the Shady Valley Store ate lunch and bought some stuff. Gator got the idea of buying Pete a "US421/Striped Snake" shirt/stickers so we collected some money and got him one. Will (The BRAG Photographer) and Mary showed up and wanted people for group/action shots, so I decided to spend the rest of the day doing that just to get my mind off Pete. Paul and Gator went to Johnson City to see Pete that day and got to the Friday night Group Photo/Dinner late. The look on Paul & Gator's faces when they came in was not the news we were looking for. Since then it looks like the news have improved. (Message edited by josé_quiñones on September 27, 2004) | ||
| Blake |
JQ, Sounds like you did everything you could to prevent the crash. Probably more than a lot of us would have done. Pete has learned a very hard lesson. Let's hope learning about his ordeal will hit home with the rest of us and prevent similar incidents in the future. You did good. There is no reason for you to feel any sort of culpability. Neither is there any reason to im ply that such an incident is in any way attributable to an error on a route map. Pete screwed up, simple as that. There is no-one else to blame for that. It is really unfortunate that you see fit to imply that BRAG might be culpable. Does anyone know if Pete has medical insurance that will cover the bulk of his hosptical and ambulance fees? | ||
| Mbsween |
man this sucks, I was involved in some "heated racing" (okay it was go-karts) with Pete less than 24hrs before. Pete had figured out how to "adjust" the govenor on the carts and was kicking •••, the rest of us were either ramming him or blocking him to slow him down. We were having a hell of a time with the karts. I didn't see Pete's accident, but I came upon Mike's shortly after it happened. Here's what I saw and what I learned from Paul who was directly behind Mike, and Gator, who was behind Paul. Paul/Gator if I screwed it up please correct. The corner was a 90 degree right, it was banked pretty well. The way we came at it was from the "bottom" half. There was no shoulder in our lane and a large gravel parking area on the other side of the road. You came up to the corner after a short straight, it looked good except for the pile of gravel in the middle of our lane. The way the corner worked, you couldn't see much of the next corner so anything oncoming was guarranteed to be a surprise. Paul indicated that Mike got into the gravel, the bike got loose, Mike tried to stand it up and adjust, but he had the bad luck of a Buick coming the other way at this moment. He stood it up again and tried to make it to the gravel area. I guess the Buick driver swerved left to avoid Mike, but there wasn't enough time/room. Mike ended up hitting the Buick, apparently with his leg just behind the passenger side head light (Hard enough to remove all the body work on the Buick). At this point the bike goes down and Mike gets airborne, does a flip and lands with his back on the bike. It looked like he had dropped the bike and decided to use it as hammock. Bad part is he's laying across the header. This is where my group showed up. I was leading and concentrating hard on missing the gravel. I actually didn't see the accident till I was through the apex. We pulled off, checked on Mike, He still had all his gear on, Craig was supporting his neck/back. Paul was talking to him and Gator was trying to call 911. Mike was talking but he wasn't moving, it was obvious that he was in a lot of pain. We collected up the debris from the corner and talked with the car driver. All he said was "..the bike was in my lane.." Then Craig realized that the headers were burning through Mike's gear and that we needed to move him. Gator held his leg, Craig supported his neck and Paul and I lifted him off the bike and on to the ground. Turns out he was wearing a backpack and that was what was burning on the header. Next thing through the corner was a 5th wheel mobile home. He covered 85% of the both lanes through the corner. And of course he went about 2 mph while he watched what we were doing. I was just glad that no bikes arrived while he was there. Then the emergency crews arrive. 2 pickups, one ambulance and a large emergency response van. I think Mike just managed to have the bad luck of a car arriving when he needed some extra room. Maybe he took the corner too fast, maybe he didn't see the gravel till too late, maybe he saw the Buick and got distracted. I don't think he was riding 110% or he wouldn't have be able to make any adjustments, there wasn't much in the way of space in this corner. Not that this is going to eliminate crashes, but maybe people should start thinking like this, especially if you're going to lead a group: Ride the road slow the first time through so you can see if there is any gravel, horse crap, dead critters, accident debris, large mobile homes etc in any of the corners, then turn around, and ride back to where you like, turn around and run the road at your pace. You get to ride the road 3 times and you'll have an idea where you are in the section of road. We did this on 58 and 226A, both awesome roads, and it worked out great, we managed to avoid a bunch of cars also. I'm sure some people crave the thrill of riding a road they've never seen at a good clip, but the roads we were on offered no give in the event things got weird. That part of 221 was beautiful, but there was no room for error. Same goes for 226A and 421S. Glad to hear that Pete's prognosis may not be as dire as first indicated and its good to see some many people offering support | ||
| Stealthxb |
Regardless of how either of these incidents happened, they were in fact accidents! Yes, hard lessons are being learned, but the extent of which these accidents will impact these individuals lives is yet to be determined. I do not know for sure but Pete probably has good insurance as he works for the mothership at Stone Mountain HD/Buell. Michael on the other hand is a contractor and therefore will probably bear the burden of this financially. Additionally, regardless of their coverage, the amount received from insurance will never come close to assisting these guys get back on their feet. I was involved in a serious accident last summer and am still dealing with getting my financial situation straightened out! Let us please continue our thoughts and prayers for these individuals as this is only the beginning. Hell, I still do not know if one of my best friends will ever walk again let alone ride!!! I truly appreciate the personal accounts of what transpired as I have been racking my brains with how's and why's all weekend. Anyone else with details I would appreciate you communicating what went down. If you would like to make a donation to assist these individuals financially please use my email address travis.mccutcheon@gmail.com with PayPal. https://www.paypal.com/ This account will not be used for any other purposes and all proceeds will go to Pete Anziano (Torqer) and Michael Buffington (Shred). If you would like to send cards, flowers or gifts please address them to: Stone Mountain HD/Buell Attn: Cameron 2060 Ross Rd. Lilburn, GA 30047 |
