An X-Ray showing Jeff's right arm fracture
There is a biker attorney named Jeff H. in Korea that has become a long distance pen pal of sorts with me.
Over the years since I started the Biker Law Blog, he has shared comments, exchanged emails, and such.
Jeff lives, works, and rides, in the nation of Korea, and yes he is a real biker lawyer like me.
A couple of days ago Jeff informed me that he was in a motorcycle accident, and sent me the following letter through the blog describing his accident.
He states that “even biker lawyers can go down once in a while. Be Careful.”
I suggest that all of you read this letter carefully. Maybe it will save your live. It is not often that you get a firsthand account of an accident such as this, written by a fellow attorney.
Jeff I wish you Godspeed on your recovery.
Below is the actual letter sent to me by Jeff in Korea:
Okay. Some of you have no idea what happened to me. Others know basically what happened to me. I think only a few of you know exactly what happened to me. Now that I have this nifty software that allows me to speak into a microphone and watch the words magically appear on the computer screen, I can sit back, rest my arms, and tell you all what happened.
Early in the afternoon of October 30, 2010, my friend Jeremy and I were riding our motorcycles to lunch. After a delicious lunch at the Seamen’s Club, Jeremy headed home, and I took off by myself to go take care of some other business. Just before 1 PM, I was riding along a four-lane highway with two lanes going in each direction. I like to take this particular road because it’s not well traveled by other vehicles, so there’s not much traffic to worry about.
I was southbound on the inside lane nearest to the double yellow lines, and another car was approaching northbound from the opposite direction on the inside lane nearest the double yellow line. Suddenly, and without any warning whatsoever, a large delivery truck that was sitting on the right shoulder of the road completely outside of the traffic lanes began to make an illegal U-turn directly in front of me in an effort to proceed in the northbound lane. However, due to the other car that was traveling opposite me in the northbound lane, the delivery truck could not complete the illegal U-turn and he had to stop his truck directly in front of me, blocking both southbound lanes.
He pulled out and stopped in front of me so quickly that I didn’t have time or space to maneuver around the truck. So, I slammed on my brakes, locked my wheels, honked my horn, cursed as loudly as possible, and prayed for the best. Unfortunately, it was not my lucky day. At some point in the space of what I estimate to be about 2 seconds between the time that he began to pull out in front of me and the time that I slammed broadside into the side of his truck, I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to stop.
I had no time to take any other evasive maneuvers or safety measures, such as laying the bike down or doing anything else. I T-boned the truck. I hit broadside. Hard. Very, very hard.
I don’t remember actually hitting the truck. I remember getting very, very close to it, and I remember bouncing off the truck. The next thing I remember was lying on my back in the middle of the road. So, I remember approaching the truck, bouncing off the truck, and laying in the road. The actual impact and landing in the road are gone from my memory.
The driver got out of his truck, and immediately started calling for an ambulance, the police, his company, his insurance company, and anyone else he could reach. I remember mumbling something to him like, “why? Why couldn’t you wait 3 seconds to make that turn?”
It took a few minutes for the police to arrive. While waiting, I had one of the most incredible sensations of my entire life. I knew that my right arm was badly broken because I could distinctly feel that my right hand was laying flat on the road up to my elbow, but my shoulder felt like my arm was pointing straight up in the air. I tried to flex my fingers, but my fingers didn’t move. It still felt like I was pointing toward the sky, but my hand remained flat on the road. It was really a very weird sensation. Also, my left wrist hurt and I couldn’t move my fingers on my left hand, so I knew that my left hand was broken somewhere as well. I knew that both of my arms hurt like hell, but because of the adrenaline or some other reason, the pain wasn’t nearly as bad as it probably should have been.
When the police and the ambulance arrived, the first thing they did, which is something that is standard in every Korean vehicle accident, was to paint the outline of the truck. They spray painted the outline of my bike where it was, and I remember them mucking around and spray painting the outline of my body. It was sort of like a crime scene body outline like you see on TV.
The next thing was the ambulance driver, the EMT, and the policeman wondering how to get big old me onto the gurney and into the back of the ambulance. Eventually, and with no small amount of jostling my broken arms, they managed to get me on to the very narrow gurney and into the back of the ambulance. Now, at this point, it must be understood that Korean ambulances are not like ambulances in America. Ambulances are not these big, huge, spacious, fully equipped mobile trauma centers. Korean ambulances are more like old Volkswagen minivans. They’re very narrow, very old, and in generally very poor condition.
It was my intention to go to Pusan National University Hospital, which is approximately 20 min. away from the accident site in normal traffic. However, due to the fact that the ambulance I was in had no suspension whatsoever, I felt every bump, every pothole, every rock, every cigarette butt, and every gust of air. This made me extremely uncomfortable. Because of this discomfort, I had no choice but to ask the ambulance driver to take me to a closer hospital. The closest hospital was Haedong Hospital.
A quick back story for those who don’t know: Almost exactly 4 years ago, I was involved in another motorcycle accident that left me with a shattered femur in my right thigh. I was treated for that accident at Haedong Hospital. They put a titanium plate and 15 screws in my right thigh. After five weeks in the hospital, I was released. Six days after my release, the titanium plate broke. I had to return to Haedong Hospital, where they opened up my thigh removed the broken plate, did various surgical procedures, and replaced the broken plate with a longer, wider thicker titanium plate. I had my theories as to why the titanium plate broke, and the filed a malpractice lawsuit against the hospital and the doctor that performed the surgery. After lengthy negotiations, we reached a settlement that I was slightly less than happy with, but I could live with it.
Fast forward back to the date of this current accident. I arrived in Haedong Hospital, and was wheeled into the emergency room. The emergency room physician confirmed that I had a broken arm above the elbow on my right arm and my left wrist was broken. I finally had a chance to look at my left wrist and knew immediately what had happened because I had suffered nearly exactly the same break when I was in junior high school. I knew exactly how it felt and looked. The doctor confirmed that I had suffered a compression fracture on my wrist, which basically meant that I had completely destroyed my wrist joint and the two bones in my forearm had pushed up and past the bones in my wrist, so my wrist was actually below the two bones on my arm.
