Modern Vespa

I went down this morning on the freeway on my way to work... Not sure what happened but I clipped a cager in front of me and next minute I'm lying in the lane next to my GT.
Luckily it was peak time traffic and everyone was moving along at about 30-40kmphs so they had time to brake once seeing what happened to me.
I got up, gave a friendly wave to them and picked up the GT and pushed it to the emergency lane, the cager had already pulled up for a chat.
Friendly bloke with his wife. Minimum damage to his car, scuff mark to the rear right hand side.
I got a scuffed and dented GT but it still works. Badly bruised left thigh, armoured jacket is scuffed around the elbow.
Jeans in one piece as I didn't slide anywhere.
I'm possibly looking at $3000 damage and no doubt his will be up there too as you know how it is these days at the panel beaters.
We exchanged details, insurance stuff and went on our way.
Another page turns in the life of this scooter rider.

I'm feeling the same as you right now I suspect. I was stopped at the lights last night & a car somehow didn't see me & managed to drive straight into & knock me off. I'm sore & bruised but otherwise ok, but very frustrated at the fact that someone wasn't paying attention & now I won't have transport for weeks while it gets fixed. Argh.

ouch my friends downunder!!!! It seems lots of wreakage is going on this month .

Sorry to hear that news Vinny. I hope all gets better soon mate for both of us.

Ta, you too.

Paul.
Very sorry to hear of your spill Mate
Sounds like it could have been really nasty at any other time.
Glad you are OK and hope the GT is all better soon. maybe insurance can stretch to a custom paint job
Good luck.
Boulty

Wow! Really glad you two (Paul & Vinny) are OK!!
Appreciate you sharing what happened (conversation, etc) with the cager! Vinny... how 'bout you fill us in too?!
Were the drivers concerned, PO'd? How have the insurance companies handled everything?
Not sure how I would react...
Since some time has gone by... have you figured out what actually happened, Paul?
Hope you are feeling more spry and less black & blue!

That's terrible, but I'm glad it wasn't worse.

PAUL and VINNY man i'm glad you both are alright. Be careful out there with summer and all. Hope the scooters don't cost too much to fix Motrin is your friend and vicodin could be your BFF if you have it Hope your both back in the saddle soon and be careful.

Glad you came through this as well as you did, and sorry that you crashed.

Thanks all for your concern and thoughts. Day two and reality has kicked in.

Firstly, gotta thank the big Scooter / MC rider in the sky who keeps an eye on us, that ensured although the freeway was busy, the other drivers were able to stop and not run me over.

I recall looking over to my right shoulder and indicating (well, you have to merge at this point with the traffic) to change into that lane and as I accelerated... WHAMMO!!

I just saw a bit of blue car and hit it. Now, I'm not one to tailgate so I'm not sure if he pulled out in front of me to the do the same thing or what?? I saw no brake lights or indicators on his part.

I actually said to the wife, that's the quickest you'll see me move in a long time. I just hit the deck - not sure how I landed but managed to jump up straight away and hold my hand out to stop the traffic from hitting me from behind - I think they'd already hit the brakes anyways (that's when I gave a quick wave to them for thanks and that I was ok).

Not sure how I picked up the GT either but it was light as a feather and I just wheeled it over to the emergency lane.

The cager by this time had pulled up and him and his wife came over to check I was ok.
I was talking about 100mph and still had my helmet on when we exchanged our details.
No pain at this point.
Then after our little chat, got on the GT (confirmed lights and mirrors were ok) and gently rode away, checking to see if there was any problem with the steering. All appeared good in that regard.
Got to work about 20 mins later. Still no pain.


Today, I feel like shit - have bad flu type body aches and the biggest "dead" leg known to mankind. Luckily someone at work had the foresight to wrap my bruised thigh up with a pressure bandage and gave me a couple of ice packs for the swelling.

In this part of the world you have to report an accident to the police but if it is under $3000 you are not obliged to (I suspect it will be more than $3K in repairs). I did this as part of my insurance deal. In the next few days I will file my insurance claim and leave it up to them to make the assessment on who did what. As I hit the vehicle from behind it will most probably sit on my shoulders.

Trouble is although there were witnesses, I appeared to be ok and as it was rush hour no one pulled over apart from the cager I hit. So, once again I'm unclear as to whether he cut me off or not.

I'll let you all know how it goes.

Adrenalin is a funny thing eh? Glad we have it running through our bodies, keeps us on our toes.

I'm doing Lotto today.

No accident is fun--been there, done that, in a car and in an airplane--but not yet on the scoot. (Note the "not yet"--life is not totally predictable) But yesterday was close! I came as close as I want to, to finding out if Lexus silver paint is the same color as Vespa "Excaliber gray". Twit was in the right lane, I was in the left lane immediately beside him, my front fender about even with his driver door hinge. Ft. Collins has parking in between the northbound and southbound lanes of College. He saw a parking place open up, and he turned left without any regard to the fact that I was occupying the space beside him! Fortunately, we were moving only about 10 mph in heavy traffic, and Vespa brakes are great at that speed! Missed him by a good 6"! It was all I could do to keep from pulling over and letting him have a piece of my mind, but I've learned that yelling at dummies only makes me angrier, so I rode on.

Adrenalin does wondrous things--one time I dropped my big Kaw in a parking lot, and picking up that 900# behemoth was as easy as picking up a bicycle!

Glad you're surviving--and so will your scoot.

Cary

I'm sorry to hear about your crash, but I am happy to hear you were wearing armored gear.
Healing mojo is being sent your way. Hope you can get everything settled easily and quickly.

Gee - prangs either side of the country

If Scooterrific is ok, then Middle World seems to be all OK!

hope you both get over the bruising quickly Looks like your luck might be better than mine.