INSANITY DEFINED.

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I am now down to 5 days and counting until my second cast comes off. This is a wonderful prospect, being without a cast after seven weeks. Wearing a cast is akin to having a weight attached to one’s leg, it’s like having the heavy metal ball and chain attached to you in the same manner depicted in old cartoons.

The last week or so has seen undeniable progress in that for over a week now I haven’t been compelled to use crutches or the rollator. I’ve been using a cane and sometimes I don’t even need that. I hobble around with my ball and chain (the cast) and make my way around with an unseeming gait.

I look forward to my freedom.

Quite a few people when finding out about how my accident occurred responded immediately by asking me when I would be getting rid of my scooter. It’s really quite interesting in a way, how the assumption is always the scooter is the cause. It’s interesting because I could have been riding a bicycle and managed to injure myself just as much. I could have been in a car accident and sustained even more severe injuries.

In both those instances though, I don’t believe people would have responded the same way. If I had had an accident riding a bike, I don’t imagine the first response would have been people asking me if I would be giving up riding a bike, nor do I think if I got into a car accident people would assume I would be giving up driving.

I had an accident and one of the things they are very adamant about in the MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) course is, an accident is the result of several factors and not a single factor. The convergence of a series of factors that when taking alone would not result in a problem.

After I had the accident, one of the first things I was doing was going over everything in my mind and trying to assess what the factors were that lead to the accident.

There were dry conditions so it wasn’t a question of that being part of it but, poor traction did play a role. I went across a road marking and found out much to my dismay, road markings aren’t applied with traction in mind. You’ll notice when you’re on a train platform the warning markings (usually broad yellow lines) have some texture in them, something road markings don’t. Painted surfaces are more slippery.

I took a curve a little faster than I should have. Instead of doing between 25 and 30 mph, I should have been going at most between 20 and 25 mph (maybe even slower).

I was leaning into the curve a lot (because of my speed). While leaning in and of itself made sense given the speed at which I was going, again I should have been going just a little slower.

Finally, I opted not to wear the correct protective gear. It was a beautifully sunny day and instead of wearing a jacket as I normally do, I opted to just stick with a t-shirt. I wasn’t wearing the riding boots I normally wear when I ride, just regular men’s boots without any support for the ankle and shin. And of course, I had jeans on.

The jeans surprisingly took a lot of punishment.

The protective gear I did wear though did it’s job. The helmet protected my head, although because I was wearing an open face helmet I got hit very hard in the side of the face from the impact of hitting the road surface and the goggles I was wearing cut into the area around the eye socket.

The gloves I was wearing (masonry gloves from Home Depot) managed to protect my hands.

I got some nice road rash on my arm, but I was wearing a t-shirt. If I had been wearing leathers, or even the jacket I normally wear when I ride, it’s not as bad and I may even not get any scraping at all. The banged up knees don’t happen if I’m wearing knee pads. The ankle doesn’t get injured as severely if I’m wearing the proper boots with the proper support and protection (if it gets injured at all).

So, again it wasn’t just one thing but a number of things that lead both to the accident and the injuries I sustained.

I like riding and I try to be a careful rider. The other thing I noticed and was thinking about after the fact was I was getting more comfortable in my riding skills. This is a bit of a double edged sword in a way, because the only way you get better is by riding but at the same time you should never lose the caution you have as a new rider. Plainly put, I should have been more careful, I have no one but myself to blame for the accident.

So, I am given the choice of getting rid of the scooter (option one), continuing to ride without taking heed to the lesson my accident provides me (option two) or continuing to ride but taking even more care when I choose to do so.

I’m going with option three.

What does that mean? Well, I ordered a new helmet (because once you have an accident with a helmet, the helmet is shot). The new helmet is a full face helmet. Also, I just ordered new riding boots - whereas I had boots before and they came up above the ankle providing support, I had always wanted (even before the accident) to get myself better boots so I got myself a pair of racing boots which specifically have padding in them to protect the lower leg. Of course, you have to wear protective gear for it to work.

So, I’ll be back out there. I’ll be taking it slow (not a bad thing) but I’ll be back out there nonetheless because sometimes you do have to accept a certain amount of risk if you’re going to enjoy life.