Motorbike Madness!

Stylin

For those that don’t know, I decided to get a motorbike while here in Thailand. I wasn’t planning on getting one before the trip. I had heard about the horrors on the road here, but after being in country for a few weeks, I decided that it wasn’t that bad. I just didn’t want to walk 30 minutes everywhere I go (or take an expensive Tuk-Tuk or taxi). Everybody drives motorbikes here and it makes life so much easier. Plus, it would give us the freedom to explore as we pleased and not be constrained within our little bubble. One week ago, we had an experience that made me re-think my decision.

My buddy was in town and we were on our way to go check out some waterfalls in the area. Jody and I were leading the way on my motorbike. After driving about 30 minutes north on the Highway, we were approaching the turnoff up into the mountains. Out of nowhere, a young woman on a motorbike to the left started swerving into my lane. She was picking up speed trying to merge into traffic without even looking! I didn’t have much time to react because I was going a good 40-50MPH. I slowed down as much as I could but contact was inevitable. She smashed directly into my motorbike.

What ensued was a whirlwind of chaos. The bike hit the ground and we started skidding along the concrete. We must have skidded for 20-30 feet in a few seconds and finally came to rest down the road. Now, I’ll have you know that I haven’t even really been in a legitimate car accident, let alone a motorbike. I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty. Expecting the worst, I managed to compose myself after we stopped skidding and tried to assess the damage. Luckily, Jody seemed to be OK though thoroughly shaken up. She had pretty bad road rash on her arms and legs from the sliding on the concrete though. I had similar wounds to my elbow, ankle, forearm and toe. I was really hoping that we didn’t have any internal damage like broken bones. I popped my shoulder out during the roll but it turned out to be very minor and popped right back in. We were extremely lucky that there weren’t any cars around during the accident, let alone traffic barriers. We simply slid along the concrete for 30 feet without any significant damage. YES we were wearing our helmets so any head trauma was quelled.

After we figured out that we had no significant injuries, we thought of the women. Turned out she had her brother on the bike with her! I had no idea. She was not yet in high school so probably 13 or so. They didn’t have any visible cuts on them, but the little boy did look very scared and dazed. They weren’t wearing helmets. During the whole ordeal, she didn’t say a single thing. Just stood there holding the boy and looked out of it. An ambulance came and they rode away. We decided it was best to not go since our injuries seemed to be minor in nature.

It was very nice of some local people to stop and help us out. They poured iodine and saline over our wounds to clean them out and stayed with us for a good 15 minutes while we composed ourselves and assessed what had just happened. They kept asking us if we wanted to go to the Hospital and we agreed it was best not to go. A policeman came and looked pretty disinterested in the whole thing. He must see this type of thing every day. He asked what happened, we explained that it wasn’t our fault. Then, he asked if we wanted to press charges. We declined. They recognized the school where Jody said she taught, which made them realize that we live here and made the situation go a little more smoothly. We came out relatively unscathed and therefore, decided to drop the matter entirely. Like us, the bike still functions properly. Despite some damage to the outer shell, the engine and all the electronics still work fine. All the damage was purely cosmetic. I’m planning on re-selling it later so I’ll have to fix some of the damage.

Toe Trouble

Everywhere you look, there is blatant disregard for safety on the roads. The stuff we see is unbelievable! Nobody rides with their helmets on. Some drive the opposite way on the freeway. People blatantly run red lights (making a left turn into oncoming traffic). Whole families including animals are packed into one motorbike. I’ve seen people texting while driving a motorbike one handed! These things happen everyday and it’s terrifying when you feel the brunt of what can go wrong as a result. We hear of tragedies on the road all the time. It’s a very real danger. In fact, Thailand is the world’s second most dangerous country for tourist-related road accidents after Honduras.

Chalk it up to a different-way of life, lack of regulation, lack of education, lack of enforcement, whatever. It’s just the way things are here. There are countless wonderful things about Thailand but unfortunately, riding a motorbike isn’t one of them. I hate to say it, but I don’t think this craziness on the roads will change anytime soon. There’s little chance of the locals changing their driving habits. People are so used to accidents & fatalities on the road that they assume it’s just the way life is. It’s commonplace to have someone you know die in a motorbike accident. Case in point:  a few weeks back, Jody was taking attendance during one of her classes. She called one girls name out multiple times to no response. One of the fellow students raised her hand and said “Teacha…she dead! Motorbike accident”. It was so nonchalant and not a big deal at all. In the States, it would be a HUGE deal.

As I sit here and mend my road rash (It’s healing quite quickly BTW), I can’t help but think what I could have done differently. There’s really nothing I could have done. That’s the scary thing. No matter how prepared you are, no matter how safe you drive, you are still prone to the same danger. From here on out, I will drive more cautiously and expect people to do the dumbest things on the road. Red lights don’t mean stop, people will drive the wrong way and drivers will merge into traffic without looking. I really hope that the young girl and little boy ended up OK. We realize we got very lucky and things could have been much worse. Not the best experience, yet a very Thai experience indeed.