The minivan cut across my lane, hit my bike like Thor’s hammer, and punched me into the air. I was airborne, flying over the freeway at nearly 55 miles per hour. My motorcycle flipped and tumbled away from me, spitting chunks of tarmac and
dirt as it spun off the pavement. The road rushed to meet me. I couldn’t fly forever, and there was no safe landing. Interstate 15 loomed, an executioner, ready to pound nails into my coffin.
Years of martial arts training took over. I tucked my chin to my chest, extended my right arm, and prepared to roll through the impact. It’s called the “tuck and roll”. When performed correctly, it redistributes the force of your fall, allowing you to roll
back to your feet. You hardly feel it. But I was going to feel this… My forearm hit, and I started my tuck. WHAM! My chin was pulled tight to my chest, but my head still slammed into the asphalt. I rolled through and felt every bit of my body pound the roadway.
Too fast…
I was rolling too fast!
I bounced off the ground, entered another tuck. WHAM! Wrist, shoulder, head, slamming into the tarmac as I rolled through. Four times I tucked and rolled, head striking the asphalt each time. I covered over two hundred feet of freeway before slamming into a road marker, taking the impact with the middle of my lower back.
Stunned, I lay there. Wrist broken, shoulder injured, the rest of my body felt like someone had just played chopsticks on it with a sledgehammer.
The paramedics and emergency room doctors were amazed that I survived and walked away mostly intact. They rarely see that. Far too many motorcycle accident victims end up in an intensive care unit, or worse, the morgue.
How did I survive? I was wearing full riding gear, plain and simple. That includes an armored motorcycle jacket, carbon fiber reinforced gloves, motorcycle boots, jeans (armored pants would have been better), and most importantly: a helmet.
Make no mistake, without my helmet, I would have either died or been left with severe brain damage. The g-forces were too great to keep my head from hitting the asphalt. Despite knowing how to fall, the first impact would have knocked me out or killed me. Then my body would have rag-dolled down the freeway. My kids would have lost their father, my wife her husband, my parents their child, and my youngest son would never have been born. And for what, to feel the wind in my hair?
Helmets are cheap insurance. The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) found that riding without a helmet
increases the risk of death in a motorcycle crash by nearly 40%. The helmet I was wearing cost just over $100. It saved my life. How much is your life worth? The truth is, no amount of protective gear can guarantee you’ll emerge unscathed from an accident. But wearing full gear, including a helmet, definitely improves your odds. Why not stack the odds in your favor?
Think of it this way: asphalt is hard. Asphalt is also like coarse sandpaper against your skin. Chip-sealed roads are even worse; they’re a motorcyclist’s bane. It doesn’t matter if you’re only going 10 mph; you’re going to get road rash. I hit the road at 55 mph and only had two small patches of road rash. One on my wrist and one on my lower leg, where the fabric ripped away. If I’d only been wearing my helmet, most of my body would have been shredded.
It also seems there’s a misconception that scooters are safer than motorcycles. While a person on a scooter wearing full motorcycle racing gear might be extreme, surely there must be a balance between full gear and flip-flops, shorts, dresses or skirts, and thin shirts. True, most scooters top out around 40 mph, but you’re going to hit the ground just as hard on a scooter as you would on a full-sized bike at that speed.
Finally, most motorcycle – and scooter – accidents are caused by other drivers. People should watch for motorcyclists, but most don’t. These accidents are usually on city streets during short trips around town. Even at slower speeds, protective gear can do wonders to increase your odds of survival.
If you have gear, great! Wear it. If you don’t have any gear, get some and wear it, especially a helmet! Your brain will thank you.
Roland is a network engineer, author, fitness enthusiast, husband, and father. The accident described above occurred in May 2012 on the freeway just south of Cedar City, Utah.
This article originally appeared in the Fall 2025 issue of HEALTH Magazine.