I fought the dog and the dog won.

[burkbuilds]

Sunday evening I was riding home and decided to take a short detour near my home just to see what the recent excavation work had accomplished. 3 houses from the corner going about 15 -20 mph when two mid size dogs came running at full speed from a blind drive on my right.
No time to react as they ran in front of my vulcan 500. 1st dog cleared but second dog hit my front tire full force turning my wheel as it rose and rolled over his body. when the tire landed it was fully tuned and the bike flipped. My right knee was crushed between the tank and the gravel covered asphalt,then I slid across a driveway and dropped 3-4' into a ditch lined with large limestone rocks.
My right tibia was a clean break but right at the knee joint, my ACL & MCL were torn loose The landing on the rocks broke 5 ribs shattered my right shoulder and did a lot of damage to the joint.
5 hours of surgery put the knee and leg back together with a plate & 5 screws and 2 more screws to re-attach the ligaments. Everything else was in pieces but in place so no need for surgery.
I am in rehab now and will be for a while. The leg damage will require 3 months befre i can put my full weight on it and the r shouder can't take a crutch so i will be in a wheelchair for a while.

THE GOOD NEWS
The dog seems to be okay!

[puckothewilde]

Man, when I hit the deer with my Shadow back in February I at least killed it. But I was doing 65mph, too. But wow, I tore up my shoulder but didn't come out nearly as bad as you. Hope you have a speedy recovery.

Kevin

[Turbojoe]

Wow! Two serious animal strikes posted here in the last few weeks. The only animals I've run over was a cat and a mourning dove, both lost and I didn't go down. I've lost count of how many near misses I've had on the freeway with pigeons. I'll take a bird strike any day to what you guys have been through. I hope you both make fast recoveries.

burkbuilds: I hope you've found the owner of the dog that was running free and they are covering your expenses.....

Joe

[burkbuilds]

Thanks for everyone's well wishes.
I am in rehab now. The police were called but according to my wife they just filed a report w/o doing any interviews with witnesses and they did not even cite the dog's owner even though my wife requested it. We are planning on hiring a lawyer to investigate our options against any homeowners insurance. I will probably be out of work for a couple of months + and we will have a lot of medical bills to pay and things like a ramp so I can be rolled into our house. While I was lying in the ditch I heard a witness say he saw the whole thing happen and that he's told the dogs owner several times that he needed to keep his dog put up because it keeps running out in the street.

BTW I crashed across the street from a local riders group's clubhouse, "The Unforgiven" and they were great to me. One of them jumped down in the ditch with me before i was even able to take my first breath after the crash. He told me not to move asked me if i could breath, then gently removed my helment and put a blanket under my head and stayed with me until the EMT's arrived. They called 911 and my wife for me too.

My lunch is here so i'm done for now.

[burkbuilds]

PICS

[Turbojoe]

Look at those freaking rocks! You're lucky to be alive!! Looks like you definitely have some healing to do. I hope they gave you lots of good pain killers.

Joe

[Triangles]

Look at those freaking rocks! You're lucky to be alive!! Looks like you definitely have some healing to do. I hope they gave you lots of good pain killers.

Joe

+1

Hope you have a speedy and complete recovery!

[burkbuilds]

Well it has been over 8 days since the crash. I am still at the rehab hospital and I am still on some heavy duty painkillers but i am making progress each day. I can now get from the bed to my wheelchair by myself, and maneuver around the room and go up and down the halls. I can feed myself meals and get to and from the toilet unassisted. I can get in and out of a car, brush my teeth and shave and even get baggy shorts and shirts on and off by myself. Given a few specialty tools I can even put my socks on and off but i can't tie my shoes. It will be several months before I can walk and I can only lift my right forearm to a position parallel with the floor for now. I am in good spirits and looking forward to a full recovery.

Insurance estimates $2200 in damages to the bike. I plan to have my local dealer go over it and see if they find anything the adjuster might have missed, no big hurry since it will probably be Fall before I can ride again.

I am hoping to be released by the weekend and do the rest of my rehab as an outpatient.

Thanks again for all your well wishes.

[Turbojoe]

Glad to hear you're progressing so fast. Hope there are no setbacks.

The picture of you on the rocks just gives me the willies every time I see it.

Joe

[burkbuilds]

I finally got squared up with the insurance company today on the bike. They decided my 2009 bike with 45,000 miles on it was worth about $3,642. I inquired what my options were if I didn't want the bike totaled and got to keep it. They said they'd let me keep it if they reduced the check they were going to send me by $482. so I'm keeping the bike. I've got a lot of the OE parts that I took off when I upgraded or customized the bike, so I'm planning to swap out as many damaged parts as I have, clean the bike up and try to sell it. I talked with the local Kawasaki dealer about it today and he didn't think I'd have any trouble getting at least $1500 for the bike once I got it cleaned up. That will almost cover my deductible ($1000.) if I can get that for it.

Now I'm looking at buying a Vulcan 900 and converting it to a trike so I can get back on the road this Fall.

[Triangles]

glad things are working out with the bike. Let us know what you eventually settle on trike wise. keep looking around. You may find an already converted trike at a much better price than getting one converted. I hope your recovery is going well and that you can get back in the saddle sooner rather than later!

[puckothewilde]

Glad to hear your progressing. After jumping through all the Cigna insurance hoops I finally got an MRI and saw a specialist. Turns out about the only thing NOT torn is the rotor cuff in my left sholuder. Some of the tendons are torn loose completely. It's looking like surgery. The Doctor will be looking over the films with a partner to determine if they can do it with the scope, or if they have to actually make a long cut.

[burkbuilds]

Kevin, I hope your shoulder surgery goes well. I did not have surgery on my shoulder, they said everything would just heal up on its own without it, but the physical therapy on my shoulder is way more painful than that on my knee. I've been going three times a week for a couple of hrs each trip, half the time they work on the knee and half we work on my shoulder. I still have a very limited range of motion with the shoulder and the stabbing pain as they push me to increase my range of motion is pretty bad. Hopefully they will be able to fix you up and get you back to normal asap.