The ski doo post hit home with me pretty hard. so decided to share my ATV story I posted on another forum last year...
On Aug 9th we took delivery of a Polaris Sportsman 800 (mine) & a Sportsman 500 (hers) ATV's.
I haven't ridden my bikes much this year with the blown disc and back surgery, has been a bad year. I was bummed pretty bad, so decided to grab the atv's for the family...camp, ride and all of that good stuff. Kind of hard to keep the teen-agers wanting to hang out with Dad anymore.
Before Aug 13 pic
Day of Aug 13 pics
Plastic Surgeon was called in to fix me...took 2 1/2 hours. Didn't get knocked out by the ATV, even had to walk up the hill and ride out of the timber to get to the EMT's.
Multiple facial fractures including: nondisplaced fractures of the inter and outer orbital rim, nondisplaced fracture of the nasal bones and nondisplaced fracture of the maxilla. They stitched my cheek back together, my bottom lip back on, my left ear back on. Basically too many stitches to count. My nose was split open, it looked like it had been filleted in half. My nasal septum was broken. They were not able to stitch my nose back together, since the swelling kept the two halves from touching. They attempted to hold it together with butterfly strips. There was a hole in my chin that went to my lower gums. The surgeon was able to stick his finger from the inside of my lower lip and go completely through to the tip of my chin. Three front teeth were knocked out. The impact broke the pallet they are attached to and it left fragments of the roots inside my gums. I recently had oral surgery to level that out so I can be fitted for a partial plate.
2 weeks later Aug 27
I was attemting to go up a hill. Made it halfway up and chickened out. Had my oldest on the back (big no-no!). So, I am stopped on this hill and panicked...did everything wrong. The ATV rolled back on me and the dash took me out. It hit me then landed on its tires, so just flipped once.
It pretty much just exploded the left side of my face. The dash was torn up and it bent the frame next to the steering shaft. I had insurance and they replaced the frame and I should be getting it back soon.
All of this just magnifies what my g/f has always said...I have a hard head! It never knocked me out. I didn't really care about myself, I was too worried about my boy! He came out of it without a scratch!! The bad thing was my boys seeing me in that condition. Tore them up pretty good.
As far as these things being dangerous...they are as dangerous as WE make them! I made at least 5 mistakes to make this happen. If I was on my bike or in my car at the time and made mistakes like that, I would have had the same or worse happen.
I was on the 500 again 2 weeks after the accident. This time I was riding within my abilities.
Anyway, as you can tell...I haven't had the best year. Hopefully '07 is better!
Take care,
Baldman
p.s. One right thing we did do was carry our cell phones with us.
On Aug 9th we took delivery of a Polaris Sportsman 800 (mine) & a Sportsman 500 (hers) ATV's.
I haven't ridden my bikes much this year with the blown disc and back surgery, has been a bad year. I was bummed pretty bad, so decided to grab the atv's for the family...camp, ride and all of that good stuff. Kind of hard to keep the teen-agers wanting to hang out with Dad anymore.
Before Aug 13 pic
Day of Aug 13 pics
Plastic Surgeon was called in to fix me...took 2 1/2 hours. Didn't get knocked out by the ATV, even had to walk up the hill and ride out of the timber to get to the EMT's.
Multiple facial fractures including: nondisplaced fractures of the inter and outer orbital rim, nondisplaced fracture of the nasal bones and nondisplaced fracture of the maxilla. They stitched my cheek back together, my bottom lip back on, my left ear back on. Basically too many stitches to count. My nose was split open, it looked like it had been filleted in half. My nasal septum was broken. They were not able to stitch my nose back together, since the swelling kept the two halves from touching. They attempted to hold it together with butterfly strips. There was a hole in my chin that went to my lower gums. The surgeon was able to stick his finger from the inside of my lower lip and go completely through to the tip of my chin. Three front teeth were knocked out. The impact broke the pallet they are attached to and it left fragments of the roots inside my gums. I recently had oral surgery to level that out so I can be fitted for a partial plate.
2 weeks later Aug 27
I was attemting to go up a hill. Made it halfway up and chickened out. Had my oldest on the back (big no-no!). So, I am stopped on this hill and panicked...did everything wrong. The ATV rolled back on me and the dash took me out. It hit me then landed on its tires, so just flipped once.
It pretty much just exploded the left side of my face. The dash was torn up and it bent the frame next to the steering shaft. I had insurance and they replaced the frame and I should be getting it back soon.
All of this just magnifies what my g/f has always said...I have a hard head! It never knocked me out. I didn't really care about myself, I was too worried about my boy! He came out of it without a scratch!! The bad thing was my boys seeing me in that condition. Tore them up pretty good.
As far as these things being dangerous...they are as dangerous as WE make them! I made at least 5 mistakes to make this happen. If I was on my bike or in my car at the time and made mistakes like that, I would have had the same or worse happen.
I was on the 500 again 2 weeks after the accident. This time I was riding within my abilities.
Anyway, as you can tell...I haven't had the best year. Hopefully '07 is better!
Take care,
Baldman
p.s. One right thing we did do was carry our cell phones with us.
full face helmet might of prevented this
