Seen a scooter do EVERYTHING wrong

[wfooshee]

I was coming up on a lil' red scooter this afternoon, and I saw his rear tire was visibly low. Rider and passenger, not kids, later took them to be 30-somethings. I intended to pull up to him at the light coming up and mention it, but the light went green as we got there. We were both making the left. The road falls away during the turn, because the intersection is in the middle of a curve, so that road has an off-camber profile as you make the left.

I think he was showin' off just a bit, having seen the Big Bike come up behind him, and the camber sent him to the outside stripe. He scraped the centerstand, picked it up, and went into the grass. There's almost no shoulder, just a slope and then a ditch, and I willed him not to try to - - - Oh, hell, he tried to turn back left onto the pavement. Front wheel said, "Nope! Don't think so!" and they dumped onto the road. He was in shorts and t-shirt, had a bad scrape on his knee and a worse one on his arm. The arm look like he hit a rock, as it had a puncture site more than just a scrape. His lady wasn't scraped anywhere, but one shoe came off, and her left pinkie didn't point the right way. She barely touched her face to the ground, had a scratch on her chin and one on her nose. I mean barely! She had long jeans on, and I told her later to expect to find burn marks on her leg and hip when she took them off.

I stopped behind them, set the flashers and checked on them. When I saw the injuries, I asked if they wanted 911 or if they wanted to call a friend to take them in, because I wasn't lettin' 'em just go home. They both said 911. It had been about a minute by this time, and the initial lack of pain from the scrapes was starting to subside, and he was hurting. He had some towels in the top case of the scooter and fashioned some bandages for his scrapes.

Turns out maybe calling some buddies might have been a better call. The scoot was fine, just had grass in some plastic seams, not even scraped. He didn't have a motorcycle endorsement and the scoot was over 49cc, so he got a misdemeanor citation for that. Also, no helmets, and no insurance, either. Florida's no-helmet allowance requires personal injury insurance. Ka-ching again.

Another lesson. Yeah, it's just a little 80 or 150, whatever it was. Don't mean you don't need some skillz to get around on it. Also don't mean there ain't rules you gotta live by.

 

[FJR-RemingtonRider]

Props for rendering aid to them....

I know it was hard to watch something like that happen, especially when you had the mind to give them some warning.

Hopefully lessons learned will prevent them from going down the wrong path concerning motorcycling.

"No free rides"

 

[nofreeride]

"No free rides"

I resemble that remark.

wfooshee, good job for coming to their aid.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Ka-ching again.

No helmets, no endorsement, and no insurance? And a poorly maintained scoot? Not to sound overly harsh, but if ya ask me, the guy got off lucky this time. If anything, you did him a favor by calling 911 instead of his friends.

I find it hard to be sympathetic to people who aren't willing to do the basics (and aren't seriously injured).

As the saying goes, "Stupid Hurts."

And good on ya for helping them out. That's good karma, right there.

 

[lonesoldier84]

I never understand the "it's only 50cc" mentality.

You can die if you are standing in your kitchen and fall and hit your head wrong. Add 60kph to that and that's just retarded. Wear a helmet.

 

[mr.paul]

Isn't it funny how people blow-off safety because it is "only a scooter"? But then again, so many people just don't respect physics.

Recently in this state, a 60-year-old died in a church parking lot. He was riding a scooter, and with no safety gear whatsoever, lost control and died of a head injury. Again, on a scooter, in a small church parkinig lot.

ride safe out there! so you can ride again.

mr.paul, from Minnesota