On August 2, 2015 at mile marker 2.25 on Interstate 10 West in Louisiana at approximately 3 PM. While heading back from Lafayette I was approaching the DOT weigh station for commercial trucks. Traffic was heavy this hot Sunday afternoon. I changed lanes to be in the left lane away from exiting and returning traffic. The speed limit is 70 mph and according to my GPS tracks, I was traveling at 73 mph with the traffic flow as I passed the weigh station. Both lanes of traffic were full as an 18 wheeler was attempting to re-enter traffic. The run on lane for these trucks is not long enough for them to reach highway speeds before merging.
The truck did not have an opening in the right lane of traffic and the drivers in the lane were not slowing to allow the truck into traffic. Nevertheless, the truck kept accelerating and came into the lane forcing a pickup truck into my lane only a few feet in front of me. Before he could get completely in my lane someone in the right lane ahead of him changed lanes also forcing motorists to break hard to avoid an accident.
These events happened simultaneously so remember I said that he came over only a few feet in front of me. Although I had already throttled back my speed only slowed to 63 mph as I hit the breaks and tried to swerve to the center stripe to avoid hitting the pickup but because he was not fully in the lane, he was straddling the center stripe too. I hit the pickup at the right corner of his bumper, taking the bike down on the left side and ejecting me onto the left lane of traffic at 60+ mph.
As I came off of the bike I expected to die either from the impact or from being run over from behind. I hit the road on my left shoulder and tucked my arms in to roll to lessen the road rash. I rolled over 300 feet according to the track of the Garmin GPS in my estimation before coming to a stop. The bike righted itself after my ejection and continued approximately 450 feet crossing the right lane of traffic behind the 18 wheeler and onto the shoulder striking the guard rail and going down on the right side as seen in the picture.
To my surprise, I was able to get to my feet with the help of motorists who stopped. I was dizzy from all of the rolling but was able to walk across to the bike after a few minutes which was approximately 150 feet further than me. You can see from the picture that trying to get to the left shoulder was not an option because there were s no shoulder,only about 18 inches separating the lane from the concrete divider. The picture below shows some of the damage to the bike. It was a total loss. The front wheel would not roll until the fender was removed and the chrome guard bent away from the tire.
Despite the 100 degree temp, I had on all of the riding gear which limited my exposure and injuries. I was able to walk away from this with only scraped knees, elbow and a slightly sprained ankle. A CT scan and X-rays confirmed that I did not have any broken bones or internal injuries. God is good and thankfully I was alone on this ride. Bikes can be replaced, Billie can't!
