I came upon a small accident....

[Nosmo]

It was too good a day to waste looking for work.  You have to set priorities.

I went to the post office on the Wee-Strom, and when leaving, I turned left instead of right, and ended up going out around Snoqualmie falls, Duvall, North Bend and up the Carnation Valley.  I love riding through the horse and farm country.

I came upon a motorcycle accident.  This was only about 5 miles from North Bend.  Two 20-somethings on SV-650's.  One of them had low-sided, skidded off the road on a sharp left-hand curve, and chewed up his left knee because he was just wearing jeans and tennis shoes.  His bike was pretty messed up but fixable.  They had their smart phones and already called for their buddies to come get them.  The injured kid's knee was pretty bad, I could see his kneecap bone where the skin had torn through.  Another guy in a car had stoppped and gave him some paper towels to help sop up the blood, I loaned him my knife to cut away his pants leg, and donated my big handkerchief, and my bottled water to help wash off the dirt and crud and bandage him up.  They had help coming and seemed OK other than that, so I left.  These were "good kids", very polite and thankful for the help, not "bad-ass" wannabe's.  Lots of "Thank you, sir" and "Man that was stupid", etc. 

But they had NOTHING with them other than the phones.  Granted that gave them the ability to call for help, but for emergencies, you really need to carry stuff other than just a smart phone.

[maxtog]

But they had NOTHING with them other than the phones.  Granted that gave them the ability to call for help, but for emergencies, you really need to carry stuff other than just a smart phone.

It isn't "cool" to have stuff with you.... or wear stuff either.  Seems the less, the better; I guess I am very uncool.  Oh well.

But other than gear, I don't usually have much that would help either- perhaps water, hand towel, some meds (allergies and such)...  I think I might have a few small BandAids, phone of course.  But I rarely venture all that far.

I wear ATGATT, but my weak spot is pants.... I have never located anything better than just jeans, since nothing fits.   In cool weather, I add leather chaps (talk about "uncool" on a sporty bike).  So the description on the knee, above, kinda gets me squeamish.

[Conniesaki]

Well, when I was 18 - 20 I went places with the bare minimum all the time too. Most of us grow up from that level. Hopefully this was an eye opener for them. Good of you to help them. Glad they were courteous and respectful.

Edit: Just think if they had been in a no cell service area.

[Classvino]

I have a small slingpack with first aid stuff that I carry in my pannier....

Habit leftover from a company that I used to work for that had a policy of having one in any car being used for company business...  We we're required (by policy) to stop and offer help if we were the first on an accident scene.  Fortunately I never needed to do any serious first aid.

A friend I have in the St. Johns service put it together for me, and it has supplies to cover anything up to simple fractures and such. With any luck, I'll continue to only use it for scrapes and bruises...

Jamie