Ouch, this guy was lucky

TUESDAY JULY 21, 2009 Last modified: Friday, July 10, 2009 1:20 PM CDT. A motorcyclist was lucky to avoid serious injury from an accident in which he was rear-ended by an automobile on South Main Street in Jefferson Thursday. (JOHN HART/Daily Times)
Motorcyclist survives rough rear-end crash
By Steve Sharp of the Daily Times staff
JEFFERSON - Jefferson police today marveled at the luck of a Fort Atkinson motorcyclist who not only survived, but walked away from, a rough rear-end collision at 4:37 p.m. Thursday in downtown Jefferson.

According to Jefferson Police Department Lt. Dale Lutz, Gary A. Amaral, 35, of Fort Atkinson, was northbound in the 200 block of S. Main St., near the BP gas station, when a pickup truck operated by Fredeslindo Garcia-Ornelas, 37, of Jefferson, immediately in front of him, stopped for traffic. With both vehicles at a standstill, a third vehicle, operated by Amy S. Neitzel, 21, of Ixonia, plowed into the rear of the Amaral cycle, pitching Amaral into the bed of Garcia-Ornelas' truck.
“The guy is lucky,” Lutz said of Amaral, adding that if the same contact would have taken place farther out in the county, where posted speeds are higher, law enforcement would likely have been handling Amaral's fatality.

Lutz said that, after interviewing Neitzel, it was determined she may have been attempting to avoid being hit by another car she said was approaching her from Dodge Street when she accelerated into Amaral's cycle.

“We're not sure what she was trying to do, because she was so shook up after the accident,” Lutz said, noting Neitzel was cited for inattentive driving. “We asked her about texting and phoning and she said when she got to the intersection (with Dodge Street) she thought another vehicle was not going to stop and that's when she hit the cycle.”

Amaral was cited for operating after revocation and the Jefferson EMS transported him to an unlisted area hospital for further treatment after he complained of neck and back pain.

“(Amaral) actually walked over to a bench on the sidewalk after the crash and sat down,” Lutz said. “When I arrived I thought we had a fatality on our hands, but it turned out all right. He was very lucky.”

I wonder if that is the female driver in the article (look beneath the red car)?

RonKZ650 wrote:

...“We asked her about texting and phoning and she said when she got to the intersection (with Dodge Street) she thought another vehicle was not going to stop and that's when she hit the cycle.”

Her unresponsive answer.

Not a lot you can do about a "rear ender"-- excuse the phrase:)
Had one in a car once, all you can do is look in the mirror and wait for it to happen. You just know you are going to get hit but nothing you can do about it.

I call bullshit on her.
So her method of avoiding being rearended is to run over a MC?? Either it's BS or she consciously decided to hit the biker. Inexcusable! So that would be grounds to run over a pedestrian at a cross walk? 'I thought I was gonna be rearended."

Yowsers!

I live just south of Jefferson in Edgerton Wisconsin. There have been a few times while riding through Jefferson that this sort of thing could happen. A four lane highway necks down to a two lane highway through an old downtown section with retail stores.....and a few traffic lights. Real slow going.

Must have been Honda's hi-tech seat ejection system that saved the guy!

in nine months there will be happy little brood of crying aoutmo-cycles running around..........

And he still got a ticket for driving on revocation. Man, the law will always fuck you when they can, even after a car fucks you from behind. hahaha.


Lucky guy though...very lucky.

Scary stuff. Got rear ended last year by some bozo on a cell phone. I was thankful I didn't interrupt his conversation. He was still talking when I asked him to back off my bike.

You can almost always "avoid" being rear-ended by leaving enough space to escape over a curb, and use what is called mirror braking. You determine the amount of space available, stop with space to escape, while looking just over your mirror and paying attention to both directions.

I was taught by an awasome racer, its tricky at first but it can save your butt!

Hope no-one has to experience this again...

read that method in a cycle world article 20 yrs ago and the same week it saved me praticing it....orange v.w not stopping i pulled into the bike lane and she stopped right where i was two seconds earlier...always watch the mirror....

TeK9iNe wrote:

You can almost always "avoid" being rear-ended by leaving enough space to escape over a curb, and use what is called mirror braking. You determine the amount of space available, stop with space to escape, while looking just over your mirror and paying attention to both directions.

I was taught by an awasome racer, its tricky at first but it can save your butt!

Hope no-one has to experience this again...