Eyewitnes account

Every day you read stories in the news. Little blurbs about people you don't know and make assumptions based on the words you read. It's quickly read and usually quickly forgotten.

Like this little story on my KSL newspage. It's pretty short. No names are listed. Just a man in serious condition after a motorcycle crash. Except I can't stop thinking about it today because I was there.

Carly, Jacob and I were also traveling south on I-15 at 7:30 this morning. Carly was driving. Her 3rd go at freeway driving. She's trying to rack up her 40 hours of driving needed to get her drivers license. She needs a total of 30 daytime driving hours and 10 night-time driving hours. We're at 2 1/2 night and after today, 23 daytime hours.

We were driving to Cove Fort to meet my brother, who would be there to pick up Jacob, who will be spending a few days in Southern Utah with his Aunt and Uncle and cousins.

Traffic was light. I noticed the motorcycle as it passed us because he was the quintessential biker. He had the bandana donned head in lieu of a helmet, the rough-hewn face, leather jacket, serious bike, loaded up with tricked out saddlebags. He looked like he'd been doing this for years. We were in the middle lane of traffic. He passed us and was in the far right lane. About 50 feet in front of us, I suddenly saw him veer across all the lanes of traffic and just as I registered he was going fast and at a weird angle, he smashed into the concrete barrier. It looked like an explosion. It didn't seem real. We all gasped.

I was proud of Carly. She held it together really well. The car in front of us hit the brakes and she did too. I only had to remind her he was not just slowing but really stopping so make sure she was braking enough to keep safe. Another truck behind us stopped as well. I saw the drivers of those cars getting out to check on the biker so I felt safe to have Carly get out of traffic and I coached her into pulling over to the right shoulder as soon as it was clear. We called 911 and were put through to the HWY patrol. I didn't realize how shaken up I was until I heard how my voice wobbled as I gave my report to the dispatcher. My hand holding the phone was shaking too. They took my information and said I could leave. They would contact me if they needed me as a witness.

I felt a little guilty for not getting out of the car but I knew others were helping and honestly, I was a little afraid of what I'd see. I knew I didn't want my kids to see anything horrific either. Mark was in a multi-car accident a couple of years ago where there was a fatality. He went to check on the woman in the car who died and said it was something he has a hard time getting out of his head.

It was a relief to get my children out of there and back on the road. We couldn't see a body on the road and saw the other drivers who were out leaning over the barrier so we figured the biker had flipped over the barrier. We prayed for him, grateful we could do some small thing. We were very grateful we had not been hit by any of the metal debris from the bike. It was really amazing that no other cars were damaged at all and that he was not hit on the northbound side of the freeway.

I was glad to come home and read in the article that he had not been killed although I know he must be hurt very badly after what I saw. I still don't know his name but he'll be in my prayers tonight. I will not quickly forget this story.