DW-1
Dirt Works
for those that didn't know; last week Dirt Works co-founder Richard Powell was hit by a car on the M4 motorway in Sydney while on the way to work.
What happened?
He was on the M4 and was coming around a car stopped in the breakdown lane. Had signalled his intention and came out – he had room to do it.
The edge of the breakdown lane/first traffic lane had a bump/transition – that he was aware of. For whatever reason, Richard got kicked a bit out further than planned. He corrected back towards the breakdown lane & things went wrong. The first car swung wide & passed without problem. The second guy was not paying attention & struck Richard full on. (somewhere between 80-100kph)
Seriously?
He's pretty broken. Here’s the list of bones
Tibula & Fibula (lower leg bones) – right side– with the bones sticking out it requires surgery.
Scapula (shoulder blade) – left side
Clavicle (collar bone) – left side
Ribs x 8 – rear left
Associated skin grazes plus he’ll be bruised black & blue.
He was conscious and lucid the whole time. Told me that after the collision, he felt “OK” – that’s adrenalin for you, what a drug! Thought was to get off the road into the break down lane – and it was when he thought about getting up that he realised that the right leg didn’t work any more.
Also told me that while he was waiting in hospital he knew the shoulder blade was broken – because he could hear/feel it squeak.
He’s enjoying the drug induced comfort. Coughing involves a complex process of preparation to minimise the pain – which doesn’t appear to minimise the pain from what I observed.
Monday UPDATE:
His leg is held together with a funky arrangement of scaffold. 10 year old kids with Mechano sets would just love the little bolts & clamps that it goes together with.
Wounds look good – no sign of infection, which is good considering that Hospitals are full of sick people.
He’s due into surgery today at some time: to put the leg bones back together, and to do the same to the collar bone. Richard was saying that the surgeon is a cyclist – that’s a good thing. If everything is good following the surgery, he could leave hospital in about 3 or 4 days.
Point to note: he can’t use crutches because of the collar bone. So he’ll be chair bound for the short term, or hopping on one leg.
Overall, he’s in good shape for the level of injury. Feels pretty good overall. He has some killer bruises – like all of one side of chest & back, and his butt is black as (no, I didn’t look: he showed me a discreet photo taken by his fiancie).
One strange thing that I observed is that Richard was going to turn down some pain relief. I told him that you might feel OK now – but later on you might just want that.
You want to know how the bike is right?
Totalled. Salsa La Raza with Chorus. 100% write off. (ok maybe the Salsa seatclamp can be saved...)
(the pics below shoe the leg shortly after the accident with bones protruding and the leg currently with metalwork)
Elvis
What happened?
He was on the M4 and was coming around a car stopped in the breakdown lane. Had signalled his intention and came out – he had room to do it.
The edge of the breakdown lane/first traffic lane had a bump/transition – that he was aware of. For whatever reason, Richard got kicked a bit out further than planned. He corrected back towards the breakdown lane & things went wrong. The first car swung wide & passed without problem. The second guy was not paying attention & struck Richard full on. (somewhere between 80-100kph)
Seriously?
He's pretty broken. Here’s the list of bones
Tibula & Fibula (lower leg bones) – right side– with the bones sticking out it requires surgery.
Scapula (shoulder blade) – left side
Clavicle (collar bone) – left side
Ribs x 8 – rear left
Associated skin grazes plus he’ll be bruised black & blue.
He was conscious and lucid the whole time. Told me that after the collision, he felt “OK” – that’s adrenalin for you, what a drug! Thought was to get off the road into the break down lane – and it was when he thought about getting up that he realised that the right leg didn’t work any more.
Also told me that while he was waiting in hospital he knew the shoulder blade was broken – because he could hear/feel it squeak.
He’s enjoying the drug induced comfort. Coughing involves a complex process of preparation to minimise the pain – which doesn’t appear to minimise the pain from what I observed.
Monday UPDATE:
His leg is held together with a funky arrangement of scaffold. 10 year old kids with Mechano sets would just love the little bolts & clamps that it goes together with.
Wounds look good – no sign of infection, which is good considering that Hospitals are full of sick people.
He’s due into surgery today at some time: to put the leg bones back together, and to do the same to the collar bone. Richard was saying that the surgeon is a cyclist – that’s a good thing. If everything is good following the surgery, he could leave hospital in about 3 or 4 days.
Point to note: he can’t use crutches because of the collar bone. So he’ll be chair bound for the short term, or hopping on one leg.
Overall, he’s in good shape for the level of injury. Feels pretty good overall. He has some killer bruises – like all of one side of chest & back, and his butt is black as (no, I didn’t look: he showed me a discreet photo taken by his fiancie).
One strange thing that I observed is that Richard was going to turn down some pain relief. I told him that you might feel OK now – but later on you might just want that.
You want to know how the bike is right?
Totalled. Salsa La Raza with Chorus. 100% write off. (ok maybe the Salsa seatclamp can be saved...)
(the pics below shoe the leg shortly after the accident with bones protruding and the leg currently with metalwork)
Elvis
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