Saturday, July 14, 2007
Small Accident
Seems I had a small accident today. My ATV came back from being serviced this morning good as new, and I've already managed to bang it up, lose a fair bit of coolant, and bang my self up a bit in the process.
Some background before I explain further. I have always been a bit of an outdoor enthusiast, having been a Boy Scout for many years and doing various summer trekking trips and such. My parents own a house near Albany with a few dozen acres of land attached to it, along with a fair number of trails. We got a ATV so that we could navigate and explore the trails, clear logs and fallen trees, and most of all keep the trails clear of ferns which grow all over in the spring and summer. The ATV does a rather good job of crushing the ferns to indicate where the trail is. I also rather enjoy driving the ATV through the trails, as it is somewhat exciting.
There is one trail that goes up a fairly steep hill, although the hill isn't steeper than the ATV can usually handle. I've gone up it dozens of times before. There are two different paths up the same hill that go to the same place, and I opted for the one more covered in ferns, so that I could clear them out of the way and make the trail passable on foot.
Half way up the hill, the metal frame that protects the radiator came in contact with a tree stump that had been hidden by the ferns. From looking at this afterward, it seems like it hit with a good deal of force, because the left side of that frame, which is made of fairly strong metal, is rather deformed. The force of the impact launched the front wheels of the ATV up in the air, and the rear wheels, still in contact with the ground, pushed the vehicle to what felt like almost vertical.
At this point, I remember letting go of the handlebars and failing back onto the ground, and then making my best effort to roll down the hill as fast as I could. Once I felt that I was a safe distance from where I had hit, I got up to see the ATV on its side to the right of the tree stump and quickly scrabbled over to hit the kills switch on the engine. My ATV seems to leak fluid when it isn't right side up, so various unknown liquids, probably including gasoline, started leaking out onto the forest floor.
I had a radio with me and I called my dad back at the house. While he and my mom and uncle came out to help me, I rigged up a simple pulley system with some rope and tow straps. Once they arrive, we were able to use the 2:1 reduction and some brute force to right the vehicle and somehow I got it started. I drove it the rest of the way up the hill and back to the house without any more incidents, and inspected the ATV some. The back truck bed which we just had replaced is bent out of alignment again, and the front watertight storage space has a rather large hole where the plastic is missing. The front frame is banged up as I mentioned before, and one of the headlights is slightly misaligned. Other than that, it seems to have survived rather well.
As for me, my only injuries were a bruised hip where I hit the ground on the initial fall, a small
cut under my chin from the helmet strap, and a small sore on my tongue from biting it. I'm still a little bit shaken up, although I have to say that putting it all down in writing has helped calm me down somewhat. The situation was potentially rather dangerous, because if the impact hadn't been to one side, the ATV could have fallen straight back on top of me, which would have been a whole new world of injury. All told I would say that I have been fairly lucky, and I will probably be much more careful about riding through the ferns in the future. This is probably one of the most dangerous experiences I have had in my life, but I guess that isn't really saying much. Well, I'm alright, and I think the only lasting harm may be some lingering fear of going up that hill again... which may not be a bad thing.
Some background before I explain further. I have always been a bit of an outdoor enthusiast, having been a Boy Scout for many years and doing various summer trekking trips and such. My parents own a house near Albany with a few dozen acres of land attached to it, along with a fair number of trails. We got a ATV so that we could navigate and explore the trails, clear logs and fallen trees, and most of all keep the trails clear of ferns which grow all over in the spring and summer. The ATV does a rather good job of crushing the ferns to indicate where the trail is. I also rather enjoy driving the ATV through the trails, as it is somewhat exciting.
There is one trail that goes up a fairly steep hill, although the hill isn't steeper than the ATV can usually handle. I've gone up it dozens of times before. There are two different paths up the same hill that go to the same place, and I opted for the one more covered in ferns, so that I could clear them out of the way and make the trail passable on foot.
Half way up the hill, the metal frame that protects the radiator came in contact with a tree stump that had been hidden by the ferns. From looking at this afterward, it seems like it hit with a good deal of force, because the left side of that frame, which is made of fairly strong metal, is rather deformed. The force of the impact launched the front wheels of the ATV up in the air, and the rear wheels, still in contact with the ground, pushed the vehicle to what felt like almost vertical.
At this point, I remember letting go of the handlebars and failing back onto the ground, and then making my best effort to roll down the hill as fast as I could. Once I felt that I was a safe distance from where I had hit, I got up to see the ATV on its side to the right of the tree stump and quickly scrabbled over to hit the kills switch on the engine. My ATV seems to leak fluid when it isn't right side up, so various unknown liquids, probably including gasoline, started leaking out onto the forest floor.
I had a radio with me and I called my dad back at the house. While he and my mom and uncle came out to help me, I rigged up a simple pulley system with some rope and tow straps. Once they arrive, we were able to use the 2:1 reduction and some brute force to right the vehicle and somehow I got it started. I drove it the rest of the way up the hill and back to the house without any more incidents, and inspected the ATV some. The back truck bed which we just had replaced is bent out of alignment again, and the front watertight storage space has a rather large hole where the plastic is missing. The front frame is banged up as I mentioned before, and one of the headlights is slightly misaligned. Other than that, it seems to have survived rather well.
As for me, my only injuries were a bruised hip where I hit the ground on the initial fall, a small
cut under my chin from the helmet strap, and a small sore on my tongue from biting it. I'm still a little bit shaken up, although I have to say that putting it all down in writing has helped calm me down somewhat. The situation was potentially rather dangerous, because if the impact hadn't been to one side, the ATV could have fallen straight back on top of me, which would have been a whole new world of injury. All told I would say that I have been fairly lucky, and I will probably be much more careful about riding through the ferns in the future. This is probably one of the most dangerous experiences I have had in my life, but I guess that isn't really saying much. Well, I'm alright, and I think the only lasting harm may be some lingering fear of going up that hill again... which may not be a bad thing.
posted by Brad Seiler # 10:15 PM 