Where'd who go?

Behold the car into the tree.  Behold the car full of teenaged girls saying something about a motorcycle.  Alas we found the bike.  Where'd the rider go?

THE EMERGENCY

Units are responding to a reported major MVA, entrapment, car vs tree.

THE ACTION

And as usual, the tree won.  But this isn't a straight forward tale of a car accident, extrication and treatment.  No, no my friends, you all know this forum is about the unusual, so follow along as we piece together what happened.

Tonight the girls are out to have a good time, cruising towards the club district, jamming the tunes as the kids say, when they enter an intersection at a decent speed.

Something impacts the car causing it to veer onto the sidewalk and come to rest, rather violently, around a tree 40 yards down the road.

The responding engine approaches from the side the car was going to, not coming from and has radioed for assistance while they begin assessment.

Me and my ride are coming from the other direction, the same as the girls were traveling.  Not one to get tunnel vision I always make it a point to scan the road before an accident for skid marks, body parts, you name it, and that is how I spotted the motorcycle.

We stopped for a brief moment and looked for a rider to accompany the bike since there was a trail of fluid from the intersection to the bike it had not simply been knocked over.  I see no one and the buildings are so close to the street that had he hit one, we'd see him.

So we choose to approach slowly, looking with the spotlights for the mysterious rider, but have no luck so make contact with the crews at the car.  It is here where we hear multiple stories from the emotional passengers about the man on the hood of the car.

Hoping I had not missed something so obvious I take a quick peek and, thankfully, no one there.  But my brain starts to process the distance from the intersection and the likely speed of the car into the tree and it occurs to me.

He was ejected from the hood.

Sure enough, 30 yards back the way the engine had come, partially wrapped around a sign post is our bike rider, helmet now off, relaxing up on one arm.

"I was wondering if you guys saw me, I'm pretty sure me leg is busted." he tells me as if mentioning my shoe was untied.

He had some significant trauma and we took full precautions, even so far as removing his now almost useless re-enforced riding jacket in one piece, per his request.

We landed the helicopter a few blocks down and got him out fast.

I found out later from the nurse who took him in that he was hit by the car and felt a searing pain in his leg, then found himself trapped on the hood of the car as the girls began to scream and the driver lost control.  Had he been even 1 foot in either direction he would have been pinned against the tree or ejected and likely run over.

In the end he was lucky to have been hit the way he had.  But it still makes me smile when I think about the police officer/EMT holding the collar who, when asked where the man on the hood went, responded,

"Where'd WHO go?"