You can click the following link to enhance the reading of this article: Reading Blinds.

A little off topic but I’m filling in here for Phil. Here is his story.

My husbands name is Phil Ingram and he’s a 32 year old Murrieta, Ca boy. He and I both love riding period, whether racing or free riding with the kids (3 of them). This is his telecom blog that he’s away from for a while. Here’s why…

On Dec 9th, 2007 he was with his buddies doing a desert ride on his recently purchased 05′ RMZ 450. He’s probably done this ride 50+ times. It was in Yucca Valley, Ca. I have family and friends out there and it’s very close to Johnson Valley OHV area.

Ok, here we go…

He went out in the afternoon and had a fantastic ride heading in the direction of Big Bear (desert to forest scenery) and back. He told me he was loving the colder weather and felt completely right-on with his riding skills on this particular day.

My husband and his buddies hit up a local bar you can actually ride up to in a place called Pioneer Town, which wasn’t too far away from Pappas (my Dad’s) house. It’s nice because it’s an old western movie set turned into a small ranch town with all the old props left intact. After their refreshments they packed up and decided to head back because the sun was going down. They had about an hour of sunlight left.

On their way back and a few miles from my father’s home they have to cross a two lane highway called Old Woman Springs Rd which is the major highway in that area. It was around 5pm and almost dark…just enough time and low light to make it back. (They were riding MX bikes with no lights) They stopped at the mouth of the wash (Pipes Canyon) facing the highway and watched all the cars go by. My husband then proceeded to cross the highway not aware of a van with no headlights on coming right at him. He saw something out of the darkness and tried to evade it. He’s told me his thoughts over and over…”What could I do…low gear, high torque…don’t flip etc.” all went through his mind…he knew he was going to be hit no matter what. The car was going at least 60 MPH and was literally about half a second from hitting him.

He didn’t want to throttle himself onto the ground and be completely ran over by the vehicle and it was too late to try breaking. He was facing a tough half second decision to say the least and he knew no matter what he was either going to die or really be hurt, maybe never even ride again. It’s amazing how many things go through your mind in a half-second. My husband had to make a choice regardless and hopefully the choice that would keep him alive.

He slid the rear end of the bike towards the impact and throttled in a diagonal direction away from the vehicle hoping to maybe choke up some of the impact. The bike’s sub-frame took the hit and rebounded from the suspension towards the edge of the road. The right-front side of the Van was completely damaged (which shows he had almost made it across the highway and avoided the hit since the vehicle was coming from his right). However, ‘ALMOST’ isn’t good enough.

He was thrown down the top/right side of the van, smashing the front fender and tearing off the right view mirror and somehow landing back on top of his bike while the rear wheal spun out of control and the bike full throttled. He was knocked unconscious but thankfully still alive!

The van stopped about a hundred yards down the hwy. His brother Ben Ingram and his buddy Brian Turner threw their bikes and ran towards him immediately. They said he was making a snoring sound and his helmet had been pushed up over his chin. His buddy Brian, after making sure he was going to be ok, attempted to approach the vehicle that had stopped. The vehicle started to leave and Brian tried kicking his bike over but it wouldn’t start. The guy in the van fled the scene. He probably doesn’t even know if he killed someone, how crazy is that??? How can you live with that???

The Highway Patrol and Emergency Services arrived shortly thereafter, cut off all his gear (even the unnecessary stuff) and put him on a rudimentary neck and back support. His leg had taken some of the impact and his right tib and fib we’re protruding from his leg just above his ankle. His face was lacerated in many places, mostly from his goggles scraping on the pavement and was swollen like he had elephantiasis (Brian’s exact wording). =)

He was taken to Palm Springs Regional where he was in the ER all night. The on-call Orthopedic Trauma Surgeon noticed something the ER Tech didn’t; My husband was leaking bone marrow. The Orthopedic Surgeon requested a CT scan immediately and also found that my husband had 3 broken ribs and had major liver damage from the impact. The Trauma Nurse explained to me that this was serious and my husband could bleed to death. Liver damage is the leading injury in vehicular accidents that lead to death if not discovered and treated quickly. The Trauma Nurse explained the damage as if picturing an orange smashed with a hammer. All of my husband’s liver internals had been smashed but thank God the outer lining that was lacerated was not deep enough to cause him to bleed out.

The next morning he was transferred to a room after having surgery on his foot and face. He looked much better now being stitched up and not bleeding out. He was going to survive!!!

They kept him in the hospital for a week and scanned him 2 additional times just to make sure his liver was ok. Upon release my husband was able to walk using a walker.

Our Christmas was very low budget since my husband could not work and being self-employed we had no means of revenue; however it was the most memorable because we were able to be happy for what we still had. My family is myself, my husband and our 3 kids Lindi, Amber and Brandon. We didn’t loose a father or a husband. It was the best Christmas ever!!!

My husband is now walking with a support boot. He has a rod which goes from his ankle to his knee, a plate in his ankle to mid-calf, 6 screws, 2 ankle pins and 2 knee pins. His liver is healing and he’s healthy. He’s already started pulling apart the bike.

The bike took some major damage and it’s going to take some money to fix. Bike damage is as follows:

Rear fender smashed, Ti4 exhaust system smashed, sub-frame snapped and bent, air box crushed, seat twisted, side panels are a few thousand pieces, front upper triple clamp scraped badly, handle bar mounts twisted, handle bars twisted, front break reservoir grinded down, front break lever M.I.A., possibly swing arm bent but my husband thinks it looks ok. All together probably about $2500 worth in parts.

All in all, he thinks he can slowly repair it. It’s what keeps him happy for now since he can’t ride for about 6 months and the Dr. won’t even think of taking out the new leg hardware until 2 years have passed.

To date, the driver has never been caught. We assume he fled because he was either illegal, drunk, uninsured, or a mix of the above. The local paper wrote the story as if my husband (the bad dirt biker people) was the one at fault if you can believe that.

If anyone is touched by this story and comes across any good deals on used 05-07 RMZ 450 parts or wants to help out in any way, please let me know, as we are on a tight budget for a while.

email is philzbaby at hotmail dot com

The hospital bill alone was $127k, thank God for insurance but we still have a pretty high deductible we’ll be paying on for years. Getting his bike running and recovering enough to ride again is my husbands passion. Not looking or expecting anything but any help is appreciated. Thanks for letting us share our story!!!

-Philzbaby (Wendy)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed! You can also subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox. When you feel bored, follow me on Twitter.