Hazards Are All Around Us Every Moment Of Every Day-Stay Focused
For those who haven't seen previous posting, senior editor Trevitt was involved in an accident involving a car that caused him to suffer very serious injuries. Thankfully, he is making rapid progress in his recovery, but he still faces a long and arduous rehabilitation. Corporate legal paranoia prevents me from discussing the details of the accident or his injuries at this time, and to tell you the truth, they're not really important right now.
What is important is how his accident demonstrates the dangers that are always around us the moment we roll down the street in the morning. Trevitt is obviously a highly skilled rider, and his riding acumen on the street has always been exemplary. In fact, this accident was his first one on the street in 10 years on the Sport Rider staff. Considering the tens of thousands of miles that we run up riding various test bikes every year (with much of that riding in urban environs, where the exposure to unforeseen hazards is even higher) makes that driving record even more impressive. One fellow motojournalist mentioned to me that during the street ride portion of new model launches, he always tagged along with Trevitt, because it always made him feel safe.
And yet that skill and discretion was unable to prevent the actions of another motorist from causing an accident in this case. I'm not trying to be a doomsayer or pessimist about our sport here. But to not acknowledge the risk that is always out there and try to learn from it is putting ourselves in even more danger.
There are too many unexpected perils awaiting us out there to let your guard down for even a second. And the fact that so much of them are unpredictable means that we need to possess and utilize foresight whenever we can. That includes recognizing potential situations and either avoiding them or mitigating them as much as possible. It means looking for possible escape routes when approaching those potential situations, just in case the scenario does go bad. It means practicing hard braking and avoidance techniques (such as looking past the hazard at your escape route so that you don't target fixate on the hazard).
Trevitt wrote in his Full Pin column a few years ago about how several accidents suffered by the SR staff in the span of a few months served as a reality check to the dangers we all face on a daily basis. He also mentioned how it made him more cognizant of hazardous situations and avoiding them, and how while it might take some of the fun out of riding, that the end result would be worth it.
Needless to say, his accident has served as a wake-up call to us. I just wish it didn't have to be an accident that did it.
Since it appears that there might be some presumptive misconceptions with a few people regarding one circumstance surrounding Trevitt's accident, I guess that needs to be cleared up. The accident occurred on a canyon road while we were in the midst of conducting the street portion of a tire comparison test. Apparently some presume our regimen of "testing tires" on the street to be running at race speeds, dragging knees and scraping pegs with a devil-may-care attitude to the risks involved. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Our primary reasons for testing sport tires that are meant for street use on the street are to evaluate the handling and ride quality over pavement conditions that such tires would actually see (yes, traction is part of that evaluation, but because nearly all tires provide good grip at reasonable street speeds, it is centered on performance over rough pavement). While racetracks are a good measure of a tire's ultimate performance at the limit, you won't (and shouldn't) be achieving that performance level on the street-and neither was Trevitt. Even more important is that racetracks don't have the sharp bumps, dirt, and wild variations in pavement that public roads do; if they did, they wouldn't last very long, because no one would want to ride on that circuit.
Many who learned of Trevitt's accident have asked what they can do to help. "Getwelltrev" is a tax-deductible/non-profit fund created to assist the Trevitt family with the inevitable costs they will encounter during his lengthy rehabilitation. Those who wish to make a contribution can make checks out to getwelltrev, and send them to:
Getwelltrev
c/o Andrew Trevitt
6420 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90048