the Accident (part 1 of 3)

August 25 began like any other day. I went to the office, had a meeting at a cafe, but before I could get back to the office, tragedy struck. Literally.  I had just pulled out from the cafe on my motorcycle when, seconds later, I collided with a car.

We drive on the opposite side of the road here and the road I was on has 3 lanes in each direction. The far left lane usually has parked vehicles/slower traffic, and the far right lane is the fast lane.  I was headed into the far right lane in order to make a U-turn to head back to the office.  I had turned my signal on and checked traffic before pulling out. I had seen the car in the fast lane, but I figured I didn't have far to go to get to the U-turn and had plenty of time to get over before the car passed.  It was going way faster than I realized as just as I was getting into the far right lane (the fast/U-turn lane), the car and I collided.

I did not lose consciousness, but everything happened so fast I'm not entirely sure what exactly happened.  I'm not sure if the car's left side mirror hit me or my bike or my bike's right side mirror, but I was coming in at a slight angle while it was headed straight.  I think the impact sent my body up as when I landed (on my right side/back/backpack) I only rolled over myself a few times instead of sliding and rolling a lot.  I stopped on my stomach and attempted to push myself up in order to evaluate my injuries.  I immediately collapsed again as my right arm/shoulder was in incredible pain (we're talking at least a 9 on the pain scale).

I was sort of able to flip myself over onto my back/backpack, but was in so much pain.  Almost immediately I was surrounded by Thai people who work/were at the shops along the road.  I heard on say "call ambulance" and others kept asking how I was.  Seconds later the person I had just had the meeting with was standing over me, pushing some of the people back, calling other foreigners from the cafe to help, and attempting to call our Thai office staff.  It was a hot day and 2 umbrellas appeared over me out of no where.  Apparently one Thai guy whipped a reflective vest out of his backpack to start directing traffic around me and staff at another place further up were waving red flags to help slow traffic down.

Within minutes (which is amazing for Thailand) the police and an ambulance were on the scene.  My backpack strap was cut, my helmet removed, my head secured and my body loaded onto a stretcher and into the ambulance.  The friend I had met jumped into the ambulance and told them to take me to Bangkok Hospital (which is still in Chiang Mai).  It was a painful ride to the hospital, but I made it and was shortly joined by a retired doctor who works with our foundation as a medical consultant and his wife.