I found out yesterday that a co-worker had a a brush with nature. On Sunday morning on his way home after eating breakfast 9:30-10:00 a.m. Jim was riding his HD home and about 1/2 mile from his house doing about 40-45 mph. Jim passed a guy who was walking and then about 200 yards farther down the road he said that he saw a BEAR halfway thru the left lane he saw that he wasn't going to hit the bear but he realized that the bear was going to hit him. Jim tried to lift his leg out of the way but the bear was running full speed across the road and smashed Jims ankle into his gas tank. Jim said that the pain was immediate and that the bike was swerving, he didn't go down. He said that a truck turned left onto the road ahead of him and that he was trying to stop. Jim said he watched the truck in his mirror and it didnt see what happened and it just kept going. He stopped about 200 yards and had to put the sidestand down with his hand and then rolled off his bike and onto the road. He said that while he was laying in the road he started thinking that as soon as his head cleared that he would find a stick and try and walk to the house. He said that after a min or 2 the truck came back down the road towards him. Well after Jim passed the guy walking and had the collision the guy who was walking had seen the whole thing and flagged down the truck. The guy told Jim that he saw the whole thing and that the Bear had been dazed and was laying in the middle of the road for a couple of mins. so he didn't want to try to get to Jim with a dazed Bear between them. He flagged the truck down and climbed in the back of the truck and he had already called 911. The first responder got to the scene and it was a fellow Firefighter that I used to have the pleasure of working with, George. Jim asked George to go check out his bike and George said that it was only slightly damaged and that the shifter was bent the gas tank had a nice dent in it and that the license plate holder (that Jim made out of steel) was bent an had a chunk of hair in it. Jim said he would email me some picture when he could. Well the bear finally got up and ran back where it came from and George rode the bike home for Jim and jim has a broken ankle and will be out of work for a little while. Jim is a Lineman with Progress Energy here in the Florida panhandle.
