I went to the valley to see a friend. Chatted for a few hours and saw some other friends whilst I was there. Had the best ride down the mountain to get there that I've had so far. All so positive
Sadly, on the way back, in a bit of road that has been narrowed by a junction due to road works, there'd been a serious accident. Motorbike,huge thing with luggage, so some kind of tourer, couldn't see much as - it was narrow, rider and pillion down, camper blocking one side of the narrowed road and people directing traffic. And, bike was the other side of the concrete barriers separating the road and roadworks section (from the position, very unlikely it had been dragged there by the people who stopped)
Not sure why, but there were a couple of cars stopped to the side as well as the camper, so Im guessing there was a car/bike interaction
I'm still struggling a bit. Daft really as I've dealt with enough death and injury in First Responders and (less) TT Marshalling. But, it's the first time I've seen the effects of a bike crash in over 5 years (probably more to be fair if you don't count track stuff). The bit I couldn't deal with is that the pillion was lying on her side at the side of the road, by the concrete barrier, helmet off and she looked to be asleep. I'm pretty sure she wasn't as she wasn't in the recovery position and no one was anywhere near her, or the rider (didn't see the rider as much, but he wasn't in a recovery position, more as if he was lying where he fell). That was the most disturbing bit I think
Anytime I've seen an accident out here, the French are very full on with first aid - aid in general. But in this case, the traffic was being managed - pompiers and gendarmes hadn't arrived as I went through the site - and people were 'near' the rider and pillion, but no one was 'with' them
I had to pull over into a layby just past the junction as I couldn't see properly for a few minutes. Whilst there, I realised that the actual junction site wasn't easily visible from further back and if no vehicle had been through and so flashed on coming traffic to warn them, they were coming in a bit quick, so until the pompiers arrived from the direction I'd come from, I sat in the layby so as to be able to get up and wave to slow down oncoming traffic (only one seemed to ignore me and gave me a 'signal' that he didn't understand, but at least he didn't hit the back of the traffic queue)
Took me a bit of time to sort my head out; yes I'm still sad, but have stopped having dusty eyes. Luckily I was delivering a pasty to a friend 10 mins down from me, so I was able to go chat with him for a bit.
But, so sad on such a beautiful day to be out
Apparently it was awesome, so who cares about the translation!!
