A Lovely Day for a Motorcycle ...Wreck?

The weather was clear and the temperature was warm. A beautiful day in the canyon, a beautiful day for a motorcycle ride. It appeared a lot of people had the same idea. I counted cars to motorcycles as we sped up the winding canyon to the call for help. There were easily four motorcycles for every car or pick-up truck on the road. Some riders with all their leather on, some with helmets, some with shorts a T-shirt and no helmet. I wondered what we would find when we arrived on scene. The call came in as a motorcycle wreck with injuries but that was all dispatch could get out of the caller. The approximate location was twelve miles from the mouth of the canyon and would take us about ten minutes to reach the scene due to the winding road and traffic.
As we rounded the corner we found a small crowd of people gathered on the side of the road. There were three motorcycles parked in the gravel and one bike on it's side with a man laying on the ground. We parked the engine on the same side of the road facing traffic and positioned to provide us some protection, just in case someone comes around the corner too fast and looses control. I verified with dispatch that law enforcement is enoute and let them know we would need traffic control. We grabbed our medical bags and rushed to the patient as my driver finished securing the engine and set out traffic cones. As we approached the patient we could see he was alert and talking to the other riders gathered around him. We began a rapid trauma assessment and found the patient was extremely tender on the left side of his pelvis. He denied head, neck or back pain and said he was wearing his helmet. The helmet had a few scratches on the face-shield but that was about it. A c-collar was applied and the patient was moved slowly onto a back board. After the patient was secured to the board and moved into the ambulance where his hip was exposed for further evaluation. There was bruising and abrasions and the area was still very tender. He was given some medication to help with the pain and transported to the hospital.
He told us,"when I came around the corner there was a van on the side of the highway and I slipped in the gravel". The skid mark on the asphalt was at least 75 feet long with gouges in the highway.

This is a lucky man!