I can relate to this guy. I've been that stupid. With me it was dormitory and not a minivan though.
Hope you have a minute!
I was a sophomore at Daniel Webster College in New Hampshire. Since I was paying for college myself I was working 2 work study jobs security and maintenace. I was also a resident assistant for one of the dorms which got me free room and board. I was on duty one Sat. night and a call came over the radio "10-13 RA needs assistance Lincoln Hall" all other RA's have to respond usually a fight or something. Lincoln hall was all the way across campus. So to respond in a timely manner I jumped on the bike...my first bike(1980 Yamaha 650 Special)....2 months riding...and sped off to be the hero! Now I'm holding the radio in my right hand, no helmet, shorts on. I speed across campus, though the central courtyard, down the paved walkway and aproaching my destination.......onto the wet grass I'm going about 25mph at this point and go to stop. Mind you now I have the radio in my right hand and this has been fine for twisting the throttle but I soon found that it really sucked for using the front brake. I think the bike actually accelerated when I applied the rear brake. Now the dormitory, completely frozen in fear, totally failed to get out of the way. (Mr. Dinsmore do you know how much damage this dormitory will suffer if I was to allow you to roll staight into it?...."No how much?"....None at all.) I on the other hand failed to stop as readily as the the bike. I actually caved in the top of the gas tank with my family jewels, carved not one but three 4 inch gashes in my naked leg. Drove a tooth through my lip, broke my glasses, and got a 2nd degree burn on my arm when the bike finally decided the best course of action was to land on me out of vengence for the suffering I had caused it. Testicular dent in the tank, forks bent back to the frame, bent handle bars, broken headlight and mirror. At this point I become irrelavant to the story because I am just a little unconsious. Just as well since the entire rest of the school was there to see it. It is still talked about today. And oh yeah the fight had stopped before I got there. I did however beat everyone else to the scene of the accident. I have since improved. That bike served me well for 8000 more miles till I upgraded.
Learn from my mistakes people, I'll make more.
Aaron
