"Without this helmet, I would be dead. There’s no doubt in my mind.”
Geri Katte gestures to a scratched-up motorcycle helmet with her left wrist, which is in a cast, healing from three breaks. The scratches and breaks – along with three broken toes, a broken shoulder socket, a broken humerus and a lot of road rash – were sustained when Geri was in a motorcycle crash on I-35W.
There is startling
footage of the crash, which shows Geri rolling across three lanes of traffic and, miraculously, not getting hit by an oncoming SUV. And if it’s hard for us to watch, imagine how hard it is for Geri. “To see how fast I went down, to see my body rolling on the ground, that was really really….it’s hard to watch,” says Geri.
She doesn’t remember the crash itself. “I remember the last four times that I rolled.” As for the rest, all she has is the video to rely on. And if that video shows anything, it’s how fortunate she is — and how incredibly important it is to wear the right kind of safety gear while riding a motorcycle.
“The day of the wreck, I was wearing my leather jacket, I was wearing my helmet, good solid jeans, and gym shoes,” she recalls. “Without that leather jacket…I would be missing an arm. I think if I was wearing my boots, I would not have broken the toes on my foot.” She also feels she would have sustained a lot less road rash if she had been wearing gloves and chaps.
And Geri of all people understands the desire not to wear safety gear when riding a motorcycle. “I’ve been the rider who, on a hot day, doesn’t want to deal with the leather. It’s a beautiful day outside, I don’t want to deal with the helmet. I want the wind through my hair.” But so far in 2018, 73 percent of the riders who died in motorcycle crashes were not wearing helmets.
Geri’s crash has taught her, in her words, to “Always expect the unexpected.” She says, “You gotta wear that gear.” And why? Geri’s voice chokes with emotion when she thinks about it: “You gotta be safe because you gotta go home. You gotta go home to your family.”
Every time you ride a motorcycle, think of Geri. Put on your helmet and safety gear so you can go home to your family.
