2 years ago on Jan 17th I was ATV'ing with friends. I was a passenger on the back while a buddy drove. It was a winter night, snow falling slowly, really fluffy and big flakes. It really kicked up on the old logging roads when we gunned the engine and stopping was difficult (as you'll see later).
One friend on his ATV sped ahead kicking up all kinds of snow. The buddy driving the ATV I was on, sped up to catch him. Visibility was about 5 feet in the snow, if that. We are doing a fair clip and I ask my buddy slow down because we can't see and it might not be that safe. He didn't hear me and we come out of the whiteout because our other friend had stopped...in the middle of the road waiting for us. We saw him..but it was too late. I said, "We're gonna hit." The ATV I was on, my friend swerved, the snow made braking impossible, we hit my friend's ATV in the front, having nothing to hold onto and being a big guy with all that forward momentum I flew threw the air headfirst ala Superman style and struck the road about 15 feet beyond the ATV's. Heard a "crack" sound when I struck and then the pain. I slid about another 10 feet after hitting the road in the snow. Yelling in pain while my buddy checked on me then realized the driver of the ATV I was on was nowheres to be seen. He ran to the edge of the road and down into the steep and deep ditch, the ATV was on top of him buried in about 5 feet of snow. He helped him out, both of them had no injuries other than bumps and bruises. Friend drove his barely drivable ATV back to the cabin (about 3 miles) to get his car to take me to the hospital. The conditions were bad and it took him about an hour to get there and back. All the time I laid on the road and just looked up at the Moon barely visible through the snow. I was soaked with snow and freezing and couldn't stop shaking. Fun! :/
Anyways, got to the hospital eventually and found out that I drove my humorus bone up into my shoulder bone, cracking the humorus bone where it goes into my shoulder. They undressed me and wrapped me up in warm blankets to bring my body temperature up. Gave me 4 shots of morphine. Man that stuff is wicked! What a rush! Took X-rays then I called my wife around 3am and told her what happened (after they gave me the morphine). To me it seemed like I was talking at a normal rate but she said I would pause 5-10 seconds between words. She came and got me the next day with a friend of hers (I was 2 hours drive away from home).
Was off work for 4 weeks, had 8 weeks of physiotherapy but all is good as new now and I have full range of motion without pain in my shoulder.
I haven't been a passenger on an ATV since.
This was longer than I thought. Sorry!
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