A friend of mine crashed hard at the GFT 1/2 last month after being clipped by an asshole, who didn’t even stop. I attended a party tonite and spoke with my buddy and he even told me he still has his chip and that no one has even contacted him from Sommer Sports. He broke his collarbone and fractured his pelvis!! Sat on the side of the road for 45 minutes at mile 38 until a cop came along and asked if he was ok!! This is unacceptable. So, I am going CSI mode and trying to find the guy in his thirties wearing red and gray…sounds crazy, but I’m pissed. I just think someone should know that a 48 year old man got no attention and is know walking with a cane paying thousands in doctors bills. Thanks for listening.
I raced the GFT Full. I didn’t hear anything about your friend (had parents spectating and volunteering on course too). Wish you had spoken to your friend earlier as over a month has gone by now. Way too late to try to try to find the culprit or otherwise try to disect this one. Did he or you post about this accident earlier on ST or the GFT website? If not, it could be helpful if he would post an account of what happened so rest of us could learn or at least he should contact sommersports and tell them about it so they could learn.
Yes, his name is Gary, and no he has never posted to ST. The reason he hasn’t caused a stink, is because he has been healing. Unfortuately, I just assumed all was well and that he received the care he deserved at the event. I didn’t know he crashed, went to the hospital and never spoke with a race rep. I hit an oyster bed before the swim at a tri 2 years ago in Melbourne, Fl and had to go to the ER…bleeding like a stuck pig and the same thing happened to me. I didn’t get pissed till 2 months later when I still had the chip and no one called about me…hell, I even had the Paramendics helping me before I drove myself to the hopsital with cuts all over my chest and feet.
Wow, only 2 replies on this forum…No one heard of a bad crash at GFT?
It is the weekend, the forum slows a bit. Bump this for the monday morning crowd and you will probably have more luck.
While I sympathize with your friend’s situation, I certainly hope the point of this post is not to “out” the rider who was involved in the accident. Perhaps the other rider should have stopped; however, it was a race, and if the other rider did not go down, then I can see where he would not have stopped. I would strongly discourage you from listing the name of the other rider on a public forum, as I my best guess would be the other rider did not intend any harm to come Greg’s way. That other riders deserves the benefit of the doubt.
With regard to the Race Director or Management company, did your friend ever report his crash to them? As strange as it may sound, they might not know about it until he tells them.
I hope your friend Greg heals completely and quickly.
it was a race, and if the other rider did not go down, then I can see where he would not have stopped.
Here we go… took a bit of time to start, but we’re on our way now!
Before you get mad at the RD I would contact them to see if they are even aware of your friend’s accident. There is a USAT incident report form to fill out if its sanctioned - but the RD has to actually know of the incident. Lots of racers at events simply quit along race courses for non-medical reasons and fail to turn their chips in. Some timing vendors give folks awhile to mail in the chip before tracking it down (if they do). This may not be the case here but I’d give the other folks involved the benefit of the doubt until you hear otherwise.
In simple terms: If you knock somebody down during a race and don’t stop, why shouldn’t you be outed on public forum? Why not hold the person accountable for their actions?
Because it usually is not as simple as you or the OP make it out to be. We only have one side of the story from a guy who wasn’t even there but it relying on his friends recollection of the event. Furthermore, while I feel sorry for the guy who got injured, it’s been close to a month after the fact. Seems a bit odd to post this to the forum now seeking vengeance, etc. Also, as some have mentioned it seems unlikely that the suspected person intentionally caused the other person to fall. Obviously, I wasn’t there but crazy stuff happens in races and maybe the suspected guy clipped his friend or maybe his friend swerved into the guy or maybe something else happened entirely.
Yep, I understand as far as the public forum part goes. Here’s the point though. If you are in a road triathlon and you have contact with another rider and they go down. You need to stop. No if’s and’s or but’s. The bike leg of a road triathlon is not a contact sport. The person may be injured and you are the first person who can respond.
Essentially (and perhaps legally, since bikes abide by vehicle laws) the person left the scene of an accident. Hit and run. Even if the person who went down swerved into the other rider.
I won’t disagree further with the public forum part.
Your friend needs to report his accident to the RD immediately if not sooner. His injuries will be covered by the excess medical insurance that’s part of the USAT membership fee–“excess” meaning that your friend’s health insurance has to pay first, and then the USAT policy kicks in for what his primary insurance doesn’t pay. He needs to hurry, though, because there is a window of time in which the accident has to be reported. It may be just 30 days, but I can’t remember.
I had a bike wreck in a tri a coupla years ago. I missed the official reporting window, because I didn’t know about the insurance deal in time, but luckily, the RD was on notice about my wreck already because I went to the ER in an ambulance and the RD had to file some kind of incident report (I think). I broke my collarbone and several months later had to have my shoulder scoped to fix torn cartilage and then I had months of physical therapy after that. The USAT excess insurance paid thousands of dollars that my primary insurance didn’t cover.
Thanks for the replies! Sorry I haven’t responded, been out of town. There is “No Vengence” involved here and I’m not looking to “out” someone on this forum. And one guy said “it’s odd that you are posting this a month later” quit being paranoid! I was just hoping someone knew about a very bad crash at the GFT and maybe the person involved didn’t want to stop either b/c he didn’t look back, didn’t know, or he was having a PR day, whatever and maybe if he knew what happened he would offer an apology. And as far as the race director, I think my buddy deserves an apology as well. When you are a RD you pay for police, coning, EMT’s etc…and this bad accident should have been relayed to him on race day. I’m not being pretentious, as I’ve directed many races with large fields, but this is why you pay big dollars for awesome events life the GFT.
was at GFT although didn’t hear news of crash, at awards ceremony - nothing?
Was there though and I raced it and once thing I would suggest is thumbing through the online race photos to find a picture of a guy wearing red and grey (go to www.lepowphoto.com) - they took photos of the whole weekend.
Once you locate a couple of guys wearing red and grey then just lookup the name attached to their numbers and match up the age category and you should then have it narrowed down to a few guys. Once you match up the bike splits to match your friends you should be able to find this guy.