I was heading to work a few days ago and the traffic was unusually heavy. I am one of the lucky commuters who does not have to deal with much traffic to and from work. Heading west on Old Milton Parkway in Alpharetta just before Alpharetta Hwy is usually very slight with cars (compared to GA400) at 8:25am on a Tuesday. But today something was different. Traffic was stopped and not moving at all. We sat and waited through 3 light changes and never moved. UGH!!!! I am now late for my Tuesday Manager's Meeting at work! The cars in the far-left turn lane FINALLY began to slowly creep up to the intersection to head south on Hwy 9 (the way I needed to go). As we crept up, I noticed several flashing red and blue lights from Fire Rescue and Police cruisers. One of Alpharetta's Finest was directing traffic and holding our line of cars up so an Ambulance could make it to the accident scene. An accident at this particular intersection is not all that uncommon; however, this particular "mishap" was not of the norm. The closer I got to the intersection, being my usual curious self I "rubber-necked" trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on in the accident scene. And there I saw, laying on its side was a '97 Honda Shadow VLX 600. Purple and white 2-tone color. Working in a Honda shop myself I knew I had scene that bike before. The front forks were bent back severely and the handlebars were extremely disfigured. A suit-n-tied business man was talking to an officer about what happened in the accident. He was the driver of the car involved in the mishap. The biker, not so lucky, was still down and not seemingly moving. The bike was traveling in the far right lane heading west on Old Milton Pkwy entering the intersection at Hwy 9. The car was turning left to head north on 9. I'll bet my helmet that the car ran the red turning light because he was running late and as the bike left the light and into the intersection, there was the car running the red light and SMACK, the bike T-boned the car. Yes, I am speculating on what really happened, since I wasn't there to see it occur. But, from the way it looked, the bike was stopped at the red light and then moved into the intersection when his light turned green. You do the math...

I only knew the biker by face because he regularly had his VLX serviced at our store. You can't miss a purple and white 2-tone Shadow. I don't know what happened to the biker. I can only hope he is ok with just broken bones (if that). But he was not moving and EMT's were attending to him feverishly while I rubbernecked to see if he was ok.

Even though must of you reading this are bikers, I'm sure many of you still drive cars. The bottom line here is simple: Drive your cage as responsibly as you ride your bike. Take a minute to slow down and follow the "rules" the best you can. I have only actually seen a couple of car/bike wrecks in person and this one affected me heavily because the biker was (hopefully still is) a customer of ours. I can only hope the guy is ok because I don't recall seeing the bike in the store for a crash-estimate. If anyone knows of this rider, I'd like to know if he's alright. Email me at [email protected].

Safe riding to you all and enjoy the superb weather we are having.