Frank Smith crashed today - hurt pretty bad.
Many cyclists on Oahu know Frank Smith. This morning on the weekly IT&B tantalus ride he had a bad crash on the way down.
We were doing about 25 mph and right at the 7 marker just before one of the hairpin turns he hits his brakes to slow down. Unfortunately one of his tires locked up and the bike jumped sideways from under him. After a long slide/tumble he came to a stop in the middle of one of the lanes on his back. Besides a lot of road rash all over he couldn't sit up due to the pain in his hip and he couldn't remember any of our names. I immediately called an ambulance and then called his wife at his request to come get his bike and let her know he was going to the hospital.
His helmet was cracked and banged up pretty good. While waiting for the ambulance he asked us to call his wife several times although we already had - he couldn't remember us having called her already so I was really fearing a concussion.
About 20 minutes later an ambulance, firetruck and police car all show up. The paramedics loaded him onto a stretcher chair thingy and put him into the ambulance along with his bike. I waited for his wife who showed up about 5 minutes later and let her know what happened and the hospital they took him to.
His wife called me a short while ago and said mild concussion but brain is ok. However, he did break his hip and he is probably in surgery as I type this.
Send him good thoughts and if you are the praying type do that too. I know from having an elderly relative who broke his hip that Frank is in for many months of recovery.