His clothes have saved the life

Photo courtesy
The helmet worn by Marc-Antoine Side during his motorcycle accident in June of last year was only slightly damaged.

Catherine Montambeault

Sunday, 9 July, 2017 08:00

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Sunday, 9 July, 2017 08:00

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If he had not worn his coat reinforced leather, the boots special and his full-face helmet, Marc-Antoine Côté is convinced that he would not have survived the motorcycle accident that left him in a coma for a week last June.

“In Quebec, you have the right to turn the bike in flip-flops and no sweater, if you want to. Since my accident, I watch a lot of the riders, and when I see who are just in t-shirt and without gloves, it puts me out of me. I have been like this, I would be dead, ” growls Marc-Antoine Side.

On 4 June, the 21-year-old has been the victim of a serious motorcycle accident on a road in Bromont, only one month after having received its licence.

He and his family know very little about the circumstances surrounding the collision. They are, however, certain that without his protective equipment, Marc-Antoine, would have left his skin. The motorcyclist Granby now wants to raise awareness of motorcycle enthusiasts to the need to protect themselves from head to toe.

“When I started the bike, I had promised to buy me a good equipment, because it is the only protection we have,” he says. I bought the best helmet in carbon fibre and the best coat reinforced that I could find on the market. I also was wearing gloves and motorcycle boots. “

“The nurses have told us several times that the equipment of Marc-Antoine had saved the life,” says the father of the young man, Benedict Side.

Coma

Marc-Antoine Côté was ejected from his motorcycle after a violent impact involving a car on the boulevard Bromont. He was immediately transported by an ambulance to the Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke.

With a moderate brain injury, three invoices in the left femur and a fracture of the hip, the motorcyclist remained a week in the coma, then another to the intensive care unit. It keeps no memory of the accident nor of the three days that preceded it.

“When he woke up, he wondered much how it had been able to him get to him, tells his father. This is a guy very careful and he had a motorcycle performing at the level of the braking. But the motorcycle accidents, it happens quickly and it doesn’t forgive. “

The bike, ever

The young man is now back home after spending two weeks at the Centre montérégie rehabilitation, Saint-Hyacinthe. The first place where he will be when he will have the strength : the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec.

“I’m going to do is remove the class to the bike of my permit. The bike, for me, it is finished, finished, finished. I do not want to know anything about it “, lance-t-il.

Even if there will be racing more ever motorcycle, Marc-Antoine Côté invites those who will continue to do so, to not be stingy when it comes time to protect themselves.

“The gloves that I was wearing the day of the accident was worth $ 275 for the pair, he noted. But that fact that I have all my fingers today. If I had not had a helmet full face, I would have had the face completely shredded by the asphalt. So it’s worth investing in good equipment. “

He laments the recklessness of the motorcyclists

It is often only after having been subjected to a first accident that motorcyclists are starting to wear protective clothing, laments an instructor of motorcycle experience.

According to Frédéric Lamarche, director of the driving school Lauzon, at Montreal, “very little” of motorcyclists are aware of the danger that lurks when they take to the road. Several do not protect themselves, therefore, not properly.

In short

“Just look at the motorcyclists on the roads only to find that there are seldom who are in full equipment, he says. Here, at the school, a lot of students will even ask us why they can’t come to the course in shorts ! “

The instructor tells us that several of her students are nurses who have seen many motorcyclists bloody land in the emergency room. “And yet, even they, they didn’t dress like he should be in the courses !” laments Mr. Lamarche.

Any course of conduct of motorcycle must have a component on the protective equipment, ” says Mr Lamarche. The manual recommended by the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec also contains a chapter on this subject.

In order to further sensitize the future riders that it forms, Frédéric Lamarche presents such as a video-shocks that show drivers seriously injured in accidents.

Apologies

“Despite that, people find that it is too expensive to properly equip it, or that it is too hot… there’s always an excuse “, says he.

Since the beginning of the year in Quebec, at least 26 crashes have involved motorcyclists, according to a compilation carried out by The Newspaper. Of this number, 12 have been fatal.

Last year, 54 motorcyclists have died in total, or 4 more than in 2015.