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If you are killed in the saddle

In this thread, a few people brought up what they would want in the event they were killed on the road. Unfortunately, it is a sad reality that we need to have conversations like this, but who has had this conversation with their family/friends/loved ones?


I explored this topic when I was writing my Last Will and Testament and Living Will (I never finished either). I sat down with my parents and told them what I would want in the case of a injury that put in a state which I would be unable to care/think/act for myself, what I would like if I die, etc...


It's not a pleasant conversation to have, and it is easy to get down when thinking about it, but I think it is something we all need to make sure we do.


On the other side of the same conversation, it gives you a very effective avenue to talk about safe road use. It can be eye opening to see that, as cyclists, we feel that our lives are often in danger, mostly though the negligence of others.


In my case, my family and friends fully understand that if I am killed on the road, I want there to be a huge stink about it, charges to be filed, and I want a tall ghost bike.


ndromb
2010-11-29 23:00:41

Donate my organs.


atleastmykidsloveme
2010-11-29 23:49:55

I've thought of telling my parents to make a big stink about it, and press serious charges. I would also put by my ID in my wallet a not saying something to the effect of "If I am found, please call my parents at _______" something to notify them immediately.


I'm already bitter at my nonexistent killer. ugh.


rubberfactory
2010-11-30 00:23:42

I want my organs donated right away. I would also want most of my body to go to an anatomy lab for medical professionals to learn what they can through dissection (without said donated organs).


In similar fashion to Mr. Jeremy Bentham, i want my head and skeleton preserved and placed in an auto-icon on a ghost bike along the side of the road where i was killed.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham


stefb
2010-11-30 12:25:08

I actually had sort-off this conversation with my family over the thanksgiving holiday... they know I love to bike & commute to work everyday, which makes them happy but worried as well for me.


I don't want to donate my body to science (after reading the book 'Stiff' I'm dreary of it) but I am an Organ Donor and would very much like to help my fellow man that way. Don't think my Family could deal very well if I went this way given our family-history, so I don't see them having the energy to think about how to deal with said-person(s) involved in my demise, or the lack of laws protecting cyclists. For that, I would hope that my fellow-cyclist community will make the biggest-stink possible about me -you have my permission! :)


And yes, don't want to be embalmed, and want my body to be buried at the Allegheny Cemetery in a simple wooden box for easier decomposition .... don't think there's anybody with my last name there yet.


BUT...... let's be positive and proactive in trying to make the sharing of the road between cars & cyclists better! And to request our government and laws to protect us better! Because personally, not only I am not ready to kick it anytime soon, but I want to break the world record for oldest-granny in the saddle, and perhaps have a cheesy photo of me in a tandem-bike riding with my husband, children, and great-gran children :)


bikeygirl
2010-11-30 12:54:33

I haven't actually decided how I would want my remains dealt with, but my only directive to my family asof now is don't bury me in a suit. I can't think of a more miserable way to go out, in a suit. I'm thinking, stick me in some old jeans, my old RATM t shirt, and put me in a shallow grave somewhere in Alaska.


edmonds59
2010-11-30 13:32:49

Organ donor and then body farm. I want to rot outside and be picked apart by scavengers as nature intended. I've eaten plenty of animals in life. Letting a few of them nom on me in death only seems fair.


cburch
2010-11-30 13:58:08

cremate me and fill a bicycle tire with my ashes.


roadkillen
2010-11-30 14:04:52

Salvage any useful bits, then do the Bentham thing. But I want to be placed across the street from whoever ran me down. And I want to be positioned looking at their house, and waving.


reddan
2010-11-30 14:23:18

this is turning into one of those 'prop me up by the jukebox when I die' conversations


dbacklover
2010-11-30 14:33:57

hubby knows and I trust him to abide:


corporeally speaking - donate the organs and usefull bits, keep a lock of hair if it suits him, compost the rest & plant useful tasty stuff with it (so it's a long term plan).


spiritually speaking - throw a huge ass party for everybody who ever knew me, with music and dancing and so much food and drink (pot luck rocks!!) it's ridiculous - I want the cops called at least three times to this party, and at least one person to wake up completely unaware of how they got thrown in jail (but only for a good thing, like skinny dipping at the point or something). And fireworks, I want loads of fireworks.


legally speaking - ensure the responsible party satisfies that responsibility: supports him financially as I would have, volunteers with BPGH, and does bicycle related community outreach and education for as many years as they have left to enjoy.


Honestly, this is my biggest fear until the mortgage is paid off. I'm not so much afraid to die, though I'm betting it won't be pleasant and I'd really rather not just now, I'm busy dong other things - I'm afraid to leave him with loose ends he can't handle. I'd hate for the combination of my hobby and someone's inattention to make him homeless.


And I hate that I'm afraid of that.


ejwme
2010-11-30 14:36:33

One of my grad pap’s sayings – “stick a ham bone up my ass and let the dogs drag me around the neighborhood.”


+1 on organ donation


marko82
2010-11-30 14:44:11

ejwme: how 'bout we just have that party anyway? Your place?


lyle
2010-11-30 15:27:01

having just gotten married and thrown a big party for 80 of our nearest and dearest, I'm gonna have to pass... I don't think I can swing another shindig of that size or larger for quite a while, though I do have the leftover dishes for it :D


ejwme
2010-11-30 15:29:06

If I'm fresh enough, I want anyone who's ever been curious to try human mean to have a go at my legs or whatever. Whatever, taboos.


Otherwise I like the scavenger idea, and the party one. Maybe when my skele's left at the end, do something funny with it.


alnilam
2010-11-30 15:38:20

I used to make plans for dying, and I got tired of being wrong all the time, so now I'm planning on never dying and I haven't been wrong yet.


lyle
2010-11-30 15:42:29

Off topic: .... WAIT A MINUTE in the show "Lost", John Lock playing alias "Jeremy Bentham" was a nod to the REAL Jeremy Bentham in the wooden box.... ahhhhh


@Reddan & Edmonds : Nice!


bikeygirl
2010-11-30 16:19:08

Lost used a few names based on real people... literary people I think.


stefb
2010-11-30 17:01:02

1. Shoot my head out of a cannon.

2. Feed the rest to wolves and/or bears.


rick
2010-11-30 17:06:19

ejwme: how 'bout we just have that party anyway? Your place?


After they climb Rosedale. That will keep out the riff-raff.


stuinmccandless
2010-11-30 17:43:09

after Rosedale would keep ME out... hey, so would the original idea, anyway :D


ejwme
2010-11-30 18:16:38

my gravestone will be this:



rubberfactory
2010-11-30 18:27:05

Prop me up beside the jukebox if I die…


greasefoot
2010-11-30 20:27:45

rubberfactory


is that an oregon trail meme of some sort?


noah-mustion
2010-11-30 20:34:58

yeah, it's the first tombstone you pass in the game.


rubberfactory
2010-11-30 21:40:58

ha. i somehow don't remember that. only hunting ad nauseam.


noah-mustion
2010-11-30 23:02:29

Yeah, for pixelated squirrels and buffalo....ahh, the good old days of DOS.


greenbike
2010-12-01 00:24:00

logowriter anyone?


(sorry to threadjack)


noah-mustion
2010-12-01 00:43:52

Hahahaha, I only now just got the pizza reference. I love it!


greenbike
2010-12-01 01:39:15

@reddan's idea is awesome. plus put a t-shirt on me that says "thanks for killing me, asswipe". and maybe have someone wheel me around - to the killer's office, go out to dinner with them, etc.


salty
2010-12-01 02:40:53

Someone can take my bones and turn them into the greenest bike ever.


robjdlc
2010-12-03 17:35:26



marko82
2010-12-03 17:39:26

is that skeletor's bike?


cburch
2010-12-03 17:53:31

I dunno, but it's running backwards.


lyle
2010-12-03 18:06:56

bonus if you fashion either a front basket or water bottle out of the skull.


we are a morbid lot, eh?


ejwme
2010-12-03 18:28:00

To take Lyle's point, if you mounted a skull on the front of the head tube, it would be insanely funny.


edmonds59
2010-12-03 18:40:58

The ultimate ghost bike.


stuinmccandless
2010-12-04 00:22:54