Highway 129 Accident page

What happens when you have an accident on Highway 129?

We'll, most of the time you get your bike out of the ditch, and then get the hell down the road before the law arrives.  Often this requires the help of one of your biker friends.

If you are not badly hurt try to get off the mountain with out calling an ambulance or wrecker.   The wrecker guys charge around $400.00,  I have been told,  to haul your bike to Maryville, a distance of about forty or fifty miles.

The ambulance's charge three or four times more than the wreckers.  Sounds bad. It is bad.

Now if you are bleeding from the mouth, or if they have to pick up some of your body parts out of the ditch, the guys with the working cell phones will most likely want to call for a Lifestar rescue helicopter from Knoxville.  (There is almost no cell phone service on the mountain)

You may not want to hear this, but the helicopter charge is around $15,000.00  to haul you  back to a Hospital.  You will still have an ambulance bill since the helicopter can not land up on the mountain.  They can land down by Chilhowee lake, or on the pad across from the new store at Tallassee.

The up side to all of this rambling is that you could  live since the ambulance crews , and the helicopter crews are well trained, but getting you away from the  wreck site takes some time. It takes the ambulance thirty minutes, or longer,  to get onto the mountain section, and then you have to be treated before they can load you for the trip down the mountain.

It could be two, or more, hours before you see the inside of an emergency room.

It would be much better for you to keep your mind on the road, and ride close to the right side white line when you first start riding the curvy section of highway 129.  I use to ride the mountain almost daily, and I practiced riding for months near the right side white line.

It paid off when some jerk in a green ford van came around a curve on my side of the road. I left the road, but kept the bike under control and stopped.  If I had been near the two center yellow lines I might have been able to pass by him on the left of his van, but most likely  I would have piled up in the ditch after being clipped by the trailer he was pulling.

I am posting a set of pictures that I made on July 18, 2009.  I was at the Abram's Creek bridge, on Chilhowee Lake, when I heard the rescue guys coming.  First was the rescue squad, then one minute later an ambulance passed by.  About twenty minutes later a Tennessee Highway Patrol car went by.

I then packed up and left for the store across from the helicopter pad down below Chilhowee lake.   After about twenty minutes the rescue helicopter landed, and a few minutes later the  ambulance and rescue squad truck arrived.

The three crews stood and looked at each other for about two minutes,  then a orderly transfer of the accident victim started.

The photo's tell the rest.

7-18-09  5:14PM  Tennessee Highway Patrol on the way to an accident on the Dragon.

July 18, 2009     4:32 PM   Blount County Rescue Squad truck passes by the bridge on Chilhowee lake heading south toward the Dragon,

4:33 PM   Ambulance passes by.

Rescue Squad truck parks at 5:28PM near the chopper.  The ambulance arrived at the same time

Helicopter arrives at 5:20PM at Tallassee

Transfer from the ambulance to the helicopter started at 5:31 PM.

This photograph was made at 5:32PM.  I guess the ambulance company needed proof that they picked up and dropped the guy off at the helicopter pad. Two cell phone cameras should do the job.

My thoughts are that the accident happened between 3:45 and 4:00PM,  He should have arrived in the emergency room by 6:10 PM.

I was told that this accident was a head on crash. This means that some one was on the wrong side of the road, and over the yellow line.

There are accidents almost every day on what is know as the dragon section of US 129.  I still think it is a safer ride than riding over manhole covers on some city streets.  The problem starts with not paying attention.  The mountains are pretty and  it's easy to forget and look off the road for a few seconds.

This can get you killed.

This pickup truck crossed the road in from of the biker making for a head on that cost this biker a leg, plus a lot of time in the hospital.  The biker was traveling fast on his way to get help for another biker that was down. The accident took place in front of "The129 Market", located between the Dragon, and Maryville, Tennessee.