The Crash That Almost Killed me.

**pvdownhill** · 07-13-2011 10:06 PM

Last week on July 5th I came closer to dying then I ever have. It was my first day home from a month long trip in Europe and called up a friend to go skate. We met up and it was the second run of the day skating a local hill I have done many times. Right before we go down I took off my charly and went to grab my half lid because it was so hot that day and I had a gut feeling that I should wear it so I put it back on. As we started going down the run a car came up on us and passed us in oncoming traffic and was stopped briefly in head at a t-intersection stop sign. So of course I end up passing the Audi again and am going roughly 40ish'mph. I think all is good until I look behind me to see the Audi I passed is literally 5 feet behind me right on my ass. I get as close to the curb as I can and tell the car to pass but he refuses and keeps riding my ass. While all of this is going on we were coming up to an offcamber toeside hairpin that normally you would have to predrift for. At this point I knew this was going to end bad because this car was so close I couldnt even shut down. I looked back and yelled for them to stop and they finally backed off right as I entered the turn going full speed. Granted 5 minutes prior I had taken a run down this hill but in that 5 minutes someone had turned a hose on and water was going all the way across the road. I hit the water at 40mph half tucking through the turn and my wheels broke loose and I was drifting now backwards on the wet pavement. As soon as my board hit dry asphault the board just stopped and I was highsided and slammed back of my head first into the ground.

(From here on I do not remember any of this because I was knocked out but it is from accounts of many other people who witnessed it).

As soon as I hit the ground I was instantly knocked out and had a seizure in the middle of the road as the Audi drove off and left me there to die in the middle of the street. A few bike riders saw the whole thing happen and called 911 and I was rushed to the Trauma center at one of our local hospitals. My first memory after the crash was waking up in the back of an ambulance on my way to the hospital. I ended up spending the day there getting tons of cat scans done. They said I was perfectly fine and just had minor bruising. Well they were very wrong. I currently have a blood vessel in my brain that is bleeding and the blood is being trapped under my skull and this went missed by the hospital.

Injury list to date from this crash

-Concussion
-Brain Hemorrhage (bleeding of the brain)
-Bruising of my brain
-Seizure
-Sprained neck
-Sprained wrist
-Slipped disk in my back
-Brusied kidneys
-Extensive road rash.

^Taken in the hospital while all jacked up on morphine.

^Taken today. Slipped disk in my back that is now starting to have fluid build up in my back.

The doctors said that if I was wearing my halflid I would have died on impact from hitting the ground so hard. The bleeding in my brain has not gotten worse over the past few days but currently we are going in for more tests. If the swelling and pressure does not go down I will need to have my skull drilled and blood sucked out to relieve the pressure. Because of the nature of my injury I am not allowed to take any painkillers or even things such as Tylenol. I am laying in bed with my brain bleeding and 0 medicine to take the pain away.

^Helmet after the accident.

I'm writing all of this because I came away from this accident extremely lucky and my helmet is the only reason that I am alive today and I want to spread helmet awareness so that no one will have to go through what I am dealing with right now.

NOW EVERYONE PLEASE WEAR YOUR HELMETS!

Best regards,

Niko Kroha
Team EDGE.

**CinnamonToastyToastCrunch** · 07-13-2011 10:16 PM

Bumped for everyone to read. Read or die.

**spezadams** · 07-13-2011 10:19 PM

NIKO! Heal up soon buddy.

EVERYONE! WEAR YOUR GOD DAMN HELMETS

**SaucyCrackers** · 07-13-2011 10:21 PM

Heal fast bro. Glad you survived to tell your story.

**Hello People** · 07-13-2011 10:23 PM

Oh man. I'm happy that you wore a helmet though. I hope you get better!

Sidenote, there must be a correlation between driving an Audi, and being an asshole.

**Hellfire** · 07-13-2011 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by spezadams

NIKO! Heal up soon buddy.

EVERYONE! WEAR YOUR GOD DAMN HELMETS

The truth...

Get well soon man!

**ckruberducky** · 07-13-2011 10:25 PM

Good to still have you here niko. im spreading this article around

**boxjelly** · 07-13-2011 10:30 PM

You're a champ kid, helmets 4 lyfe. I cant wait to see your bitch ass in rado and on a skateboard. Feel better man

**pvdownhill** · 07-13-2011 10:32 PM

Originally Posted by boxjelly

You're a champ kid, helmets 4 lyfe. I cant wait to see your bitch ass in rado and on a skateboard. Feel better man

Hahaha is this Massimo? lol and yeah man Im hoping I will be able to recover quickly and be on a board again asap. Keeping my spirits high.

**BluntSnowSpliffSummer** · 07-13-2011 11:27 PM

Goodluck on recovery man.

**Bookworm** · 07-13-2011 11:27 PM

the helmet is a lot more beat up in person than the picture makes it look like

**5674jt** · 07-13-2011 11:43 PM

Originally Posted by Bookworm

the helmet is a lot more beat up in person than the picture makes it look like

Im sure it is he took a hell of spill.

**PB4L** · 07-13-2011 11:43 PM

Thats some bad luck man, hope you get better soon

**Brendan Burke** · 07-13-2011 11:49 PM

Holy **** thats scary. Get better quick man.

**50crowley** · 07-14-2011 12:02 AM

Car passes you while you're going 40+.
Car tailgates your ass and acts like a total douche.
Hairpin turn. Can't stop or slow down.
Someone pours water on the road while going 40mph through hairpin with tailgating car behind you.

That is a boatload of bad luck converging on you at once. If any ONE of those things happened to me, I would have pooped myself.

**Grandmasandra** · 07-14-2011 12:08 AM

Dude, glad to hear you're pulling through, that's one hell of an accident and it could always be worse. I know riders don't always have right of way on the road but a little bit of courteousy and a some common sense on all drivers' part can go a long f*cking way. Helmets are also good for maximum survival of gnarbar

**jondextan** · 07-14-2011 12:12 AM

glad your still with us man. have a fast recovery!

**g.riley** · 07-14-2011 12:58 AM

i hope one of the bikers got the bastard's plate number

**CharlieBravo92** · 07-14-2011 01:06 AM

Originally Posted by spezadams

NIKO! Heal up soon buddy.

EVERYONE! WEAR YOUR GOD DAMN HELMETS

I'd sig that if it wasn't so damn big

**Bushy** · 07-14-2011 02:58 AM

Kind of funny that it was a charly you were wearing too, everyone says they won't protect you in a bad crash...

charly4life!

heal up soon Niko, EDGE ain't the same without you man!