Yesterday, Josh Rogers (Scoot!'s co-publisher) was involved in a serious accident while on Vespa Club Los Gatos' monthly ride. I posted this to several boards to let scooterists know about his status.
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I just got back from the hospital. Josh is out of surgery and will
likely stay at the hospital for a few days. He is doing well for
someone who took on a Lexus head-on and we're lucky that he didn't
sustain more damage.

What he did sustain was a broken femur that pierced his skin, a
seriously dislocated wrist and numerous lacerations, some deep.
The doctors told his wife Katie that the femur break was very clean and went back together well. They expect him to be able to put weight on it
within a week. Imagine that. However, he will likely have to undergo
therapy to walk. It could take 3-6 months to get back to normal.

The good news is that the police gave us the impression that the Lexus
driver was totally at fault. While those on the ride who saw the
accident knew that already, it's good to get that echoed by the
police. Hopefully the driver was well-insured. For those who have not
heard- on a curvy uphill area of Hwy 9, a driver crossed the line and
hit Josh head-on. The car came to a stop just before the shoulder
facing the wrong way in the wrong lane.

Josh is at the Regional Medical center at McKee & Jackson. Visiting
hours are until 9pm, but I forgot to see when they begin.

Josh will need help in the coming months. Some may just be mental
support, some may be financial support. A helicopter flight to the
hospital can't be cheap. So, I hope that we can lend both spiritual
and financial support when we can. Perhaps we can do a fundraiser of some sort to help out.

I'm sure that Josh is thankful for all of the care and assistance that
everyone gave today. It was very inspiring to me to see how so many
people; including the scooterists, drivers who stopped with first aid
kits, motorcyclists who directed traffic and the emergency services
personnel all came together with the one goal to help another in
distress.

I'll post information as I find out more.

-april

PS you can help by donating to his ScooterRelief.org fund.

Scooterists in Need

You may have read abut Scooter-Relief.org in past issues of Scoot!, but I wanted to let you know about the organization and encourage you to do whatever you can to help. According to the website:

In September of 2005, as the sheer magnitude of the Hurricane Katrina disaster became apparent to the world, the Jedi Knights Scooter Club and other scooterists realized we had to do something to help our friends in from New Orleans.

We quickly formed Scooter-Relief.org to coordinate relief donations for scooterists from New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast.

Since September of 2005 we raised thousands of dollars with the help of the national scooter community, clubs, individuals and shops. We have distributed these funds in an equitable fashion to all Katrina survivors who have applied for funds.

Scooter-Relief has also responded to the needs of other scooterists--victims of accidents and some facing serious illness.

The group has helped out several scooterists, some who have experienced terrible accidents, others who are facing serious diseases, while others have been the victims of natural disasters. Whatever the case, it's hard to ask for help, but sometimes it is often unavoidable. Scooter-Relief.org harnesses the global nature of our community and allows scooterists to help other scooterists.

I just personally donated some of my money for the two needy scooterists for which the website is raising funds. I hope you will consider doing so, also. On the site, you can find a description of the situation of the scooterists in need and imagine how you'd cope with a similar situation.