A motorcycle, a deer a life-saving lesson
By Debbie Lowe

Councilman Ashby feels lucky to be alive Steve Ashby looks at the damage done to his motorcycle, helmet and jacket after an early-morning incident with a deer on a road near Delphi. Ashby said he is glad to be able to stand and walk and assess the damage. Comet photo by Debbie Lowe

County council member Steve Ashby has been going to breakfast with friends early every Sunday morning for the past several years. Sometimes he drives his truck to the gathering and sometimes he rides his motorcycle.

He decided to ride his bike on Sept. 10 and now wishes he'd taken the truck. On the Crooked Road to Delphi/Flora, as Ashby came over the hill at the Whiteman Addition near the new bridge on CR200N, a deer bolted out onto the road and hit him.

"I was only going about 35 mph, but it was a hard jolt," Ashby said.

"I moved out here in 1974. I could ride to Delphi and never see a deer," he said. "Now it's not uncommon to see two dozen on the same trip."

His bike was totally destroyed in the wreck and Ashby was injured enough to be hospitalized for five days.

"It would have been a whole lot worse if I hadn't been wearing protective clothing and a helmet," he said.

Ashby suffered six broken ribs, muscle damage in his left shoulder, a bleeding spleen, knee lacerations and deep general bruising.

The 63-year-old Ashby said he has ridden his bike to over one-half of the lower forty-eight states and to Alaska.

"I've probably ridden more than 300,000 miles since 1955 when I started riding," he said. "I was only 12 years old then and my brother and I rode a bike to work."

Ashby was wearing a heavy gage helmet, a heavy leather jacket, lined leather gloves, new blue jeans and leather riding boots.

"I see these kids riding in tank tops, shorts and no helmets with their girlfriends on the back and I cringe," he said. "They don't understand what happens when they fall over and their body drags along the pavement."

Ashby said he was directed by his doctor to do very little in the next three to six months as he recuperates. He can't harvest his crops this year. He can't drive a truck. He can't ride his other motorcycle and he can't fly his airplane.

"People who ride without proper protection take the risk of not being able to do things they enjoy if they experience what I did," he said. "The only reason I'm talking about this is that it might wake one person up."

"This is bad," Ashby said. "But it could have been a whole lot worse. I'll take this."