Wear a helmet. Please.

I was coming home from work yesterday when I drove up on an accident that happened at the entrance to my neighborhood. It was a bad scene.

I was about three cars back when it happened, but by the time I creeped into the subdivision entrance, it was obvious this crash was not going to be cleaned up anytime soon. A small car. A Harley Davidson motorcycle. A young girl standing screaming in the middle of the highway. An older man laying on the ground, his head bleeding profusely, his sunglasses laying beside him.

The motorcycle was about 50 feet further up the road. There wasn't a helmet in sight. People were scrambling out of cars as fast as possible to see what, if anything, they could do to help. I did too.

After throwing my truck into park, I jogged up to the young girl (she was 23, it turns out) and just put my arms around her to walk her away from the accident a little ways. She was hysterical, standing outside the driver's door of her car, staring down at the man who'd just cracked his skull open on her front bumper when the pair didn't see each other entering/approaching a really dangerous intersection.

Police were called. Firetrucks arrived. Paramedics were next, followed by more police, more firefighters, and finally, LifeLine. The man on the motorcycle wasn't wearing a helmet. And while his motorcycle never made contact with the 23-year-old's car, his head most certainly did as he skidded his way down the road in an attempt to avoid a crash.

The girl was devastated and sobbing uncontrollably for at least an hour. I talked to her mom on the phone and gave her directions to the crash site. Then I stayed with the girl, along with another lady from my neighborhood, and just tried to keep her from going crazy while she watched, worried and wondered WHAT was going to happen to this man whose face she said she saw up-close-and-personal through the windshield as she slammed on her brakes pre-crash.

I felt awful for her. I felt awful for the man who was critically injured. I couldn't do anything but just be there for this "kid" who knew no one, had no one in town that was family and could not for the life of her remember anyone's phone number but her mother's.

The man, according to the paper, is from Lebanon. He's at Methodist now. They don't know if he'll make it. The girl, she told me, is from Noblesville. Her mom is from Carmel. The two reunited about an hour after the crash. Both were shaken, distraught, and terribly, terribly scared for the man who was injured.

I drove away after making sure they had what they needed and thanked my lucky stars it wasn't me or anyone I knew in that intersection. And I was immediately grateful that Zoe took her helmet with her to San Francisco, if only for simple bike rides to the park.

Head injuries are oh-so-devastating. This man might have been OK if he'd worn a helmet. Please wear yours. No matter what.