The GoPro camera recorded the moment that a motorcyclist smashed into an oncoming fire truck.
Footage from the GoPro shows the beginning of the road, the terrifying collision, and the medical care that the rider received following the incident. Jesse Lopez was riding in California when he took a blind corner and collided with the truck.
GoPro captures shocking footage
The GoPro footage shows that the Glendora Ridge Road in the Angeles National Forest in Southern California was deserted apart from the rider, his friend, and the fire truck. Unfortunately for Lopez, the very corner on which he slightly lost control of his bike happened to be the one which the fire truck was approaching at that exact moment.
Lopez plows head on into the fire truck, and the GoPro keeps recording as he spins through the air and rolls across the ground. From the moment of impact until he comes to rest the video is blurry, before we are presented with a view of the sky as Lopez lies on the floor.
“I don’t remember what happened due to memory loss, but I might have panicked when I saw the truck,” he later told NBC News. “So I applied the front brake, which straightened me out and I went straight toward the truck, which was also moving probably about 35 mph.”
Comments criticize friend for response to crash
The crash itself occurred on April 1, but Lopez did not upload the footage until June 5. Since the footage appeared online, negative comments have criticized the actions of Lopez’s friend, who is seen to pick up the camera in the aftermath of the crash. Internet users claimed that he only “cared about the GoPro.”
Lopez spoke out in support of his friend. “Listen at about 10:28. You can hear me asking for the camera, he picked it up because I wanted it. He was here for me after the accident and would visit me.”
The accident should discourage drivers on normally quiet roads from taking unnecessary risks, and Lopez suffered a broken femur, tibia, fibula, ulna and humerus at the elbow as a result of the collision, and the GoPro video is online for all to see.
