As for the slow motion portion I find the opposite, but my view may be purely semantics.
While running on track everything seems slowed down/normal to me (could be the A.D.D.) but in a crash everything goes by rapidly. Keep in mind in 30 years of car racing I have (knock wood) not crashed, I have had a car catch on fire in a 125 mph corner but no crashes. Now my motorcycle racing was a different story; I once went over the bars at about 85 mph, every detail of the get off is indelibly etched in my brain, once I actually impacted the ground and slammed bounced along everything happened in a flash. One second I was on the bike the next I was on the ground wondering why my feet and hands hurt so much. i can still remember travel face down head first along the tarmac and the face shield grinding into two haves like it just happened. The overwhelming memory is of the raw violence of the incident.
I joke that I screamed and no sound came out, naturally I was back racing again in a few weeks, the brain is a marvelous thing.
I think it seems slow-motion is because we can remember every nanosecond of the incident.
Christina I will be interested to see what words of advice you have in future articles.
In reply to irish44j :
Yeah ... take a look at the tree on the inside of this corner - it appears it jumped out of nowhere for a large number of drivers
About 35 years ago, in my early thirtys (can I be that old?), had a get off on my motorbike. CASUAL Sunday morning ride along Ortega Hwy in SoCal. Moron in a Toyota pickup truck pull onto the road w/o looking and initiated a U turn, I tagged hm just behind the front wheel and over his hood.
Point of me telling the story is that I flew over the hood, and was almost unscathed. Typical scrapes and bruises, but my right wrist was shattered as I was clamped hard on the front brake.
In some situations you need to plan for alternatives. In this one, I think I chose to ride it out (I later learned that the other guys insurance was hoping to avoid some % responsibility by thinking I'd decided o lay it down, surrendering control of the bike to God and natural forces.) Do I think I made the wrong decision braking hard? One could claim had I braked harder, I would have gone into the cab side, probably exacerbatin' my injuries. Had I not braked, i would have hit at or before his front wheel, but at higher speed. In my case, I think I Goldilock's, I pulled some speed out of the collision, and got damn lucky.
So to me the upshot is think about different types of accidents while you're parked on your couch, and practice hand/foot movements to try to build some muscle memory.
35 years on, I can still predict rain, have 80-90% of my wrist movement, and have a lump an inch in diameter and 1/2" high from my otherwise perfectly symetrical form.
Two months later I threw a leg over the backup bike, and ran the Laverda Alpina for 'nother 2 years
So glad to hear all the positive comments.
Look for part 2 this Monday.
The other problem with bracing your legs is that you increase risk of injury to your back. And back injuries generally cause greater long-term morbidity than limb injuries.
On a related note: pay attention to padding. I've been in lots of racecars (that passed tech!) with literally no padding at all on lower parts of the door bars or front stay. You don't want to smack the side of your ankle into naked steel. I'm anal about covering anything I might possibly hit with SFI padding. To protect limbs (not just helmeted head) you'll want dual-durometer foam.
Also pay attention to things like helmet hooks and rearview mirror mounts. I've seen a lot of them that could spear parts of you if limbs start flailing about.
