Tiger Tales 1: A True Chilling Story

By the Law Tigers
America’s Injury Lawyers Who Ride

A True Chilling Story; Someone Upstairs is Watching over Us Riders

As a firm that specializes in motorcycle injuries, we unfortunately see all types of catastrophic injuries including loss of limbs, traumatic head injuries and, of course, riders who perish. We hear all types of tragic stories of human suffering as well as stories of courage and faith. The following story is a true story that was told to the LawTigers by the parents and their son, a young man who was seriously injured in a motorcycle collision. Although the LawTigers have changed the name of our client to protect his real identity, we have not embellished the story in any way or attempted to make it more dramatic than it is. The LawTigers were able to independently verify some of the facts of this story.

Jeremy Dale was a 19 year old student from Dallas, Texas attending an out of state college. Jeremy had grown up around motorcycles and spent most of his life riding. Both his mother and father rode motorcycles and had done so for years. Therefore, it was natural that when Jeremy went to college, he brought his Harley-Davidson Sportster with him.

A woman was talking on her cell phone, not paying attention to her driving, and made a left turn in front of Jeremy. Jeremy had no opportunity to stop or take evasive action to avoid the car making the turn in front of him. As a result, Jeremy violently collided with the rear quarter panel of the adverse driver’s vehicle. At the point of impact, Jeremy was thrown more than thirty feet off his motorcycle.

The laws of the state where Jeremy was residing did not require that a motorcyclist wear a helmet and Jeremy, unfortunately, was not wearing one on this day. As Jeremy was thrown from the motorcycle, he landed face first onto the roadway. It was later determined that Jeremy had sustained fractures to most of the bones in his face.

As Jeremy lay in the roadway unable to move, he was aware of his surroundings and that he had sustained very serious injuries. As with most head wounds, he was bleeding profusely from his head and face. Jeremy recalls that as he lay there, he drifted in and out of consciousness.

The first person to appear at the crash site was a middle aged man who was wearing a reverend’s collar. He had seen the accident and was a car length behind Jeremy at the time of the collision. He ran to Jeremy who lay face down in the roadway. He had a blanket and a towel that he had removed from the trunk of this car. He slowly and carefully turned Jeremy over to survey the extent of his injuries. The man realized immediately the seriousness of Jeremy’s injuries simply by looking at Jeremy and the amount of blood loss. Doctors would later say that there was no remaining skeletal structure to Jeremy’s face. They described his face as a sack of broken bones held together only by the skin of his face.

The man wrapped Jeremy’s head with the towel. The man propped Jeremy up by placing his arm around the back of Jeremy’s neck. He spoke quietly to Jeremy. Jeremy has a very distinct recollection of what the man said to him. The man said, “I am Reverend Lane Smith of the 10th Street Bethany Church. You are going to be just fine. You are God’s child and he will not abandon you in your hour of need. I will sit here with you and pray with you while we wait for the ambulance.”

Jeremy remembers feeling little pain although he realizes that he drifted in and out of consciousness. He remembers each time he regained consciousness looking up and seeing Reverend Smith’s face. At some point, he realized that the paramedics had arrived and they were cutting his clothing off him. He recalls only then did Reverend Smith let go of him, although he remembers him continuing to hold his hand and talking to him.

When the paramedics finally began to load Jeremy into the ambulance, he closed his eyes and laid his head back. Jeremy remembers hearing the chilling words that the paramedics said to Reverend Smith, “This one is not going to make it.”

Jeremy related some time later that he wanted to scream out with all of his being that he was still alive and he was fighting to stay that way. He heard Reverend Smith say, “This boy is going to be just fine.” Jeremy closed his eyes and has no other recollection until he awoke in the hospital the following day.

Jeremy’s parents flew in from Dallas the next day. Over the course of the next week it became apparent that indeed, Jeremy was going to make it although he required several facial surgeries and extensive dental work.

Once Jeremy was out of critical condition, he relayed the story of his encounter with Reverend Smith. Indeed, when the LawTigers obtained the ambulance records for Jeremy’s case, it indicated that when the paramedics arrived, “the patient was lying supine in the roadway supported by a motorist (clergy).”

After hearing from Jeremy how much support Reverend Smith had been to their son, Jeremy’s parents decided to visit Reverend Smith and let him know how much his help had meant and that Jeremy was doing fine. They went to see Reverend Smith at the 10th Street Bethany church. Being new to town, they were having trouble locating the church. Finally, they stopped in a church they found at 7th Street and Bethany.

The Office was staffed by the proverbial “little old church lady”. Jeremy’s parents told the woman that they were looking for Reverend Lane Smith of the 10th Street Bethany church and that they were having trouble locating the church. Could she help them?

“May I ask what you want with Reverend Smith?” she asked. Jeremy’s parents said that “it was a personal matter” that they wanted to see Reverend Smith about. The church lady looked puzzled and said, “The 10th Street Bethany church has been gone from that corner for years and Reverend Smith passed away over 15 years ago.”