giving up on riding motorcycles

I will keep this short as it’s something I just wanted to vent about.

For context, I bought my first bike in May 2023. I have been riding only cars since 2017 and had finally convinced my girlfriend and mother to let me get my own bike.

Fast-forward to today and I have covered 18K on my interceptor 650 and almost all of it is long out station rides. Because each of these rides would be a distressing affair for my family, I had promised myself that were I to crash even once I would stop riding altogether. To achieve this I would be a very risk averse rider.

Well turns out in India even being fully risk averse is not enough.

Yesterday i was on day long ride and was on a patch of a national highway doing about 70-75kmph. There were two people standing on the side of the road talking so i didnt take much note of them. When I was about 10 feet away, one of them walked straight onto the road while looking the other way. I slammed on the brakes, but obviously could not stop in time. I collided with the man, fell off and slid on the road for about 100 metres. The bike went a bit further ahead.

Post that I collected my senses, rested at a tea shop nearby and then went to the hospital with the relative of the man who I collided with. I had a civil discussion with them about the fact that it was not my fault and that there is nothing I can do if someone walks out in front of me like that. They initially were saying i was going too fast but then agreed to my point that he crossed without looking. Also I brought up the fact that the relative himself was riding at 80kmph while taking us to the hospital that too without helmet and while talking on the phone!

They told me how they were in a very bad place financially. It seemed they belonged to a tribal community that lived outside the village and were pretty much like daily wage workers I guess. I felt very sorry for their situation and offered to pay some portion of their expenses. The man’s leg was fractured and the doc said it would approx be 60-80k. I paid the relative 50K and he thanked me and we parted ways.

To the members of this community I would just like to say to please wear all the proper good quality gear. After this fall i just have a swollen palm and literally no scratch on my body.

Lastly I do not think such an accident can be avoided, I could not have swerved in time and safely crashed anywhere. I generally have a rule to stay below 60kmph when the highway passes through a village but this time the road was pretty much empty and so I went a bit faster. However such unpredictable behaviour is too much for me to handle given the possible dire consequences and so I have decided to not tempt fate once more and give up on riding.