Excitement on the road

It's 10:20 in the morning as we leave Starbucks for some much needed caffeine as I drive south through Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, and I remember that we need to find a bank to withdraw some pesos. As I search for a bank, the caffeine still hasn't kicked in, I decide to turn left onto a side-street to go around the block instead of attempting an u-turn in the middle of a busy street. As I start my left turn off the side street into the next street, suddenly there is a loud bang against my door and the next thing I see is a motorcycle with the rider laying on the street. We need help God! I run over to the rider lying in the street. His ankle and knee are clearly hurt, but otherwise he looks OK. Colleen moves our car out of the intersection, she the kids stay in the car, and a small crowd of witnesses starts to gather. I ask someone to call an ambulance, but before I can even finish, an ambulance pulls up. If you read the blog about Juan, you'll know that ambulances don't just show up in a minute in Mexico, if they ever show up at all. A minute later, a policeman pulls up and starts evaluating the scene. Witnesses come forward, the vast majority supporting my version that I was turning left with my blinker on and the motorcyclist tried to pass me to go straight on the left side before I turned. After the policeman finishes his report (partially), we both sign it and even though he says that the motorcyclist is more at fault, he suggests that I should pay for an x-ray of his leg so that he can't claim anything against me later. The owner of the company, who the young man works for, has also come to the scene, along with her husband, so we follow them to a small private hospital a few blocks away. The couple call their personal physician, who just happens to be an orthopedic surgeon working in the same hospital. He looks at the x-ray (for which I paid $30 US) and examines the cyclist and pronounces him OK with only a "golpe" (bumps & bruises). The doctor also refuses any payment. So in less than 2.5 hours we are free to go. Remarkable! How's our car? Well, it does have some dents in the driver's side door and the running board, but in light of how this event could have played out, we have no problem with that. Sorry we didn't get any great pictures of the accident, but I did take this picture of the intersection where you can see the police car on the left side and the motorcycle to the right of the intersection. God is with us!