BALTIMORE – While motorists who have been in car crashes often attribute the help of air bags to saving their lives, a Maryland motorcycle rider injured in a collision is doing the same – for a jacket.
Joseph McPhatter, of Randallstown, was injured in a crash on Interstate 83 after being cut off by another motorist in September. According to police, McPhatter was ejected 100 feet, hitting the ground at an impact rate of 140 mph.
Police said that McPhatter might have been severely injured had it not been for the Impact Jacket he was wearing – a jacket that inflates like an air bag when a motorcyclist is in an wreck.
McPhatter suffered from sore ribs and knees and a few other minor injuries, but it could have been much worse, officials said.
Officials said McPhatter’s crash was the first real-life incident in the U.S. where the jacket was used.
