"My friends and I decided we wanted to ride up Mount Evans. It was in September, so it was cold, but we were really excited about it. But, while we were riding I wasn't feeling my best and I was getting tied so I decided to turn around," Williams said.
Her boyfriend followed her back down the mountain, but at that time the winds started to pick up.
"I was fighting these awful headwinds. Unknown to me the headwinds turned into tailwinds and my speed nearly doubled. I went from going thirty miles per hour to more than 50 miles per hour."
She tried to break to slow herself down, but it didn't help and she was approaching a curve.
"I started to recover, but I had barely left the road and a cross wind took me the wrong way and I fell 30 feet, William's said, off the side of the mountain and landed on rocks."
She says she could hardly move and was screaming for help, but because of the strong winds no one could hear her.
"There was a European couple that rode by. The woman saw the shadow of my bike and she stopped and they were able to call for help and I was airlifted to the hospital. My whole ribcage especially on the right was shattered, my scapula was shattered, I had countless vertebrae that were shattered. My helmet saved my life. Without it my head would have been split like an egg, Williams said."
It took Williams eight painful and long months to recover. But, she did and she's back on her bike again. Determined to shake her fears and rekindle her love of riding again. Her new goal is to head back up to Mount Evans and ride the same path she did when she fell. She says it's something she'll be tackling next weekend.
For more information on helmet safety: http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/bike/EasyStepsWeb/.
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