~~ Air Bag-Like Jacket Saves Motorcyclist's Life ~~ and LOUD PIPES

Air Bag-Like Jacket Saves Motorcyclist's Life

POSTED: 3:59 pm EDT October 12, 2007
UPDATED: 6:25 pm EDT October 12, 2007

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.