At about 10:30 am on October 15, 41-year-old Kevin Diepenrock went for a ride on his motorcycle with a coworker, Phillip Polito. When the two stopped at a scenic site on Highway 129 (often known as “The Dragon”), Diepenrock accidentally hit the back of Polito’s bike.
Both men fell over the edge of the embankment. Polito died at the scene while Diepenrock slid about 100 feet and suffered punctured lungs, broken ribs, and spinal fractures.
He called out for help, but none of the motorists on the roadway above heard him. Plus, he’d fallen too far down the hill to be easily seen by cars passing by on the road.
Diepenrock attempted to send text messages to his family, but none of them went through. Neither did any of his desperate Facebook status updates. His phone was out of range of signal, so he couldn’t call for help.
When Diepenrock realized hos dire his situation was, he decided to begin recording videos for his family.
“Hey everyone,” he began in the first one, “I f***ed up, that’s all I can really say. At about 10:30 this morning. Been laying here ever since… I just wanted to say I love you guys. Sorry I was being stupid…”
Diepenrock recorded a series of these videos as time passes. Then his phone ran out of battery. He recalled, “That was when I thought, ‘I’m dead.’”
That was when a miracle happened.
Just after Diepenrock had resigned himself to his death, a couple rode past on “The Dragon.” She wanted to stop for a drink of water – and then heard Diepenrock’s desperate yells for help. She and her partner couldn’t find Diepenrock, so they recruited help from a nearby photo shop.
The photo shop employee, Joshua Johnson, was the one who finally spotted Diepenrock down the ravine.
“Josh came sliding down,” Diepenrock recalled. “I just remember this guy and he’s got his full helmet on, full race gear from a sport bike-type situation. This guy seemed like he was just bounding down the hill for me.”
Diepenrock was immediately airlifted to the hospital and will, thankfully, be able to recover. Once he was stable, he told media sources, “Never forget to tell people you love them. That’s all I could think about when I was down there. Was that, you know, I never, you never say that enough. You never spend enough time with your parents, you never spend enough time with people that are close to you.”
Watch his chilling videos here:
