I'm not entirely sure what happened to our group today. Neil and I followed Tom down some dirt road inside of Brook Forest, and then he disappeared and so did everyone else.
Anyway, we continued on towards Deckers, and just a few miles north of Horsepower Hill, we were making a right hander and caught a glimpse of a red Interceptor coming our way. The rider appeared to have taken his left hander way too hot, and the bike started getting squirrely as he passed us. I looked back to see the bike in the air, followed by a cloud of dust. We immediately turned around and went back to where he had crashed, to find the rider unconscious in the ditch. His mangled bike was laying on top of him. Our initial reaction, given how everything looked, was that the rider had died. Needless to say, we were starting to freak out.
In the minutes following the crash, we lifted the bike off of the guy with the assistance of other riders and cagers who had stopped to see if everything was okay. Once the bike had been moved, we were able to see that he was still breathing, though unconscious. It took nearly 3 minutes before he woke up, and probably another 2 before he was able to talk. We had him check to make sure he still had feeling in all 4 limbs, and that he was able to breathe without difficulty. It took another 10 minutes before emergency services arrived, and we stayed until he was evacuated by ambulance.
Hands down, the scariest thing I've ever seen happen to a motorcyclist in person. As far as we know, the guy is still okay with only minor skin injuries, and it didn't seem at the time that anything was broken. We have his friends' contact information, and will be following up with them tomorrow.
This goes without saying - the guy would have died if he wasn't wearing his helmet.