It has been more than a year since the motorcycle accident, but the scars are still fresh.

Auburn resident Hailey Rice was 17 years old on June 2, 2007, when she fell off the back of a motorcycle that was traveling at 97 mph down Gates Road in Sennett.

Police reports indicate Rice, who was a passenger on the bike, was ejected when the motorcycle hit the crest of a hill.

“We were going too fast and it felt like he was out of control,” Hailey said. “I fell off the back and went sliding 234 feet down the road in front of Arnold Palmer (Golf Facilities) in only flip flops, tank top, shorts and a helmet.”

Don Martino, owner of the golf facilities, said he saw the motorcycle head east off of Genesee Street at a high rate of speed.

“It turned around about a quarter mile down the street and came racing back,” Martino said. “You could hear the engine revving, it was so loud it was just screaming. I heard the screech of the brakes when the driver stopped to turn around after Hailey fell off.”

Martino called 911 after he ran out to the street and saw a long blood trail going down the road, leading to Hailey's body lying face down in the ditch.

“It was really bad, her whole back side was skinned almost to the bone,” Martino said. “Someone came back a few days later and found the tank top she had been wearing. It was literally in shreds.”

Hailey only remembered tumbling before she began sliding down the road on her back, feet first, as the pavement grinded away her flesh.

Hailey suffered mild amnesia and third-degree road rash to nearly 25 percent of her body as a result of the accident. She needed 14 skin grafts to replace her lost tissue and she received metal plates where the heels of her feet had been scrapped away by the road.

“I was using my feet and upper body and helmet to stop myself,” Hailey said. “Your supposed to keep yourself straight like that when you crash; otherwise, you could break your bones, and I didn't break any bones”

But shorts, a tank top and flip flops did nothing to protect her body from the abrasive pavement when she landed.

“When they did the skin grafts, they had to take some skin from my thighs with this thing that was like a cheese slicer,” Hailey said. “They just peeled off a layer of skin and put it on over my scrapes.”

As the skin grafts attached to her body, Hailey had to endure painful baths that overwhelmed her exposed nerve endings.

“It was hell. It was the most painful, disgusting thing that I have ever been through,” Hailey said. “For four months I couldn't be exposed to the sun. I would bump into things all the time and I always had to wrap up the wounds. Every three hours I had to do something to clean them or change them, it was like having to take care of a baby.”

Sue Rice, Hailey's mother, said her daughter had spent her whole life around motorcycles because her father, Tom Rice, raced them in motocross events.

“She should have known better,” Sue said. “Safety is the No.1 concern when riding a motorcycle. You always wear a helmet and the right equipment. Every time you turn around it seems like some one is dying in a motorcycle accident because they didn't.”

Dean Thompson, director of communications for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, said the right clothing could be critical in reducing road rash-related injuries when a person falls.

“You want to cover up every inch of skin because anything that's visible is vulnerable when you crash,” Thompson said. “And you want stuff that protects your extremities. Your joints are especially susceptible to injuries.”

The scars from Hailey's accident have prevented her from going swimming and even caused her to change the way she dresses to hide them.

The scars have left her feeling self-conscious, as if people are always looking at them, Hailey said.

“I will always have the scars,” Hailey said. “I will be an old lady someday and I will look and see my scars and think, ‘If only I had worn the right gear.”

Adding to her ordeal, Hailey said she can't stand to see or hear motorcycles when she is out on the road.

Whether it means slowing down to force the motorcycles to pass her, taking alternate routes to avoid following a motorcycle or turning away when one drives down the street as she walks, Hailey said she does whatever it takes to fight the overwhelming memories and the fear.

With one exception.

“Unless it's motocross - I have already gone to see my dad race once and I am going to go again this weekend,” Hailey said last week. “That's different. There's dirt when you fall, not pavement.”

But the one thing Hailey couldn't stand to see, was another girl riding down on a motorcycle wearing the same type of clothing she wore on that fateful day in June.

“I tried to look cute and this is what happened to me,” Hailey said. “I would rather be safe and look terrible than look good and end up looking terrible. You may look cute now but wait until something bad happens.”

Staff writer Nate Robson can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or nathan.robson@lee.net