KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — In 2018, 168 people died on motorcycles in Tennessee. Travis Walker was close to being number 169, but luckily escaped a crash with his life.
"I wasn't on my motorcycle a minute and a half before the accident happened," Travis Walker said.
Walker was leaving a get together with his friends from work when a car pulled out in front of his bike. Walker had no time to stop and slammed right into the car.
"I severed every tendon in my finger and my wrist. I broke my foot, my rib, collapsed my lung, broke a shoulder blade and broke a collar bone," Walker said.
Walker said he doesn't think the driver saw him because of the blind hill and the way the sun was setting.
"I hit the windshield and flew about 67 feet in the air and another 60 feet on the ground, and damaged quite a bit of my body," he said.
A year after his accident, Walker still rides motorcycles, sells motorcycles and loves every second of it.
"There's certain things in life that give you relaxation and peace of mind, and anyone that rides a motorcycle will tell you that," Walker said.
While he won't stop riding, he also won't stop stressing the importance of being aware on the road.
"People really need to pay attention," he said.
Management at Honda of Knoxville said this is the busy season and people from all over the country will come to our state to ride.
"There's a bunch of riders on the road when the season breaks open. They are everywhere," Thane Johnson, the Marketing Manager at Honda of Knoxville said.
He said riders need to avoid being in the blind spot of a driver, don't trail too close and always look both ways even when the light is green.
"Cars can't see you as well unless they are looking very closely and they tend not to do that," Johnson said.
According to the National Highway Traffic Administration, there's an upward trend in motorcycle deaths.
One more reason riders want you to pay attention while on the road.
According to crash data collected by the Tennessee Dept. of Safety and Homeland Security, in the past 20 years they have seen a rising trend in the number of motorcycle fatalities. 2018 was the deadliest year in the past two decades with 168 deaths.