Primarily unrecognized thoracoabdominal impalement in a motorcyclist.

In traffic accidents, fatal impalements are mostly seen in vehicle occupants injured by penetrating blunt-tipped objects such as fence posts or iron bars. Compared with this group of road users, the medical literature lacks reports on impaled motorcyclists. The article presents a case which deserves attention in several respects: 1. Both the impaling object and the victim were moving at the moment of penetration. 2. The lethal impalement trauma remained unrecognized until autopsy, particularly since the causative object did not get stuck in the wound track. 3. Two different body parts (head and trunk) were consecutively affected analogous to re-entry wounds in gunshots and stabs. 4. Due to the tubular shape and the sharp-edged end of the penetrating instrument (stanchion of a broken front-wheel's fork), clothing and soft tissues were punched out along the wound channel and partly remained lodged in the tube's cavity.