WOODBURY, Minn. - It's amazing he survived.
That's the impression many will have after watching a dashcam video of a motorcyclist hitting a large floating water mat that fell off the back of a boat being pulled down I-94 in Woodbury on June 18.
Brendan Jankowski was the man at the handlebars of that motorcycle, a 2015 Yamaha he had just purchased for his 20th birthday two weeks prior to the crash. The dashcam video (taken by Linda Leverty and posted both to her YouTube and Facebook accounts) captures a black Chevy SUV passing her vehicle in the left lane pulling a ski boat with the the large rolled-up water mat on the back deck.
[Mobile users: WATCH the dashcam video here.]
As the video continues Jankowski also passes Leverty's car, and is approximately three or four car lengths behind the boat when the mat rolls off. He tries to change lanes but is unable to avoid the mat, and both Jankowski and his new bike are sent cartwheeling down the pavement at highway speed.
Jankowski rolls like a log down the interstate, coming to a rest square in the middle of the left lane of I-94. He is extremely fortunate another vehicle is not right on his heels, or he would have been run over.
The bike comes to a rest on the far right shoulder.
Jankowski tells KARE 11's Dylan Wohlenhaus he only suffered minor injuries, scrapes, bruises and road rash, likely because he was wearing a helmet and a new jacket he had purchased just 30 minutes before the crash.
The State Patrol says the SUV towing the boat did not stop and that the driver may not even have known the water mat fell off. Troopers also say alcohol was not a factor, and that Jankowski was not at fault.