In other news, I had another accident on my bike yesterday. On my way home from work, a truck pulled out on me whilst on a roundabout (here is a great introduction to roundabouts for Americans). This ought not to happen as I had right of way, but I can only assume that either the truck driver didn’t see me, or that he assumed that I was going slowly. As a result, he pulled out on me; slowly because it was a big truck; and I had to swerve round him. Unfortunately he was too slow for me to get completely round the back of him. With a 4 or 6 inch high kerb approaching, I had to turn the bike and slide it and thus me along the floor to stop.
I hit the floor hard and slid to a stop. As I got up a chap pulled my bike off the road and started asking if I was OK. A couple of other people kindly stopped to check too. The truck driver was, of course, long gone. My arm was badly grazed and my ribs hurt. After a couple of deep breaths, I figured they weren’t broken. Luckily too, my bike wasn’t damaged, though my shorts now have a hole, and the screen on my mobile phone is cracked and it only shows about a third of the display.
So, after thanking the people who had stopped, I got back on my bike and cycled the rest of the way home — I had about another 9 miles to go. By the time I got home, my ribs were hurting a lot and I knew I would be off my bike again for at least a few days. That’s a real shame too as I’d just got back into doing a full 70 miles a week.
After some more hassle I won’t go into right now, Jan gave me a lift up to our local A&E department. It was busy and I ended up waiting for two and a half hours to see a doctor. He listened to my chest and decided nothing was broken or even cracked and that I didn’t need an x-ray. I waited another half hour to get a dressing on my arm and then made my way home.
I’ve had to have the day off work today, it’s quite painful to move around. When I sit or stand still, it feels fine. But as soon as I move the pain kicks in. I’ll probably be off work tomorrow too.
We’ve just had a couple really bad bike related accidents involving Australians in the last week or so.
On Saturday 16th July, a triathlete was completing long distance training session and was knocked from his bike. At which point, the drivers stopped and whilst he was laying on the road concussed, abused him (I just couldn’t believe it). Thankfully, the accident happened near the beach and our Gold Coast Life Guards came to his rescue immediately.
The Australian Women’s Cycling team are in Germany at the moment. On Tuesday 19th July, they were hit by an out of control car, driven by a young female who has held her license for just 4 weeks. The accident killed Amy Gillett, placed two more in intensive care (where they remain still today, with grave fears that they may also die), whilst the other three escaped with a combination of broken bones and cuts.
It just isn’t good enough, people need to learn to pay more attention. My fiance doesn’t want me to get a road bike for the same reason, not because she has doubt in my ability to ride (I’ve been riding for years), but the inability of the average joe to pay attention and/or even see motorbikes on the road.
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Al.
Al
Oh dear, those are two terrible stories. I know what you mean about your fiance not wanting you to ride.
I’m lucky really, in that this is only my second bad accident in eight years of cycling. But it’s the second in a three months, my other accident was slightly worse than this one!
I think I’ll have to go back to wearing my high-visibility reflective jacket even in broad daylight! But that’s still no guarantee of course.
Mike
I nkow what a pain it can be!
Have had a few accidents on my motor bike and its been bad.
Basically half a day you seem fine and then your down and out for the next week
Well, I’m just too shameless to stop driving.
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Some british drivers really do need shooting. All the people at college are good drivers when it comes to cyclists though, mainly because of me and my best mate moaning about bad drivers not paying attention to us cyclists.
We can only try and change the world…
Sorry to hear the bad news. I too had a run in with a car accident on my bike a while back and it really is scary when people are just completely ignorant of cyclists. I hope you have a speedy recovery.
Oh, we have roundabouts here in the states. The only problem is that a) no one knows how to design a sane one and b) American drivers don’t understand how to navigate them!
Pat, your crash sounded bad. I presume you have recovered now.
Kurt, I knew there were some but I thought they were pretty rare.
They should be a good thing and easier to negotiate as you only ever have to care about traffic from one direction. But if you are only used to standard traffic light controlled junctions they can be a bit weird.
Mike
I gave up driving a bike due to falling off too much. My wife wouldn’t let me anymore. I took up a car instead, but it seemed so much more expensive. Anyways, I took an intensive driving course and passed within a week, but they taught me how to be a safe driver, save money, and the environment. Do they do anything like this for Bike Riders? Then my wife might let me back on!