It’s been a rough couple of rides for my commuting. Friday, crash in the rain. Monday, broken derailer. Wednesday, hit by a car. Just 1 mile from the office as I came into Redmond today, I got hit by a car making a left into a parking lot. I saw it coming a split second before it happened and knew I was going to get hit and go down.
It started out a pretty pleasant ride. There was residual warmth from yesterday’s unseasonably warm day. It takes a lot of concentration still to keep the pace down. I did forget my HRM so I didn’t really get a reading but was working to keep it around 16 MPH. I was sweating up a storm after 3 miles and thinking about shedding the rain gear. I kept it on until Inglewood Hill Rd since the light is usually red when I get there. I stripped off the rain pants and jacket. I hopped back on just as the light turned green again and pedaled through, right into a light, cool, falling rain. Since I knew I had to ride home in the clothes I had on I pulled over and put the paints and bright orange jacket back on. It’s important to be visible, right?
At least with some rain I was getting to see how the fenders were working out. They work great. since the clearance was really tight when ever a leaf or dirt got picked up it made a bit of a buzzing/ripping sound as it drug along the inside of the fender. I’m going to love having them on. They make a HUGE difference in keeping the me and the bike clean.
So here we go. I approached the intersection the way I always do. There’s a wide shoulder and I believe up to the intersection it’s a bike lane. I looked up to check the light was green and it was so I kept cruising on. As I entered the intersection I saw some motion on my left and looked up to see a green sedan coming at me. I growled out loud in frustration knowing I was going to get hit. I know from inspecting my rain pants that I slid my left knee across the hood of the car since there’s a tear in my rain pants there.
I ended up on my back and laid there for a few seconds. While I did 3 people showed up to check to see if I was OK. As I got up I noticed the red tail light from my pack in pieces across the road. For some reason I picked up those pieces while a man picked up my bike for me. I took off my pack, set it up on the side walk and began to check out my bike. It seemed to be basically OK. I seemed to be basically OK. Nothing felt broken and with the adrenaline nothing hurt too bad.
My right hip, foot, and hand hurt the worst, still do. I pulled out my Blackberry and started to taking notes. The woman driving the car was very nice and very worried about me. I got her information and refused about 8 rides to work. I was thinking I was doing pretty well. One of the people offering help suggested if I was going to ride the rest of the way to work that I wait till I stopped shaking. That advise I took.
15 minutes later when I decided to ride the rest of the way to work I checked my handle bar alignment and waited till traffic was clear to enter the lane. The oddest feeling - the bike felt ‘unstable’. The front wheel is out of true the rear wheel may be as well. There may be some frame dammage, I didn’t even think to check at the time. It just seemed like the wheels were too skinny. Very weird.
Lots of aches and pains showed up throughout the day. Insurance companies have been called and I’ll get checked out and be back on the road soon. I just spent over $200 on lights so I could ride all winter long so this isn’t going to end my season.
Getting hit by a car on my bike was definitely not on my list of 43 things I’d like to do but I guess I have that experience as a cyclist checked off and hope not to repeat it.
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 10/24/2007
- Time: 08:50:00
- Total Time: 00:46:37.40
- Average Heart rate: 125
- Max Heart rate: 170
- Distance: 11 miles
- Average Speed: 14.16 mph
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October 24th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
glad to hear you made it more or less OK! were you going down Inglewood or up?
kudos for still riding afterwards, that must’ve felt weird indeed. i hope your frame and the bike’s frame are good to go soon!
October 24th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
[...] Each day that Jeff rides his bike to work, I worry that he’s going to get hit by a car. AND TODAY IT HAPPENED. Scared the crap out of me. Luckily he only managed some pretty gnarly bruises and a very stiff body. The bike survived too, but the front tire is out-of-round. Tomorrow he’ll go see the doctor to get his foot checked out, which has some weird abnormal pain, and over the weekend he’ll probably see if the the bike frame was bent. I’ll let him fill you in on the details on that. Given what could have happened, I’ll take this anyday. [...]
October 24th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
You freaked us all out when we got the note that you’d been hit by a car… we were glad to see you were ok when you finally arrived at the office.
At least, unlike me, you had the class to be hit by a moving car, as opposed to the time last year when I ran into a parked car and broke the side view mirror off with my bicep… ouch!
Go to the doctor, make sure everything checks out… then get back up on your trusty steed and ride again!
October 25th, 2007 at 6:03 am
Sorry to hear that! Glad it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it stinks that one can’t ride to work safely because of the idiots on the road. I tried to ride to work once last summer and thought I was going to get run over (with only a 5 mile span to the library). It was scary and though I’d love to save gas, I’ll never do it again!
October 25th, 2007 at 6:07 am
Jeff, I’m so sorry to hear of your accident. They always say there are two types of cyclists: Those who have been hit by a car and those who will. Even living in a relatively small town of 10,000 (more with the college students), I have my moments of near misses and await my fate with the “bumper-o-death”.
Glad to hear you are okay and that you are hanging in there! Take care!
October 25th, 2007 at 6:10 am
Yeah, the title is a bit freaky, glad to hear you’re in relatively O.K. shape, given the circumstances.
Oh, and while you’re checking the frame out this w/e, a new helmet might be in order. No reason to find out the hard way that you bonked your head in this accident by having the helmet fail next time around!
Back when I had my accident, the three things I did that I’d do differently are:
1. Went to work; should have stayed home from work the first day
2. Didn’t ice & rest things right away; Should have been on that from the get-go.
3. Didn’t get on the pain meds right away, and was not very consistent in using them, which impacted the swelling.
I was most surprised by the bruising that showed up 7 - 10 days later!
Let us know how the accident report comes out. I’m sure the driver is being much more cautious, but I’d be curious to read about how the police view the incident, and how the insurance companies handle their end.
October 25th, 2007 at 8:27 am
Not exactly the headline I wanted to see over my first morning coffee today. I’m so thankful you’re okay tho shaken and bruised. Also, glad to hear you’re not going to be scared off from riding. Take care of yourself!
October 25th, 2007 at 11:44 am
I’ve never been hit by a car…but have hit a car in the past. Well, it was more of a kick with my cleat when they cut me off.
Glad you’re ok!
October 25th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Glad you’re okay. Scary story! I’ve been nearly hit twice while running. But then, I live in Miami. We’re number one on the list of worst drivers…
October 25th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Oh, man! So sorry to hear this but very glad you’re ok. ‘Slid my left knee over the hood of the car’ - holy crap - that’s a serious stuntman move!
October 28th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Good grief! I was so glad to have skimmed past the subsequent posts before getting to this one. Glad you’re OK.
Karl.