wipe out

[15_the_circle]

[OT from cottage renovations]
[crossposted to carfree]

it was inevitable that at some point my accident free streak of biking in traffic would run out.  I've had any number of near misses but today was my first vehicle strike. 

it happened in one of the more obvious ways: I was WB along Shady Grove Road and somebody in a car decided to make a R turn into a parking lot.  it's the sort of opportunity for which one has to maintain constant situational awareness; normally I see these coming and swerve into the same turn while braking.  though my turning radius is better than most autos I can't match them for speed even when they're decelerating, and curb cut geometry is much tighter than that of road intersections. 

so I went down, onto pavement.  long shirt sleeves helped contain the extent of abrasions on my R arm but in the highly clement weather, fool that I am, I was wearing shorts rather than full length trousers.  so my R knee got scraped and chewed up though it's only surface damage.  but my R shoulder is plenty mad at me, am trying to keep it subdued with ice and Advil.  nothing feels broken or dislocated; it will likely be sore for a couple of days but it should be OK. 

it could have been a heck of a lot worse.  the driver stopped before he might have run over me or the bike with his rear wheels.  I didn't even bother to take his tag number or any other details.  mostly I was annoyed, highly annoyed with myself for not realising and reacting in time.  I generally do a much better job of staying out of these sort of situations. 

Comments

[gracegiver]

I am new to road biking, but I'm really nervous riding in traffic. On Sunday I had to do a mile of traffic before I hit the trail and my heart skipped a few beats at near misses.
I'm so glad it wasn't worse for you. At least the car didn't hit you and he did stop. That's commendable.

Hope no damage was done to your shutter finger.

[15-the-circle.livejournal.com]

though I bike in traffic all the time and have done so for year, I don't ever take it for granted.  afterwards I was wondering whether distraction on my part might have been a contributory factor: I was running late and didn't want to keep a friend waiting, or at least not any more than he already was.  but then it might have been a factor for the auto; driver and passenger were a couple of asian guys heading into the Pho place.  while cutting me off as they made the turn they did strike me from the side; not hard enough to cause impact damage but it was enough to knock me over. 

shutter finger is fine, thank you.  I had been hauling the Nikon and a long lens in the green shoulder bag where they live; haven't yet checked them for damage but at least there are no rattling or tinkling noises coming from it. 

[djaza.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry you were run to the ground. Those kind of road scrapes are brutal. Be sure you get all the gunk out of the skin or you will scar. (It's something we have to do in the ER when we get biker accidents sometimes we have to use a steel wire brush.....yuk.)
Anyway, take care, it would be too sad to lose you.

[szap.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about your accident. That's one thing I like about my recumbent is that if I slam on the breaks, my feet are first and there is no chance of flying over the handlbars. The car would have known he'd been hit.