My Bicycle Diary: Accidents Happen – Just Not to Me – That Is, Until…
June 12, 2007 @ 5:10pm
I called my wife (like a good husband should) and asked her if I could come home a little later tonight so I could sneak in a 25 to 30 mile ride. She said okay as long as I got myself home before 5:30pm. Once I had my permission slip in hand, I decided to head to Ballona Creek to due some time trial work at race pace for an upcoming triathlon I have.
Driving the Bicycle.net Team car always seems to get me some attention and as soon as I parked, some very nice guy started to talk to me about his bike, where he could get it tuned, and asking me about the whole Landis affair. Trying not to be rude since my time was limited I hurried the conversation, pulled out my Felt Tri-bike, and hit the bike path to Marina Del Rey, CA.
The first 8 miles was into a head wind, no big deal, and I made good time, so I continued for another 4 miles along the beach bike path with nothing interesting happening. Turned around and hammered back to where my car was. I made such good time I had an extra 20 minutes before I had to head home so I decided to head to a local college where there is a very good .9 mile course with a 8% grade for 400m climb. Great place to practice some intervals.
As I ride there, all hell breaks loose. And my 15 year record of no crashes comes to a head over bars and into asphalt end. As I make my way to the left hand turn lane it happens. I get rear-ended by a 92 year old driver. No joke, he is 92 years old. He never saw me (so he says). Even though I was in his lane for at least 5 seconds and more like 10 seconds.
I will write my opinions on the elderly driving longer than they should in my next post.
Yes I got rear-ended while riding my bike. I never saw it coming.
The driver just ran me over, without ever hitting his brakes until I was firmly positioned on his hood (like a lycra clad hood ornament). Once on his hood he then decides to slam on his brakes which then throws me off the hood and onto the asphalt, slamming my head (wearing my helmet of course) into the road, and then flipping me onto the right side of my body. At this point I am sliding across the asphalt with my bare butt collecting road gravel into my skin. Nice, huh?
At this point I come to a not so graceful stop, and realize that I never even got my hands off my bars (good thing since I don’t like to wear gloves). I try to wiggle my fingers, good they work, then my toes, they work too. At least I know that the worst did not happen. I unclip from my Speedplay pedals and crawl out of traffic, no point in getting run over from the cars who are just annoyed that I am now in their lane and blocking traffic. Once I get to the side of the road I start to evaluate my injuries. Looks like my head hurts, my neck hurts, my shoulders hurt, my butt really hurts. No my butt really, really hurts.
After someone calls 911 and the ambulance comes, they convince me that the best place for me is in a hospital to get x-rays. Okay I say, and in no time they have me in a “C” collar, lying on a board and being loaded in my chauffeured driven ambulance. Oh, I forgot to call my wife.
It goes something like this:
VeloGuy: Hello baby, it’s me. Yeah. Well. I am okay. Yes, I am okay. I just got hit by a car, and I am on the way to the hospital.
VeloWife: I am glad you are okay. So what you are saying is that you are going to be late?
VeloGuy: Yes, I am going to be late. They are taking me to Brotman on Venice Blvd, but I think I have nothing broken.
VeloWife: Well that is just great. I will now have to find someone to watch the kids and meet you there. Fine, see you soon.
I am sure — no — positive that is not how the actual conversation went. My wife is much more caring than that, but that is how my mind at the time heard the conversation after having my head smashed into the road and all. Side note, my helmet cracked in 4 places but held up well. I have a motto which really played out on this day, and here it is; Never cheap out on buying a helmet, buy the best one on the market that fits you, because the line for a brain transplant is very long, very, very long.
Any way, all x-rays were good. No broken bones.
So as I am getting my wounds on my butt cleaned, I get light headed, turn pasty white, my eyes start to roll around, and BAM, I pass out.
This keeps me in the hospital for an extra hour or so.
After my wounds are clean, my blood pressure is normal, they let me go home.
Recovery is going great. Other than the annoying road-rash on my rear end, which makes sitting down very unpleasant, and my stiff neck and shoulders, I am getting back on track.
The Felt is dead, but being replaced with a Cervelo P2C.
Looking forward to seeing you on the road, this time with the rubber side down, and working on my next 15-year crash-free track record.
Check back in a day or two and you can see this whole day from the perspective of VeloWife. Should be a good read.
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BMC Working Well
Jul 11th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
[...] many times. This story was just too close to home. It brought up way to recent memories of my own “Car-vs-Bike” accident when I was rear ended by a 87 year old man. I just did not want to have the attention on us for such a tragic [...]