Chris said: “Thanks everyone for the kind words. It's a bit sad we live in an adversarial sort of culture, because it's really easy to see this incident from both sides. That said, I *was* going straight and the car entered my space, so...”
I haven’t felt like posting much lately, because I was recently on the other side of this scenario, and have been going over and over and over my recollection of the facts to try to diminish my very powerful feelings of guilt. I was driving home from work, with bright sun and a dappled shoulder on the left side of the road caused by shade from large trees lining the street. I needed to make a left turn across traffic (two lane road, wide shoulder on both sides), but there were a couple of cars coming from the other direction, so I stopped to wait for the cars to go by. Once they passed, I began to turn into my street (slowly, thank God) when a cyclist appeared seemingly out of nowhere immediately in front of me. I stomped on the brakes, but didn’t stop in time and hit the cyclist, who cartwheeled off her bike. She remained conscious but suffered a broken leg and cuts and bruises. I wish that I could share Chris’s generosity toward the motorist in this circumstance (“it’s really easy to see this incident from both sides…”), but honestly I can’t, and it’s been tearing me up. She had the right of way; she was riding entirely lawfully; she was just out for a training ride when two tons of steel knocked her off her bike and broke her leg. I had decided not to share this information with the group (at least in part because of the shame of it), but Chris’s message changed my mind, and perhaps something good can come from it. I am typically quite a careful driver – much more so since I began cycling again 7 or 8 years ago – but I’ve redoubled my vigilance since this accident, and I urge others who drive cars to do the same. I still can’t reconstruct how I didn’t see the cyclist, and it frightens me to realize that a driver highly conscious of cyclists and their rights like me could still make such a horrible mistake. But I’m determined to make sure it will never happen again. It’s also scary from my perspective as a rider. I have taken to wearing nothing but fluorescent or at least extremely brightly colored cycling clothes (the woman I hit was all in black) since the accident, and I ride with high intensity flashing lights front and rear in the daytime (equally high intensity but not flashing at night). I don’t really know whether these measures help, or whether they would have helped me see the cyclist I didn’t see in my case, but I am scared enough that I’m prepared to do anything I can to potentially increase visibility. Everyone makes their own decisions, of course, but I would urge you all to give some new thoughts to visibility questions as you go forward. I remain very nervous and skittish, both as a driver and a cyclist, but I’m trying hard to keep riding, and not let fear control what I do. Tom From: rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com [mailto:rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Chris Chen Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2014 5:54 PM To: rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com Cc: mason-hill-rabble-rousers-fan-c...@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: [RBW] Re: Well, Damn Thanks everyone for the kind words. It's a bit sad we live in an adversarial sort of culture, because it's really easy to see this incident from both sides. That said, I *was* going straight and the car entered my space, so... In any event, I'm going to spend a few minutes today to take parts off the bike to get at the frame and I'll have it looked over. Actually I just looked at the downtube and it's fubar. https://www.flickr.com/photos/lumachrome/15148900746/in/photostream/ Ibuprofen is one hell of a drug and I'm back on my feet today. I have a new business idea though. The gauze the hospital gave me is white, and it picks up cat hair like a moogerfooger, so I propose a custom gauze service where you send in pictures of your cats and it makes a custom colored gauze that matches your cat/dog's coat. You can specify up to 4 different cats by submitting pictures and hair length + size for each, and it will do a simulation to provide the exact match, like camo. On Sun, Sep 7, 2014 at 2:07 PM, Jon in the foothills of Central Colorado <row.n.2nowh...@gmail.com<mailto:row.n.2nowh...@gmail.com>> wrote: People just can't wait 3 seconds for a bike to get through an intersection.I hope you recover quickly. Inspect your bike for hidden damage: Feel under the down tube and top tube just behind the head tube for any bulges that may have ben caused by the impact. Have the bike shop remove the fork and inspect the fork crown and steerer tube for bends and cracks.Have them put the fork in a fork jig to check the alignment .Have them service the headset while the fork is out. Have them give the bike a total inspection The V-DUB guy will pay for it.. You don't want something to happen later down the road that was caused by the accident. Hope you are feeling better and back out on the road soon. Jon On Saturday, September 6, 2014 9:01:26 PM UTC-6, Christopher Chen wrote: My Hilsen is out of commission for a little while. Heading on NW Broadway towards the bridge, at Flanders, when a silver VW Golf making a left turn hits me. I go up and over and make a nice dent on the windshield. Roll back down when the car stops and land on my feet (like a cat!) and walk away, a bit dazed. Cops show up, we have a party with the firefighters, ambulance comes and leaves. Witness gives his story, all the data gets swapped. Front rack is bent, front fork is askew, wheel is tacoed, but everything is fixable. Police officer gives me a ride back to my apartment (hey it turns out cops carry bikes on their cars all the time, by fitting the wheels between the grill and the big external bumper on the front). X-rays turn out okay, no fractures. Everyone at the hospital was great. It was about 8 hours ago and I'm just coming down from the endorphins. I got a malt milkshake (horchata cookie!) to celebrate. Oh yeah, and my helmet is all cracked up. I'll be fine though. Anyway, keep an eye out there... Cheers cc still picking pieces of windshield glass out of his hair -- "I want the kind of six pack you can't drink." -- Micah -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<mailto:rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com<mailto:rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com>. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- "I want the kind of six pack you can't drink." -- Micah -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<mailto:rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com<mailto:rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com>. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ **************************************************** This email (and any attachments thereto) is intended only for use by the addressee(s) named herein and may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this email (and any attachments thereto) is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error please immediately notify me at (212) 735-3000 and permanently delete the original email (and any copy of any email) and any printout thereof. Further information about the firm, a list of the Partners and their professional qualifications will be provided upon request. **************************************************** ============================================================================== -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
