How did the collision happen? The short version: Riding in the right lane of a four lane street. Just behind an suv. He stops but I don't have a chance to react - from where I was I didn't notice his brake lights. Before I know it an oncoming vehicle turns left in front of suv and in front of me.
Turns out the suv waved him across. Because the suv was so large he blocked my view of turning car (and car's view of me). I slammed on brakes too late; t-boned him on the passenger door. Luckily I did have the chance to apply some brake and I also turned to the right. Meant that the front wheel and handlebars took most of the force and not the fork or frame. Yay! The sorest part of me is right where my messenger bag strap sits atop my shoulder so I don't know if the most serious of my injuries was from my shoulder ramming his car or the force of my bag full of groceries yanking down as I landed on my back on the pavement. Car got charged with illegal left, I got charged with illegal pass on right and I will fight it (brief research indicates I have a very good case - won't bore you with details). The car driver was very nice, apologetic and offered to pay to fix my bike (which as it turns out only needs the front wheel trued - less than $10 and I am not going to ask him for that small amount. Ashamed that we both got charged imho. He made a mistake and was apologetic and I know he learned his lesson. I did nothing wrong. Silly to make us both go through all of this... Anyway, that's that. I will heal and all will be good again. Sorry to hear of your injuries, Bob. Middle age is so much fun! ;-) One thing I notice is that I take much longer to heal now than when I was younger. That being said, here's to both of us being back on the road soon! I will answer a few more posts on this thread, but in the interest of list brevity, not all of them. I would, however like to thank each and every one of you for your thoughts and support. It means a lot to me. Cheers, frank "What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof." -- Christopher Hitchens --- Original Message --- From: Bob W <[email protected]> Sent: September 22, 2012 9/22/12 To: "'Pentax-Discuss Mail List'" <[email protected]> Subject: RE: OT - Minor Cycling Incident > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of > [email protected] > > Could have been a lot worse but I collided with a left-turning car this > evening. > > Injured my left shoulder (again) and got an ambulance ride to the > hospital (no sirens, damn it!). > > X-rays all negative but was diagnosed with partially torn rotator cuff. > Can ride "when pain permits". > > So I rode home. Very slowly. Hurt a fair bit but actually hurts much > more when I am standing with my arm hanging by my side. > > Sigh... > > This is by far not the worst cycling injury I've sustained but I know > I'll be sore as hell for a couple of days at least. > > Could have been much worse! > > Oh yeah, bike's okay. Handlbars and one brake lever were twisted 'round > but have now been straightened. Front wheel out of true (but still > ridable, so very true-able). > > Off to bed now. This will be a long night... > bad luck - glad it wasn't worse, and glad the bike has survived. How did the collision happen? I haven't been able to ride my bike, or jog or take any exercise for over a month. My plans to cycle to Paris and back had to be scrapped and I went by train. My physio told me this week that the problem I have is tarsal tunnel syndrome - it's the same thing that I thought was gout last year when it coincided with a kidney stone (gout and kidney stones have the same root cause). Anyway, now that we know what it is it can be treated properly and I can take steps (literally) to avoid a repetition, and the physio treatment is improving it. B -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
