Tom, my friend. I'm really sorry for the pain and guilt you must be feeling. I'll try to help you make something good come out of your experience by promising that I will recommit myself to being as careful as I can be when I'm behind the wheel. Thank you very much for sharing it.
Bill On Monday, September 8, 2014 9:26:57 AM UTC-7, Pudge wrote: > > 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 > > > -- 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.
