Phil
Maximum Pace
- Sep 1, 2007
- 1,816
- 55
...and it was a pretty good one.
Happened last week on Wednesday, as I was coming home from a short ride to meet trucksan at one of our LBSs.
Don't want to get into too many details of the causes etc (insurance blah blah in negotiation blah blah) but it was a classic left hook by car at intersection. First thing I remember is seeing the winkers on the car way too late, thinking "uh-oh", being surprised how fast the car turned into me, trying to somehow steer left with the car, then having the handlebars ripped from my hands.
Don't remember flying through the air, but I do remember my head hitting the ground and feeling the force of the impact being spread out along the inner ridges of the helmet. Vividly remember thinking, "wow, these helmets do work."
I opened my eyes to look up at the sky, with various people's heads entering my field of vision from disorienting angles. I tried to get up, but for some reason my right shoulder was glued to the road and refused to move.
One witness in particular was very helpful and told me not to move and that an ambulance had been called. I could see my Uncle John and the car several meters away...the front wheel was crushed under the car's front wheel, with the bike lying off to the side.
I lay in the road until the ambulance came. The paramedics strapped me into a neck brace and backboard, then spent the next 20 minutes phoning around trying to find a hospital to take me in.
Lots of Xrays and a CRT scan at the hospital, final conclusion being what I already suspected, a broken collar bone. Also had grazes and bruises on both knees, cuts and bruises on my right face, and of course a big bruise on the right shoulder.
Been holed up at home since. Hurt like the dickens for a while, but pain easing off now and I've start typing two-handed again for short stretches through careful positioning of the wireless keyboard on my stomach.
No idea when I'll be back on the bike, but not for a while yet. I'm amusing myself in the meantime by admiring the new frameset I'd ordered from Competitive Cyclist a week before the crash...Motivation to get better soon!
I'll add a detailed write-up about the insurance and crash itself to Philip's accidents thread when all the insurance stuff is concluded. It's going to be a long process though, as nothing can be settled until the doctors are done with me...
Happened last week on Wednesday, as I was coming home from a short ride to meet trucksan at one of our LBSs.
Don't want to get into too many details of the causes etc (insurance blah blah in negotiation blah blah) but it was a classic left hook by car at intersection. First thing I remember is seeing the winkers on the car way too late, thinking "uh-oh", being surprised how fast the car turned into me, trying to somehow steer left with the car, then having the handlebars ripped from my hands.
Don't remember flying through the air, but I do remember my head hitting the ground and feeling the force of the impact being spread out along the inner ridges of the helmet. Vividly remember thinking, "wow, these helmets do work."
I opened my eyes to look up at the sky, with various people's heads entering my field of vision from disorienting angles. I tried to get up, but for some reason my right shoulder was glued to the road and refused to move.
One witness in particular was very helpful and told me not to move and that an ambulance had been called. I could see my Uncle John and the car several meters away...the front wheel was crushed under the car's front wheel, with the bike lying off to the side.
I lay in the road until the ambulance came. The paramedics strapped me into a neck brace and backboard, then spent the next 20 minutes phoning around trying to find a hospital to take me in.
Lots of Xrays and a CRT scan at the hospital, final conclusion being what I already suspected, a broken collar bone. Also had grazes and bruises on both knees, cuts and bruises on my right face, and of course a big bruise on the right shoulder.
Been holed up at home since. Hurt like the dickens for a while, but pain easing off now and I've start typing two-handed again for short stretches through careful positioning of the wireless keyboard on my stomach.
No idea when I'll be back on the bike, but not for a while yet. I'm amusing myself in the meantime by admiring the new frameset I'd ordered from Competitive Cyclist a week before the crash...Motivation to get better soon!
I'll add a detailed write-up about the insurance and crash itself to Philip's accidents thread when all the insurance stuff is concluded. It's going to be a long process though, as nothing can be settled until the doctors are done with me...