Originally Posted by
Leisesturm
You are describing a classic "right hook". They call it that, even though the car comes from your left. I was left hooked driving a car by a teen driver that had been in the streetcar lane (forbidden!) and turned left out of it into me. I hit her and totaled her car and caused over $2K of damage to mine. I was cleared by her insurance company and didn't pay a cent in damages even though I was in a rental car and had not purchased any insurance.
Even though the story ends well for me. I know that I could have prevented that accident if I hadn't just been fighting (squabbling more like it) with my wife, and had stormed out of the house mad, and was driving in a strange city without any GPS. Maybe there was nothing I could do but I keep the pressure on myself because it keeps you sharp for the next time.
I can't bring myself to hold onto that woman’s mistake and use it to beat myself half to death. I learned from it, I'm a more defensive rider, I changed my route to have less busy streets and more bike lanes. Maybe I feel this way because I was a pedestrian in a fairly bad accident when I was kid. So many people told me I was lucky, lucky it wasn't worse, lucky I was young, lucky I was--.
The whole thing comes down to the fact that I've lived my life a "before the accident" and "after the accident". It has always cast a shadow on certain aspects of my life. It certainly is a huge part of why I cycle to work, instead of drive. I already beat myself up for that. I don't need to add this to the list too.
This is also the least well organized response I've ever written! I'm sorry.