Advocacy & Safety - Accidents Requiring Treatment

Have you ever had a bicycle accident that required medical treatment?

What is the point of this?

What is the point of this?

Coming from anyone else that wouldn't have been nearly as funny. :)

I said yes, assuming my BMX racing days count.

Never on a road or mountain bike, in other words (for me) never outside of competition.

What is the point of this?

We're trying to pizz you off. :p

Do I need to count? It's more than three hospital visits, and how many times treated without medical supervision, hmm...

The ambulance ride is fun, but the trauma unit of your neighborhood general hostpital ER is NOT a pleasant place.

The ambulance ride is fun, but the trauma unit of your neighborhood general hostpital ER is NOT a pleasant place.
james -- My experience exactly! Except the ambulance bumping over the RR tracks hurt A LOT. The morphine drip was fun. The 5 months off work and off the bike was also no fun.

Well, maybe the off work part was kinda fun! :)

What is the point of this?

I've often wondered about the prevalance of accidents among cyclists. When I talk with others I feel like something of an anomaly, in that I've never had a disabling bike crash. It seems to happen all the time to cyclists, much more frequently than, say, automobile crashes causing injury.

I broke my clavicle because a hispanic driving on an already suspended license cut across 3 lanes to pull into a parking lot at a speed that she was not supposed to cutting me off. I landed on her hood and slid up to her windshield and rolled off.

3 years later I did 20-25 miles per hour and stopped on a dime into a barbed fence pole while trying to do a curve..

I broke my clavicle because a hispanic driving on an already suspended license cut across 3 lanes to pull into a parking lot at a speed that she was not supposed to cutting me off. I landed on her hood and slid up to her windshield and rolled off.

3 years later I did 20-25 miles per hour and stopped on a dime into a barbed fence pole while trying to do a curve..

And being Hispanic is relevant how?

Anyway... I guess it depends what the OP means. I once went to the doc a day after an accident for X-rays (negative).

I broke my clavicle because a hispanic driving on an already suspended license cut across 3 lanes to pull into a parking lot at a speed that she was not supposed to cutting me off. I landed on her hood and slid up to her windshield and rolled off.

3 years later I did 20-25 miles per hour and stopped on a dime into a barbed fence pole while trying to do a curve..
I hate reading this racist crap. Maybe you would feel more comfortable posting somewhere else? Or maybe you're just a damn troll, as you have pulled this same thing before, and you know it bothers people. Either way, knock it off.

I had the ambulance ride... don't remember it at all. Do remember the police coming into my room and asking for details, and telling me they cited the driver for failing to yeild ROW. Told me I put a huge dent in the car too.

I was in an "accident" on friday and had to go to the ER.

I've often wondered about the prevalance of accidents among cyclists. When I talk with others I feel like something of an anomaly, in that I've never had a disabling bike crash. It seems to happen all the time to cyclists, much more frequently than, say, automobile crashes causing injury.

I would like to believe that riding a bike is safer, but it is pretty hard to read these forums and come to that conclusion. Hell, just look at this poll. Half of the pollsters have had an injury significant enough to require medical treatment. I have driven hundreds of thousands of miles by car and never so much as a scratched knee.

While, i have never had a serious bike crash yet, i have had some close calls. I have also had some pretty good crashes, but escaped serious injury. I think it is reasonable to state that riding a bike is a fairly hazardous activity, possibly a very dangerous activity for those that ride a LOT of miles.

I broke my clavicle because a hispanic driving on an already suspended license cut across 3 lanes to pull into a parking lot at a speed that she was not supposed to cutting me off. I landed on her hood and slid up to her windshield and rolled off.

3 years later I did 20-25 miles per hour and stopped on a dime into a barbed fence pole while trying to do a curve..
Quick...edit-out the "hispanic" reference before someone starts playing the "racist" card.

Oops, too late. :(

What is the point of this?

That is too funny.

I would like to believe that riding a bike is safer, but it is pretty hard to read these forums and come to that conclusion. Hell, just look at this poll. Half of the pollsters have had an injury significant enough to require medical treatment. I have driven hundreds of thousands of miles by car and never so much as a scratched knee.

While, i have never had a serious bike crash yet, i have had some close calls. I have also had some pretty good crashes, but escaped serious injury. I think it is reasonable to state that riding a bike is a fairly hazardous activity, possibly a very dangerous activity for those that ride a LOT of miles.

Ranger, your employing some very faulty logic here. First off your polling a bunch of cyclists and yes of course many of them have had accidents. You are then making the illogical leap of comparing this question to the safety of driving. A better question if you are going to compare the safety of activities would also to have asked how many folks have been injured in auto accidents or lost loved ones in accidents. In 1999 almost 42,000 people were killed in auto accidents and I don't believe it has gone down that significantly since then. While in 2002 only 660 people were killed in cycling accidents. Of course not as many people cycle as drive and that is the flaw in my argument, but it doesn't exactly follow that cycling is dangerous from your skewed poll.

Over 50% of the people responding to this poll have had a bicycle accident that required medical treatment.

And almost 45% of them haven't. Your poll has no validity, you have a sample size of 42 cyclists. Did you even read my first post? You should also ask folks what other things they've gone to the doctor for in the last year, power tool injuries, tripping on curbs, dang 400 people die every year falling off ladders.

And almost 45% of them haven't. Your poll has no validity, you have a sample size of 42 cyclists. Did you even read my first post? You should also ask folks what other things they've gone to the doctor for in the last year, power tool injuries, tripping on curbs, dang 400 people die every year falling off ladders.
I totally agree -- as a poll this is useless, and you run the risk of making people think cycling is dangerous, when it really isn't.

However, people always enjoy talking about their old war wounds, and sometimes when I hear how someone else got hurt, I learn about ways to prevent similar injuries to myself. I know that most of my injuries were my own fault, in my case usually because I was showing off for myself or others, or because I was too stubborn to pull back when I was in over my head.

Over 50% of the people responding to this poll have had a bicycle accident that required medical treatment.

I replied yes, but again I have to stress that this was in competition, BMX racing. My problem being that I had a lot of power, too high a center of gravity, and very little talent. It very nearly killed me. I have never had an accident on the road (well, except for my son running into me, but he fell, not me) that required any type of medical attention. Rarely so much as a scrape, and that usually from a missed clip-in.

I have perhaps 30 BMX races under my belt, 4 heats per race of 1400-1600 feet per heat. Let's call it 1500 feet x 4 x 30/5280 = 34 miles granting me a couple of serious injuries, including a stay in the ICU.

On the other hand I have 1300+ miles on the road in the past year without anything more significant that a pedal bruise/scrape from missing a clip in.

I had to answer yes to your poll, but putting it into reasonable circustances, it clearly becomes a "no".

If you walked into a room of 49 square dancers and asked them the same question i asked, and 28 of them said they have had a dancing accident severe enough to require medical treament, wouldn't you then consider square dancing to be a dangerous activity?

I sure as hell would.

Now we just need somebody to come here and testify that they were hit by a car driven by a white person.

I was in a bike-vs-car crash where, given the time and place, it's very likely the driver was white. But to be totally honest, I didn't see the driver at all. My helmet was injured, but I was not. In my opinion, the driver and I were about equally at fault. I was riding late in the evening (sunlight wasn't completely gone, but the street lights were on) on a street with quite a few street lights. Motorist in front of me pulled out from a side street. (They had a stop sign, I had right of way, I don't know whether they had stopped at the sign) Motorist had come from the side street on my left driven part of his/her car into the side street on my right, when I hit the back end of the car and flipped over the trunk. I landed in the street on my back; my bike was unharmed. I've seen plenty of white people drive in rude and stupid ways, so (sarcasm) I'm sure that person was also white . Not to mention, I am white, so my riding at night without lights was clearly a reflection of the irresponsibility of white people when in control of vehicles on public roads.(/sarcasm)

If you walked into a room of 49 square dancers and asked them the same question i asked, and 28 of them said they have had a dancing accident severe enough to require medical treament, wouldn't you then consider square dancing to be a dangerous activity?

I sure as hell would.

Then it's obvious that you don't understand statistics. Your poll only reflects cyclists on these forums that have replied to your poll, most likely those who have been injured and want to share their stories. If you want to leap to the assumption that cycling is dangerous from such a simple polling then that is too bad for you. It most likely means that you went into this with your mind already made up and that you are only looking for information that supports your hypothesis. This is called counting the hits and ignoring the misses. There are numerous posts on this forum of folks who cycles thousands of miles a year without incident, but again if you want to believe that cycling is unsafe on such a skewed reading I guess you already have your mind made up. Enjoy your next ride, if you're not too scared to go out on the road.

I was on the road coming back from a long ride, in the bike lane, and had a car pork chop me making a right. Slammed on the breaks and missed the car but the torque of going ove the bars broke the radial heads off of both my radial arm bones. Two broken arms in casts for 6 weeks plus therapy. It took me a couple of years before I would ride wide open. Accidents when your over 40 don't heal like when you were 20

Then it's obvious that you don't understand statistics. I have never been in a bike accident requiring hospitalization. I have never seen a bicyclist have an accident requiring hospitalization. I only know one person personally who has been in a bike accident requiring hospitalization. Therefore based on my 40+ years of riding, I conclude that cycling is a very safe activity. :rolleyes:

If I had known this poll was trying to prove that cycling is dangerous, I never would have participated. But more to the point, if I had never had a bike accident, I also never would have participated.

It is well known that volunteer samples are skewed and prove nothing. People who have been hurt are far more likely to respond than the vast majority who have not been hurt.

Additionally, people who haunt this forum probably ride considerably more than most cyclists. Therefore, members of the forum are significantly more likely to have accidents than typical cyclists.

P.S. Square dancing is dangerous the way I do it!