Advocacy & Safety - What were road conditions during your worst crash with a vehicle?

This is a survey to get some idea of what conditions are the worst times to be cycling, in terms of unsafe motorists. I'm interested in hearing about crashes you've been involved in with an at-fault motorist. You can choose multiple options if you've had multiple collisions, but please try to choose one option per crash, unless it's hard to say which condition was most important to that crash. REALLY near misses also count.

And let's hear about your battle stories!

Sunny clear day. It was early evening, but the sun was out until about 7:30/8PM at the time... the collision occurred at around 5:30/6PM on a bright clear San Diego day.

I was hit from the rear on a bright sunny December day near noon in central Florida. The driver was charged with inattentive driving and I was air lifted to the hospital where I stayed 10 days. I had 15 broken bones, needed about 200 stitches, had three surgeries and underwent more than two years of physical therapy.

Thus far, with 8 respondents, it appears that the most dangerous time to ride a bike is on a clear sunny day...

I said sunny too. Wasn't hit but I would have been if I hadn't one off road real fast! I think a lot of it is that a large amount more of us are out on sunny days than worse weather days. I wouldn't say on an accident-by-accident case sunny is the most dangerous, but I think it should be taken away that the road conditions aren't as important as the driver conditions - mine wasn't driving, that's for sure!

I said sunny too. Wasn't hit but I would have been if I hadn't one off road real fast! I think a lot of it is that a large amount more of us are out on sunny days than worse weather days. I wouldn't say on an accident-by-accident case sunny is the most dangerous, but I think it should be taken away that the road conditions aren't as important as the driver conditions - mine wasn't driving, that's for sure!

True... but this does show how statistics can fool you into the wrong conclusions.

One near-miss was pre-dawn, a cloudy and wet morning; had lights on, the diva just blew out of her driveway, then cussed me out for shaking my head at her.

An actual hit was a sunny afternoon, by a Corvette coming out of a one-way alley the wrong way. Broke my right wrist.

Heavy traffic and no consideration for cyclists were contributing factors for me. Trying to make a 3 lane u-turn, pulled out in front of a vehicle I either didn't see or thought was making a left. Sunny day.

My only crash with a motorist in 40-some years was not the fault of the motorist...it was my own fault because I was paying more attention to a cute gal jogging down the sidewalk on a hot sunny day than I was to the motor home in front of me that had stopped at a light.

2 recent ones, last winter and this winter: Both Nighttime conditions, moderate snowfall, road snow-covered to track-bare.

Neither visibility or traction were plausible factors in the overtaking and right-cross collisions, which were minor in nature (a mirror slap and a bumper grind, bike stayed up).

The only contribution that the weather played was the snowbank prevented me from moving far enough right to prevent the overtaking clip, once it became clear that my lane-claiming position was not preventing a pass.

Most incidents that really scared me have been in the rain, in summertime, and were the result of deliberate motorist actions.

"I think a lot of it is that a large amount more of us are out on sunny days than worse weather days."

I agree. The proportions this poll comes up with would need to be compared with what conditions the respondants typically ride in. I'm suprised 'sunny' is coming up so often though. I posted this poll because yesterday, yet another person told me about their bike accident (this is a very common conversation for me when someone sees me in my bike clothes... "Oh, I used to bike, but then a car hit me, so now I don't"... I always ask for details). The vast majority of the stories I hear are about left hooks/hit from behind when the sun is setting or rising. In every case, the driver claimed he didn't see the cyclist, and got away with a traffic fine at worst (none of the people were permanently disabled)*. Is this a coincidence? Maybe it's a trick of the geography around here; because we're quite far north, the sun stays low in the sky. Also, because we have a river and train tracks running north/south, when a cyclist wants to go east/west, he often chooses to use the major routes where there are bridges over the river or access across the tracks.

*Why is this so frequently accepted as an excuse, rather than being considered as a traffic offense in itself (which it is)? If you can't see well enough because the sun was in your eyes, you were either driving too fast for conditions, or didn't clean your windshield well enough. Instead of something like careless driving causing bodily harm, these drivers get away with 'failure to yield'.

The proximate cause of my worst incident was the driver's alcohol level. The nice weather may have been a factor in her choosing to skip school and have a few drinks instead.

Clear and sunny. But here in So Cal why would I ride when it is not nice? If it is raining I'll just pass for a couple of days.

EDIT: Visibility will not be an issue with me. There was one criteria that almost all the jerseys I own share. If I get hit the guy who hits me can not claim he did not see me, that my jersey blinded him perhaps. When I was doing a few doubles I had my bike setup with both lights and reflection (reflectors and reflective tape). Unless osmeone is so drunk that they can't see much of anything they will see me.

Both times I was hit were sunny and dry. First time I was 14 yrs. old on my first ten speed from behind. second time I was 24 and T-boned went over the hood.
I have also been doored but I broke the guys hand and didn't go down.
I have had numerous close calls as well mostly in daylight hours but a few at night.

I was going to answer this poll, but couldn't because my worst crash was hitting a car that was legally parked.

Overcast winter morning, when I nearly got t-boned by some woman not paying attention at a four way stop. I was getting ready to put my foot down on her hood. (as opposed to having my leg caught between my bike and her bumper.) I was almost past her, before she realized I was even there.

I had a similar problem at the same intersection, on a sunny summer day, when some idiot (who looked he was too busy jamming to his tunes to be paying attention) went through the intersection out of turn. He was a little quicker on the throttle than the woman from the first incident, so I almost ran into the side of him.