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04-29-10, 02:04 PM
You might want to show this to your kids and it's also a good reminder to ourselves. My son was recently forced to the side by a car into the rear of a parked car.
He was going down a wide 2 lane urban street and there was no traffic behind him, as he was coming up on an area where the road goes from an industrial area into a residential area, the road narrows and there are typically cars parked on both sides of the street.
Just as he was coming up on the first parked car on his side of the street he looked in his mirror to see a car coming off a side street and quickly up on his rear left side. He was traveling at a good speed, probably too fast for safety in the area he was in which has a 30 mph speed limit. The car was so close to his left side that he did not think there was enough room to safely fit between the car on his left and the parked car coming up on his right because there was another vehicle coming from the opposite direction and more vehicles parked on the opposite side of the road. There would have to be room for 4 vehicles and him across this street.
He decided in a split second the only option was to try and brake hard and try to go up the curb and pray. He did not even have time to make it to the curb, he hit the rear of the parked car and went right through the back window and ended up in the back seat.
Someone walking down the street saw the entire thing happen and called 911. He was cut up and dazed but for some reason crawled out the back window of the car just before the EMTs got there. One of the worst calls a parent wants to get is from the EMTs on location. This happened about a mile from our house so we got there just as they loaded him in the ambulance.
They did get the drive and ticketed him for inattentive driving. Here are a few pics of his bike and in the emergency room. Amazingly he was not serious injured, mainly because his helmet did it's job. The helmet was cracked and the the frame on the bike was toast. Somehow the fork was not damaged, I think the handlebars took the direct hit. I was able to find him an exact frame on Craigslist for $75.00 shipped, what a steal that was.
He was going down a wide 2 lane urban street and there was no traffic behind him, as he was coming up on an area where the road goes from an industrial area into a residential area, the road narrows and there are typically cars parked on both sides of the street.
Just as he was coming up on the first parked car on his side of the street he looked in his mirror to see a car coming off a side street and quickly up on his rear left side. He was traveling at a good speed, probably too fast for safety in the area he was in which has a 30 mph speed limit. The car was so close to his left side that he did not think there was enough room to safely fit between the car on his left and the parked car coming up on his right because there was another vehicle coming from the opposite direction and more vehicles parked on the opposite side of the road. There would have to be room for 4 vehicles and him across this street.
He decided in a split second the only option was to try and brake hard and try to go up the curb and pray. He did not even have time to make it to the curb, he hit the rear of the parked car and went right through the back window and ended up in the back seat.
Someone walking down the street saw the entire thing happen and called 911. He was cut up and dazed but for some reason crawled out the back window of the car just before the EMTs got there. One of the worst calls a parent wants to get is from the EMTs on location. This happened about a mile from our house so we got there just as they loaded him in the ambulance.
They did get the drive and ticketed him for inattentive driving. Here are a few pics of his bike and in the emergency room. Amazingly he was not serious injured, mainly because his helmet did it's job. The helmet was cracked and the the frame on the bike was toast. Somehow the fork was not damaged, I think the handlebars took the direct hit. I was able to find him an exact frame on Craigslist for $75.00 shipped, what a steal that was.