thestoutdog

I just returned from the hospital after visiting one of my wife's coworkers. He was found yards off the road in someone's front yard, unconscious, with his bike near by. I talked to him a bit in the ICU and he should recover. He has multiple contusions on his hands, arms, head, torso and face. He also has a broken clavicle, 3 broken ribs, a fractured jaw, and a cracked skull. His prognosis is good and he has all of hits wits about him, but he has no idea what happened. He remembers everything up until about an hour before we think the accident happened, and very little from the following 24 hours. He doesn't know if he was hit by a car, or crashed. He also doesn't remember if he was wearing a helmet. I won't lecture him on that now, but I sure will later. Please keep him (Dr. Y) in your thoughts for a speedy recovery. I feel that he got very lucky.

GeoBigJon

Sorry to hear about your friend, sounds like he was lucky. Did the police investigate if it was a hit and run, I would think the bike would tell?

jdgesus 

similar thing happened to me a few weeks ago (amazingly, only surface wounds)
found in the middle of the street, no witnesses, no memory, no anything.

its really weird and im lucky as **** that only my helmet and glasses were destroyed

robyr

This is really sad. I am glad he is doing okay for what all has happened. This is some more support for being constantly vigilant. If I may ask, did this happen at night or during the day? If he was hit, it is a really cowardly thing to not even stick around to help the victim. Or even call EMS. What has this world come to?

EDIT: This brings up a good idea I have had. Is there anything like a "Lifeline Medalert" for bikers? I would think something that clips on to a helmet and registers impacts and then dials EMS with a prerecorded message could be a serious lifesaver for us cyclists. By law, cellular phone devices have to be able to dial emergency services without any sort of plan or paid service, so one would think this would be a great way to save lives. Any one have a lead on something like this?

robyr

In fact, just doing some quick research it doesn't seem this exists. I think I am going to start drawing up plans. It should be really, really easy to use something similar to an airbag deployment sensor and a low-cost cellular phone circuit to do this.

AdamDZ

Ouch Painful. And yeah, sad, if he was indeed hit. I hope he recovers quickly and without complications.

bergerandfries

I had a dream about this the other night. Very strange. I think it's as simple as an iPhone/Android app. Set it to "On a bike ride" mode and the gyroscopic sensors in the phone can sense if the phone has had a g-load over a certain threshold. If that happens, the phone calls a few "ICE" phone numbers preprogrammed into the phone, and maybe starts emitting an alarm in increasing volume. That way the user can cut it off if it is a false positive...

robyr

The problem with a phone app is that the phone has to take the impact, and the accelerometers are not precise enough. The largest range a commodity sensor like that will register amounts to a vigorous shake in your hands, and the impact wouldn't register correctly in a pocket of pannier/trunk because it wouldn't be affixed to the impact point (your head/body). For a device like this to work it needs something like what airbags use, where a sensor measures the acceleration AND the stopping rate. I have been thinking about this the entire time since I said that earlier, and the phone application came in to my mind, but even if the sensors were precise enough, the problem then shifts to battery ejection issues and total failure of the phone in the event of a major wipeout. With a specialized device, the frame and components could be ruggedized enough to withstand even the worst of impacts.

bobbisingh

Sorry about your friend. Hope he gets well soon and continues to ride.

thestoutdog

Update: I just found out that he's out of the hospital and home. He still has some cranial hemorrhaging, but it seems to have slowed down and will return to the hospital in a couple of days. He is in great spirits, but he is a Psychologist and keeps running checks on himself for brain injury. He is not cleared to drive or work yet, but that should come as soon as his clavicle heals. The worst part is that he has no memory of the accident, or time leading up to it. He doesn't even know how long he was laying on the lawn before someone noticed him, so we still don't know the cause of the accident. I believe the police have his bicycle and he's going to talk to them today to find out (hopefully) what happened. Thanks for the positive vibes you all sent out.

idc

Best wishes to Dr. Y, and hope he recovers fully.

LeeG

best wishes for his recovery. My friend had a bike accident at 11pm with no witnesses. I found him at the shop after he was seen sitting in the post office. I later found a blood spot on the wall in the post office where he was apparently recovering. With no helmet he suffered a cracked skull and ICP. I took him to the hospital at 11:30 and five hrs later he was in a two week coma. When he came out it was with personality changes and a loss of smell. Took about a half year to show psychological recovery.

For myself the best I can do is ensure I'm riding in a straight line and have lights on my helmet and bike.

RT

Hoping for a quick and complete recovery. Always a helmet for me, always lights, and will soon be receiving a mini cam from DX for my helmet. Things have become much more dangerous in the past five years. So many variables to which we can attribute increased danger on the roads, so every tool helps.

PaulRivers

lol, I don't live where you do, but things where I am in Minnesota have definitely become a lot less dangerous for bikers in the past 5 years. There's more bike paths and routes than there used to be. Drivers have become much more accustomed to expecting bikers on the road, it seems like there's a less "right hook" kind of stuff where a car pulls in front of a bike like that. You just see a lot more people out biking for transportation than you used to.

I have personally known one person who has gotten seriously injured biking, requiring hospitalization and major surgery, and heard of others that people I know know. But the only person I personally know who's died on the road was killed in a car by a drunk driver driving the wrong way on the interstate. There's not really a point to that, other than to say that driving is hardly a nirvana of safety either.

RT

Paths are nice and yes, should reduce encounters with idiots. I am referring to road riding, when paths aren't available. Motorists drive about the same, but it's the PEOPLE driving them. When I say dangerous, I mean people are just...meaner.

There was also a very, er, fertile mating season for rabbits this past year. When I do take a path, I see no less than two dozen rabbits, and they always have to BE somewhere right when you roll by, and that somewhere is usually right across your path. I endoed a couple of years ago because of this very reason.

You can build all the paths you want to, but when it comes to the road and you have no choice, you must contend with the idiot element. Last year when I was commuting nights, I was shot at by a blow gun. That's a first.