I had my first commuting accident yesterday on the way home from work. I bike home through the old industrial outskirts of Savannah and cross a lot of abandoned (and some still used) train tracks. It had rained all day and the train tracks must have been slippery as my rear wheel just slid out from under me while crossing a track that was at about a 45 degree angle to the road. I didn't get caught in the rut between the asphalt and embedded track or anything, the tire just skidded to the right and I fell on my left side. My left hand pannier is usually heavier than my right.

The bike I use to commute is a Giant OCR. It has 25 mm Continental Gatorskins on it. The bike is really comfortable and I use it for commuting because it's what I have -- I used to do more road biking with it but took a break from biking for about 2 years or so and am looking to get back into it. I was doing about 75 miles a week of commuting and I want to start adding in longer rides on weekends and do the occasional metric century charity ride again.

My question is -- would I be better served by switching to something like a Long Haul Trucker that can run much wider tires? My max tire width is 28mm on the Giant OCR, and I can't help but think that perhaps it would be safer for me to be riding on something with 38mm tires or so given all the train tracks embedded in the road with the ruts on either side of the tracks. Also, would a tire with a tread be better for riding in the rain or wet rides / crossing railroad tracks? Can anyone offer some guidance on how much of a difference tread makes for on-road riding in the rain? I'd love to hear some ideas about what I could do to better match the conditions I ride in.

I didn't break anything when I fell, but I hit hard enough that I had to get a ride home and went to the ER because I was having difficulty putting any weight on my left hip. Now I'm feeling a little nervous about commuting without rethinking if there's a way to be a little safer or better equipped. There's a lot of tractor trailer traffic in the industrial section of our commute, so we are frequently crossing old abandoned train tracks while tractor trailers are passing on us a two lane road. This fall makes me nervous about falling again at an inopportune time.

Thanks for any help, I appreciate it.

Stephen