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Old 10-09-13 | 10:41 PM
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Stratman351
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Joined: Jun 2011
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Hit by a car for the first time.

Happened last Saturday. I was riding down the road, approaching the entrance/exit to a gas station when a teen driver came flying out without stopping to look for traffic on the road I was on. I'd - reflexively - already begun to slow out of caution, but she was going so fast that I couldn't brake quickly enough to avoid a crash. I swerved away from her car toward the the center of the road, but she still hit me and I went flying, landing on my side (mostly my hip). She jumped out of the car still clutching her cellphone, which was a pretty clear indicator of what she was doing before she hit me.

She was shaking uncontrollably as she retrieved and handed my sunglasses to me, sobbing "I didn't see you...I didn't see you...I didn't see you..." It was pretty obvious that she didn't see me because 1) she didn't stop to look, and; 2) she was almost certainly texting on her phone while exiting the station.

A few people rushed over immediately and offered to call 911, but despite being rattled I pretty quickly realized I wasn't seriously hurt. Once I was sure I was okay, I waved them off, as I didn't see any point to getting the teen girl in trouble (she was so shaken, I wanted badly to assume she'd learned her lesson, and I have teen kids of my own and wanted to be empathetic despite the fact that mine know better than to not stop while exiting a parking lot or similar, or to text while driving).

Once I got myself composed, I was going to finish my ride, but after about 50 yards I realized she'd knocked my front wheel out of true, so I hobbled the two miles home with the pads scraping the rims. There was no other damage, and I trued my wheel the next day and rode 40 miles.

Still, it was a bit unnerving, and I'm still wondering if I should have listened to the bystanders who came to my aid and called the police, as they suggested.

Interested in hearing about similar experiences.

Oh, and I now have a bruise about eight inches long extending from my right hip to the side of my right knee that is almost as purple as a glass of cabernet. It's pretty sore, too.

Who else has been hit by a car?
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