Yet another hit by car... but with pro spectators
 

Just back after 4hrs at the ER and couldn't et signal to post from the gurney. I was going 25-30 with 40mph traffic, go past a police officer standing to the right (helping traffic for a funeral I later learn). There's a fire station across the street with a bunch of them hanging out. Stereotypical old lady pulls into the street past a stop sign looking to the right to make a left turn. I yell loudly for her to stop, she of course turns her head and pulls right into me. I was wailing on the brake (fixed gear, IRO gb frame that's a few weeks old and set up with a strong brake) when things get fuzzy I guess. I believe I hit her quarter panel and flipped, some others thought I might have gone over on brake power mainly. word is I bounced off her hood onto the ground.

Immediatly knew the shoulder was messed up and muttered some unpleasant words while I hoped the cars that I could have hit instead of her didn't run me over. Seemed like seconds later the officer and firemen were there, along with a guy handing me my headlight which went flying. Barely minutes after that the EMT's arrived. General thought was either dislocated or broken. Got my first backboard/neck-braced ambulance ride and some x-rays. They seem to be inconclusive, no major break but likely hairline socket fracture, various bits of missing skin, and a growing headache(hit my helmet and got some head road-rash). I'll be going back I guess to a specialist it seems.

I'm gonna look great on the beach on vacation in a couple of days with the road rash and sling. Worst of all is we lost our last softball game by 2 runs and I'm one of the top players. The bike seems ok luckily, and it would seem I'll have a few witnesses to back me up.

Be careful out there kids.

Wow. That's awful! I'm glad you're okay! :eek:
The vacation will hopefully be good for you, assuming you won't have to sit on a cramped plane for hours. At least you'll be able to get good rest..

Sorry to hear about the accident. Hopefully there's no permanent damage. :(

Glad to see you're still alive and kicking. Although I wouldn't say it's a nice to have an accident, it certainly helps to have immediate care, especially when it's professional. :)

We can't keep all stupid people off the road, but old people are a much easier demographic to target with many stricter regulations (read: no licenses past 70 and testing every 6 months for 65 and older).

You pretty much know it when your shoulder's dislocated. Three-time veteran, here. Not that you didn't have plenty suck enough. Stereotypes aside, it isn't just old people -- plenty of people cruise past the crosswalk, blind to the oncoming bicycle...then they start to pull out...then they see you and stop...and then they go anyway, but very very slowly so they're right in your goddamn way. I keep hoping for a cop to witness one of these, because I do love watching a cop do a nutty on a motorist who's just pulled a bonehead move. Heal well and completely, and...uh...well, I guess there will be a police report, huh? Heh heh.

Slow down, man. 30 is too fast when old ladies are around.

Good to see that you are OK. It could have been worse. I hope you heal up quickly and the road rash clears up. And next time try no to do a TT around old ladies and funerals for goodness sake. ;)

You'll heal, but I'm glad the IRO's ok. :)

File a claim with her insurance once you have your medical issues figured out. Better yet, SUE. I was hit by a motorist and got a nice settlement without suing, but next time I'm suing the crap out of somebody's insurance company.

Glad to hear you're OK. The blue-hair set can't focus on anything beyond the 4 corners of their vehicles.

Once you get the bill for the ride in the ambulance, you'll hurt worse than the road rash. If you're opposed to suing now, you probably won't feel that way later. Glad to hear you're doing OK and that you'll have a chance to recuperate on vacation, but I'm sorry to hear that you required intervention of the medical establishment.

man that sucks, but try to relax on that vacation and drink a couple of pina coladas for me man.

Always the senior citizens... It's absolutely amazing. Scares the crap out of me, and I've only been riding two days!

Still, I'm no better. I have a grandparent who continues to drive even though he has absolutely NO business being on the road. I could easily see him hitting and killing a cyclist, motorcyclist, or pedestrian. We've already been through the "taking the license away" from one grandfather, and I'm not looking forward to it with the other. I almost don't blame him, though, as I'm sure he see it as the first step towards the end, right?

Look at it this way.... Now you have "Happy Pills" to help with the long plane trip? :D

Get better Bubba

I've had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance (not bike-related) and the bill was something like $600 (hooray for insurance!). Good luck getting it all worked out, hope you heal well

Next time when you see a stereotypical old lady pulling past a stop sign and looking to the right to make a left turn you might want to slow the f*ck down. And don't bother yelling "Stop" or "On your left" cause it only distracts them... and you from slowing the f*ck down.

I'm sorry if my attitude is offending people, but I'm tired of reading these posts where someone is injured and I'm supposed to hate the car driver. The same mistakes are being made again and again and no one is learning from them. So from now on I will interject my opinions on the matter from what information I can glean from the particular incident. There were several warning flags set here, old lady, pulling past a stop sign, and not looking in the right direction, all indicating to... slow the f*ck down.

When you are able, find an empty parking lot and figure out how far it will take to stop at different speeds. They got lots of lines painted there to facilitate the whole process. Memorize the distance to the corresponding speed. Then when riding and warning flags are triggered you can slow the f*ck down to the speed where you will be able to stop before hitting the front quarter panel.

So before someone posts the usual theoretical stuff about 'rights of way" and "sharing the road", I'm going to counter with the cold hard reality of bumpers, windshields and quarter panels. No sympathy from me. Heal up, learn from it and ride again and I'll give you my respect. But no more sympathy. It just doesn't pay off.

Okay, I'm a little bit sorry. But I'm not going to tell you cause it will only make you soft.

Good to know. My first thoughts, on reading the OP's account, were "What are unkchunk's opinions on this matter? And does he plan to interject them from now on?"

Slept reasonably well there, to be woken by our dog barking loudly at 7am causing me to jump and remind me about the shoulder. Maybe I should clarify about the sequence of events, and state that I only joked stereotypical old lady because it actually was one. I'm sure she was rather shaken to see a skinny me flying across her hood and my bike bouncing along. From the time to passing the officer to hitting the car was under 2 seconds and she wasn't there when I noticed the officer. She pulled right out and I was on the brakes yelling as soon as I saw the bumper because I was riding semi-casually (hands on the brake, sitting up and not in the drops) because there were a bunch of cars around and I was attempting to be wary. This is a 30mph road with two lanes in each direction and parking on both sides, traffic going more like 40. The bystanders saw because they were wondering what the yell was about. Basically this lady was going to get hit by either me or the next car coming along, and I'm pretty confident that she's only alive today because the next vehicle was a 150 pound guy instead of a 3000 pound car.

I'm sure the ambulance bill will be fun for the whole mile or two ride; the wife already kicked the wheels in motion getting in touch with our insurance company so they're aware and I might walk over to the police station to see about a case number. Not sue happy at all so long as the bills are covered btw. Figure I'm using a sick day today and probably tomorrow, first ones I've used since the day after the Boston marathon last year (hey, wife's orders not to leave the house, would prefer to go to work but can't seem put a shirt on...). The shoulder is a joy of pain still, we'll see if I take any more percs and trying to get in to an orthopedist before flying out Saturday morning. Good thing we decided not to drive the 9 hours to her grandmother this time.

Don't you just love it when a driver is looking into the lane that they haven't gotten to yet and ignoring the lane they are currently creeping through?

Sounds to me like your tirade is way off-base. OP was on the brakes and in process of stopping.

As for your suggestion that the OP heads to an empty parking lot and learns the appropriate stopping distances at speed: That's all well and good... If you know far enough in advance that you need to stop. When someone pulls out in front of you, you lose that foresight. No matter how fast you're going, you only have the gap they've left you before you either stop on your own, or smack into them. The fact that the OP noticed it was an old woman looking the wrong way doesn't imply that he had ample warning. That's the kind of quick observation you can make with a split second glance while jamming on the brakes and yelling. So, even though all the "warning flags" of a bad driver were there, it sounds like in this situation there simply wasn't enough space to stop.
IMO, this accident had little to do with bike handling skills, and can be attributed to a bad driver.

charging for ems/ambulance ride? unlikely. that's generally a cnty service/core taxpayer service.

Haven't had a ride in an ambulance lately have you? Last one I had was 600+ and that was 10 years ago. Maybe if you are lucky enough to get a fire rescue.

To OP glad you are okay, heal quick, and talk to a lawyer about your options for getting that particular menace off the streets.

where I live (DC), it's all county run/paid for, and I'm under the impression that's the standard/majority across the country. not to get off topic, but one of the primary reasons cited for keeping ems a core service is that if they charge it reduces the likelihood of ppl to call ems or delays the initiation of ems until it's more serious than it should be.

OP, glad all things considered that you're ok.

If it's a Fire/Rescue owned ambulance, then it's a county service but still billable to whomever got the ride. Most of the EMS vehicles (full truck ambulances, van-bulances, etc.) are private EMT companies.