Chalupa102

I'm a little shook up right now. It happened in the town next to mine and was about 4 miles from home. I was in the right tire track instead of the shoulder because it's narrow and the road starts to curve to the right. I saw an older lady standing on the curb getting ready to cross the road. I saw here look left and right. She looked right at me (or through me) before she started to cross. I saw her start to move and started hitting the brakes. Sure enough, she crossed right in front of me. I tried to swerve to the left and hit the brakes at the same time. We collided and both went down pretty hard. I asked her right away if she was fine. Her hand was bleeding but she said it was no big deal because she lived right there. The glasses/sunglasses thing she was wearing got destroyed. I told her that I was sorry and she also appologized and said that she never saw me. I've always wondered how pedestrian and bike collisions happen, but now I know. I wish I would have hit the brakes earlier or yelled earlier. I don't know what else I could have done. I feel very bad about the whole situation. I ended up riding to my friend's house right down the road and she gave me a ride home. I'm sure I could have ridden, but really wasn't in the mood.

Right now my left palm is sore and there's minor pain on the inside of my left foot, which is no big deal. As far as my bike goes, the handlebars are bent and the bracket that hold the cyclocomputer is cracked. I think those are the only things messed up. The good news is that the wheel for my recumbent came in today, so I should be able to ride that while I figure out what to do with the handlebars on the other one.

(Sorry for the cell phone pics; camera batteries are dead right now)

unterhausen

sorry to hear about that, I can imagine it is stressful to hit someone. I have had a lot of close calls, it always seems that they look right through you. Don't quite understand it, there are plenty of bikes around here.

exile

Sorry to hear about the ordeal.

I had an incident where a driver zoomed past me at night and parked about a block away. They got out and I rolled right past them barely missing them. They looked shocked as I past them. They apparently didn't see my Ultrafire 501B red light, NR Cherrybomb, and PB Rack blinky from behind. They also missed my two 900 lumen P7's up front. Wish I could figure out a way to be more visible.

Ottawa2009

This is a strange story about people not paying attention to whats around them.

https://www.ngnews.ca/News/Local/2010...in-Westville/1


On Thursday evening around 8:00 p.m. Westville Police, Fire Rescue and EHS responded to a 911 call of a train/pedestrian accident on Main Street, Westville.
A Cape Breton Central Nova Scotia Train traveling west crossed the intersection of Main Street when a 39-year-old male pedestrian proceeding south collided with the train.
The pedestrian became entwined under the locomotive. The train was stopped and the man stood up and continued his way home.
EHS and Fire Rescue responded to the individual's residence where he was treated for a number of cuts and abrasions. The man is at home resting.
The matter is being investigated

vol

Sorry to hear your experience. Hitting little kids and the elderly are some of the most worrisome things for me. It was kind enough for her to even apologize to you after being hit. We have to keep in mind that many elderly people have poor hearing and eyesight, so we need to be more "conservative" when encountering them, maybe get off the bike sooner than later.

jharte

Very sorry to hear about your accident. This scenario is exactly the reason I've been looking for a front blinker. I've had plenty of close calls and have swerved to miss pedestrians. They do 'look right through you' and never see you coming. Like many, I've been commuting for years. I ride extremely defensively. Still, **it happens.

I usually ride with my headlight on during the day but even that seems to blend in with other shiny objects. I'm still not seen. I think a front blinker will help.

I hope things work out. Keep us posted.

Jerry H

spoonsphere

hi dan,

very sorry that happened. i'm glad that neither you nor the lady was hurt badly. worry not - the bike can be repaired, and you'll continue to ride and have many wonderful rides.

CCrew

You can bet that it should have been followed with "Alcohol was involved"

009jim

As I am getting older myself, I have come to realize that old people often cannot see or hear very well. I think a good idea if you see an old person is to stop and assist them to cross the road. You will feel good after this.

johnr783

Sorry to hear that. I am a pedicab driver and have to be careful because people think its funny to deliberately step right in front of a 200 lb pedicab rolling 10-12 mph so they can ask for a free ride. Sometimes I wish I could hit them.

I would never want to hit a person not testing Darwin's Law though.

I could be misjudging the pictures but it looks like the handlebars are straight but were twisted in the headset. Are you sure you cant just loosen the headset, recenter the handlebars and tighten it again?

B. Carfree

You ask how someone can look right at a bike and not see them. I don't know. I was once driving a commercial big rig: tractor, semi-trailer and pull trailer. As I came to a T-intersection (I was on the thru road), a car came to the stop sign. Just in case, I shifted down to 9th gear. I watched the driver look right at me, wait 3 seconds, and then pull out right in front of me. To make matters worse there was a car coming from the other direction. I frantically engaged the engine brake, hit the brakes (gently, a partial jack-knife would take out the on-coming car) and hit the air horn. If she couldn't get up to speed fast enough my choices would be to either hit the ditch on the right side (my death) or go right through her car (likely her death as well as that of the two children with her, one in a car seat). The puff of smoke out her tailpipe told me the air horn had gotten her attention and she did manage to get just enough speed just fast enough to avoid a collision.

I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how she could fail to see a 75 feet long 12 foot tall white and yellow truck after looking right at it. I decided she probably drives to that intersection several hundred times per year and never has any traffic approaching from her right side, so she turns her head but is not really looking for anything. She waited the amount of time she normally waits and then went.

irclean

I'm sure a lot of us can agree with this statement. I, for one, can relate; I've also been the victim of driver inattention.

JonnyHK 

You probably scared the absolute beejeebers out of her and I guarantee that she will be looking properly next time!

trekker pete

what time of day was it? what was the weather like? what were you wearing?

bright, multicolored clothing is a good idea no matter the time of day.

the advice "ride like you are invisible" works whether it is to keep us out from under the wheels of a cage or peds from under our wheels.

a few days ago i damn near mowed down a jogger in my cage. it was overcast and he was wearing a black sweatshirt. not particularly smart.

could i have been more attentive and seen him sooner?

yes, i could have and did feel a bit guilty for scaring the bleep out of him (and me).

the bottom line is, we can all pretend that we are 100% attentive 100% of the time.

we're not. it's why they call them "accidents".

so, dress like a clown. ride like an invisible clown.

rex_kramer

I can't seem to win with peds crossing the street. They're either at crosswalks, where you stop for them and they wave you by, or they step off the curb at random right in front of you.

Sorry to hear about your wreck. Glad the two of you walked away alright for the most part.

Brian Sharpe

I suppose that's one of the few advantages of being over a certain age - you stop caring if you look like a dork when riding, you just want to be seen / noticed.

To the OP, I'm glad that neither you or the pedestrian was badly hurt.

Ricardo

Happened to me once but I broke my right hand middle finger. The pedestrian was unhurt and just walked away and didn't apologize. (Maybe frightened). Had finger surgery and more than a year of therapy to recover movement on that finger.

At the end of the day, you were lucky. Were you going fast?

Grim

Were they jay walking or you had the right of way? Then even if you are a salmon its ok. (at least according to this tool)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJLrc...layer_embedded

Chalupa102

Thanks everyone. I think in a few days I'm going to visit her to see how she is doing.


It was about 2:30pm and the sun was shining bright. I was wearing a hi-viz vest.


Ouch, that sounds like it hurt. I agree I was very lucky. I was going between 18-20mph before I started hitting the brakes. No idea how fast I was going when we collided.


They were jay walking.

trekker pete

So, perfect conditions, in other words. Some times you just can't win.

Just noticed that we are neighbors pretty much. I did a ride to hamden mass with a guy from work, just to be able to say I rode to another state. I was thinking of going as far as Monson but got lazy.

Maybe we can go for a ride some time. See how many peds we can mow down.

Maxxxie

I am ashamed to say that I have done this. Worse, I was on my bike at the time. There's a section of my commute that has me transitioning from a footpath to the road. The road is a one-way, two-lane service road that feeds one lane into a small clump of businesses, and the other lane onto the highway. 99% of traffic is in the lane that feeds into the highway. I hardly ever see anything in the other lane (the one I merge into). So when I saw that semi coming down the road, I honestly thought/assumed it was in the highway lane.

Imagine my surprise (and, no doubt, the driver's) when I realised, far too late, that it was in the lane I'd just merged into. I pedalled like crazy, and to his credit, he slowed down and gave me room to accelerate and to get out of his way.

It could've ended up very badly. The lesson's been learnt, however, and I'm now much more cautious about that particular area, and also about joining traffic in general.

Max

rumrunn6

buy her a pie and bring it over

big_al

Dan glad to see that you all came out ok, bike could be fixed or replaced. In my morning routeI go by several schools and the kids usually are not paying attention I have to almost come to a complete stop to make sure they dont jump in front of me as they have so now for a block or two I am just cruising at a very low speed just in case.

AdamDZ

I have TWO Magicshine headlights in strobe mode unless it's a bright sunny day. Do you think it helps? Nope... People still walk in front of me as if I wasn't there. Unless I blow my Airzound there is little reaction to the lights.

puppypilgrim

"so, dress like a clown. ride like an invisible clown."

So true. I use three blinking red lights at the back my bike. One under the seatpost, one on the rear rack, one Planet Blinky attached to the back of my helmet. The front of my helmet has a 58 LED flashing white light and my handlebar has a flashing multi-LED flashlight-style through insect lens. I wearing an orange visibility vest with 4 inch yellow reflective stripes and an yellow reflective band on my right ankle. I suppose I look stupid but it will be hard to claim they did not see me...