Has anyone been hit by cars? How many? More than 5? ( Me - 4 on bike, 1 as pedestrian,1 my fault)
The 3 not my fault where people making left turns in front of me, failing to yield right of way.
Injuries:
1.) concussion
2.) 1 blood clot in leg that broke loose causing a pulmonary embolism I nearly died from (I had it for a week b4 I knew what was wrong)
3.) broken ribs, sprained neck- I later developed a collapsed lung (broken arterie on a rib bled bad) they pumped 5 liters of blood and fluid out of me. The car 'lost" though, I hit the car so hard that I sprung the frame and it had to be towed

The non injures were from the pedestrian hit ( crossing st @ corner) and the my fault car hit, ( late through light? - was 38 yrs ago)

I got hit on my morning commute, driver turned into me, luckily I was not really hurt (thanks to my helmet).

Got hit from behind on my bike 3 years ago. His fault old and drunk.

I rode into a parked car once; ~30yrs. ago, does that count?

one was enough for me. Eight months later and I am still dealing with it--not due to injuries but rather court dates. The driver was charged w/ 3 criminal counts (including leaving the scene with injuries) and I was subpoenaed as a witness last week. Makes me wish I sued her for the aggravation if not anything else.

5 times, all walk-aways (although my ride was trashed on a couple of them.)
Spent a few years as a courier. 10hr days playing in traffic == higher probability of impact.

I was hit from behind, 17 days in a coma, 2 months in the hospital, 2 years to walk again(with a cane) and now riding a handcycle.
Lack of control, strength and range of motion prevent me from riding a regular bike.

Compared to yours, I got off lightly. I got rearended while I was stopped to pick up a newspaper. I had one foot on the curb as I was getting set to head off again. The accident happened in 1974 and I still remember everything. It all happened in slow motion. I got laid out on the hood of the car, thrown off after sliding up the windshield and tossed across a concrete sidewalk whereupon I landed on my back on grass. I had bruises from head to toe, but no broken bones. I was fully back in business in a couple of weeks. My bike never fully recovered. Thankfully, it was stolen some years ago and I replaced it with something better.

Three times and never my fault. First time two pedestrians popped out into the street mid block and I hit them going about 15mph or so. Totaled the bike and I had headache (concussion) and really sore neck (whiplash) for 5 days. They walked away laughing when I said I was calling the police. Second time I was hit by a bike while walking across the college campus that I work at. Over two months for my ribs to stop hurting. Last time women stopped at the end of her drive (turning in) and I saw all clear and then she turned in front of me. Over the hand bars and onto the hood. Bruised legs and arms and another trashed bike. She was looking for the garage door opener when she stopped and had not seen me until she had turned across my lane.

I feel very lucky to have not had any permanent damage. After the two incidents where I was on the bike, I was psychologically shaken for at least a couple of months.

I got hit one time. The car was pulling out of a parking lot and apparently didn't see me. Luckily, it was a fairly low speed collision. I bounced across the hood of the car but was uninjured. My bike got off with just a new front wheel.

Another time, I was right-hooked by a car, but managed to stop before making contact. I did, however, flip over the handlebars and badly sprained both elbows. I rode home, but by that night I couldn't bend my arm enough to get food to my mouth. I wasn't able to ride again for over a month.

Both of these incidents came in my first year of commuting.

Never have, I hope to keep it that way. I know some life-long bike commuters at work who never had an accident, so it's possible. I just do my best to ride defensively and be aware of what's happening around me and I avoid trouble spots, even if that means a longer route and I ride an MTB with fat tires. I know a large part of this is luck since you can't account for everybody else's actions and predict everything, but I'm trying

On a side note, I know a guy who got doored on his first bike commute.

Good luck all.

Adam

no

About 50 years ago, yes.

There used to be a kids' TV show on local TV called "Safety First", and it was hosted by a Cincinnati policeman named Jim Stanley. The main thrust of the show was safety issues related to kids, such as negotiating crosswalks, rules for riding bikes, etc. Anyway they stressed using hand signals when riding on the streets. Vehicular cycling before there was such a term, I guess.

Anyway, one evening about dusk I was riding my Schwinn cruiser home from a friend's house. It one of those bikes with the stamped sheet metal "tank" built around the top tubes with a headlight in the front end ahead of the steerer tube. I had to make a left turn off of the highway on to my street. I noticed a car approaching from behind, but in accordance with Sergeant Stanley's rules of the road, I stuck out my left arm to signal my turn, just as if I was my dad driving his Studebaker. I started to make my turn.

Suddenly there was a screeching of tires under heavy braking, and this big ol' chrome Dodge grill was coming up fast on my left, looking like the very open jaws of Hell! At the last instant I decided to bail off of the Schwinn, and ended up in the ditch alongside the road.

The Dodge screeched to a stop right alongside.

I still remember to this day starting to climb out of the ditch, and reaching up to pull myself up by the passenger side door handle. As my head came up past the bottom of the car windowsill I found myself looking into the eyes of little old lady wearing a flowered hat, who must have though I was a ghost coming back from the dead to haunt her, because she started screaming like a banshee and hyperventilating! It was a hoot!

I still have a scar on my left heel where something sharp caught me. That was my only injury.

My Schwinn wasn't so lucky, as you could turn the front wheel and touch the back fender! It was pretty much DRT!

I then graduated to a used $25.00 3-speed internally-geared hub English-made gasspipe special. Wish I still had it.

Never got hit yet. Came awfully close.

However, I know the feeling of what it is like being on the other side. 25 years ago before I even know how to ride a bike, I was driving and looking for a spot. A cyclist was on the sidewalk. I found a spot that was one of those perpendicular type space. I swing right to go into the space and a bicyclist came flying over my hood. Rolled three or four times on the ground.

Apparently he went from the sidewalk onto the street on my rightside and passed me on my right as I was turning into the parking space.

That image still pops up in my head every now and then with feeling of sorrow for the guy although he was ok.

Not yet. <knock on wood>

I've come close twice, but as a pedestrian. Both times were right-turning cars. The first time I just yelled. The second time I was directly in front of the vehicle (I was in the crosswalk, walking my bike with a flat tire) when the driver started to accelerate. I slammed my hand on the hood. That worked too.

I figure someday I will get hit. It's just playing the odds. I've never been injured in a car accident either, but if I continue to drive, that will happen someday also.

The OPs question is a good one. I understand if a car hits you. Some things are out of your control. What I am surprised by is that people here have said they hit cars or pedestrians. How is that possible? I routinely ride at 20-30mph and have had many pedestrians walk out in front of me, cyclists run red lights in front of me, car doors open, and cars pull out of driveways. I have never hit any of them.

I've had to jump off my bike a few times due to the lack of necessary distance to stop or slippery road conditions, but I've never hit anyone. If you maintain your brakes, have good reflexes and athletic skills, and pay attention to the road at all times (If I see one more cyclist on a cell phone I'm gonna' explode.), it doesn't seem reasonable that you should hit anyone, even at high speeds.

To those who have hit others, if your brakes were working properly, you have good reflexes and athletic skills, and you were completely focused on riding defensively, how did you hit something? What went wrong? I'm curious to know if there's something I'm overlooking. I'd like to keep my accident-free streak going.

Several times before I was really experienced - only once in the last 25 years. Driver was pulling out of a parking lot, it was dark so I couldn't make eye contact but she was stopped at the exit and appeared to be waiting for me, I had a good lighting system so there was no reason she shouldn't have seen me. So I just kept riding and then she sort of drove right into me, missed my leg but caught my rear wheel, she had a mid size car. No injuries (thanks to my good reflexes... could have been worse), she paid for a new rear wheel and a tune up at the local shop - said her husband was a rider.

Only as a ped.
Old-ish lady (late 50's?) in a luxury SUV was in the right turn lane, yielding to right-of-way cars.
Just as I crossed in front of her car (in the cross-walk) she gunned it to make a gap. I jumped my 6'8" frame out of the way as she swerved, ran over the curb, and continued her turn, all with her foot firmly planted on the gas. She obviously was confused and panicked, because she managed to change into the left hand lane and hit a car that was driving next to her.
I shrugged it all off and continued on my way to get ice cream.

Not sure why hitting the brakes (and checking for peds for that matter) didn't occur to her, would of avoided an accident and nearly killing me.

You might consider talking to a lawyer. Most states have a one year statute of limitations for civil actions. You probably have 4 months left to file.

Haven't been hit by a car as a cyclist and hopefully it'll never happen. My worst cycling injuries came from another cyclist on a MUP and we both had a hand in it- he took a curve a little too fast and I wasn't paying enough attention. Cars have nearly hit me a couple of times, but they've been in slow speed situations where I was able to stop in time.

Being a pedestrian has been more hazardous. I've had to literally flee from clueless people in cars while walking in a crosswalk, and once took a short ride on the grill of a large truck that pulled out right into me (again in a crosswalk, while I had the walk sign). Am glad I'm nimble, or I would have been knocked down and run over.

I once got mildly sideswiped by a car on a left-hand bend in the road. He basically didn't leave enough clearance overtaking round the corner and bumped into me. The kerb at this point was a high one, so I couldn't escape onto the footpath. Didn't come off though, and I doubt he even noticed.

That's almost exactly what happened to me, except front wheel instead of rear. The guy jumped out of his car and the first thing he says to me is, "I didn't mean to hit you." Well, that's reassuring.

Got rear-ended a year ago, bike and windshield smashed up but I was OK. Also been right-hooked but managed to turn with the car, leaning on the passenger door to stay upright. First one was partly my fault, second one not.

I did learn big lessons from both incidents.

Twice ...but only once on a bike ...got me a new bike out it, better bike even ...Now, time for another Vicodin, the accident turned me into an opiate addict ...can't live without it.

Not counting the two or three times I was physically brushed back by passing cars (the standard negative three inch passing clearance), I was hit once as a pedestrian and once as a cyclist, both in the past three years. The ped incident happened when a motorist in Portland, OR ran a stop sign while turning right onto the street my son and I were walking on (residential street with no sidewalk). He would have hit both of us, but I pushed my son to my left and then couldn't quite clear his passenger-side mirror. I got my hand up to block it and it broke off easily. The driver was unhappy, but decided his safest course of action was to stop cursing at me, get back into his vehicle and leave; I was running out of patience and he was at least bright enough to realize what would happen if he escalated.

The motorist who hit me on my bike did the same maneuver as that physician was convicted for in SoCal last year: pass aggressively and skid to a stop in front of the bike. Lucky for me I was going less than half the speed of those guys, maybe 20 mph, so while I couldn't stop in time I could still land on my feet. It was somewhat of a pleasant surprise to find that I could still stick the landing after a full flip with a one and one-half twist while wearing sandles. My poor old Raleigh one speed needed a bit of head-tube rewelding, which a friend did for me.

After nearly 40 years of using a bike as my primary means of transportation, I am amazed at how dangerous it has become over the past decade or so. I am not sure if it is a geographic issue (most of the first 30 years were in NorCal, the past decade has been in OR), or if it is just our growing lack of civility and lawfulness in America in general. I hope things improve, or at least stop degenerating, before I lose what little athletic ability I have left; I really can't count the number of times I have had to take action to avoid being road pizza, but it is happening with greater frequency every year.