Rubble

I posted a few times when I began this bike riding odyssey a year ago but have been lax since. Then I read the "rode naked" thread. Yesterday I made the same mistake of forgetting my helmet as I got on my bike at 0515 in the dark. I got about 3/4 of a mile down the road when I realized it. For the next 1/4 mile I had a raging debate going on in my head and, thankfully, the smart side won the debate.

After the return trip I get back on the road. At about a mile there is a small bridge that, with the help of the downhill side, gets me to an 18 mph pace that I usually keep for 2 miles. I'm a 14.5 mph guy so that is 'flying'. Just a bit after that bridge is a 60 degree bend/turn in the road and this is where things got interesting.

As I'm rounding the very well lit bend in flying mode, and in the bike lane, a car comes flying from behind. I can hear it and feel it. It is well above the 40 mph speed limit. Next thing I know is there is a white fender 1 inch from my legs. This guy has both right tires in the bike lane! As bikes and cars don't share the same space well, I swerved to the right trying to get to the sidewalk.

My front tire made it over the 1 inch lip but my back tire didn't. I go into a slide with a brief "I can save this!" thought before I went flying over the top. First my back hit and them the back of my head slammed into the concrete.

A guy in a truck pulled over and jumped out. He was convinced the guy had hit me. Not sure he believed me when I said he didn't. The guy told me to stay down and get my wits back for a minute or two. Said he's a rider also and has seen this before. Then he helped me up and did the "watch my finger with your eyes" thing as he waved it back and forth in front of my face. I guess I passed his test. He asked if I wanted to put the bike in the truck bed and get a ride home. I passed on that but thanked him for his help.

I stood there for a while tending to a skinned elbow and wishing my head didn't hurt so bad. All my body parts worked as they should. Painless deep breaths meant no broken ribs. No dizzyness and my eyesight was as good as my 61 year old eyes were before the crash. Checked the bike and nothing was out of place so I got back on my bike and had a slow ride back home. Yes, when I got home I found that the helmet is cracked and the foam is crushed.

The doc said I have a mild concussion. Printed off a "signs of a concussion" sheet and told me to keep this in front of me for the next couple days and to give one to my brother who I work with. So far so good. Back hurts from being body slammed and a little lingering headache remains.

I feel fortunate that nothing worse happened. If I hadn't had my helmet on I have no doubt that I'd have a crushed melon right now.

Mountain Mitch

Congratulations on doing the right thing and surviving. I try to make wearing a helmet an 'always' thing. Many years ago a neurologist friend of mine said they may not help in a high speed crash but can save you from being a basket case in a typical impact.

I joke that my wife should have a standing order for helmets. I bought her a very expensive road riding helmet last year. Twenty minutes into our first ride she hit loose gravel on a tight turn and went down. Said she thought she might have hit her head. Side of her new helmet was pulped! Expensive....but worth it. This spring while mountain biking she stalled on loose dirt on a sudden uphill and fell over on the downhill side. When I got to her I noticed a strange antler growing from her helmet. A branch had piered her helmet. Fortunately not all the way. Now she has a new hard shell MTB helmet.

I love helmets!

canklecat

Glad to hear you're mostly okay, especially the noggin. And good to know the doctor gave you some tips to watch for and you have someone to keep an eye on you. The first few hours up to around 48 hours are crucial after a blow to the head.

I used to be inconsistent about helmets when I was younger, but not now. I wear one every ride, unless I'm just circling the parking lot to check adjustments for gears, brakes, etc. But I put on the helmet even for quick test rides around the block since those often turn in to hour-long cruises.

Recently I added a video camera just to record some rides, mostly in traffic. Partly I was curious about whether I'm really riding as cautiously as I believe (turns out I'm making a few mistakes, which I hadn't noticed until I reviewed the videos). But three close calls by vehicles right-hooking and left-hooking me reminded me that I probably should record every ride just for safety documentation. I can always wipe the card after uneventful rides.

Wheever

Glad you weren't badly hurt, and glad your better sense prevailed!

Yes! when I hear people "debating" the importance of helmets, blah blah, I just shake my head, because a helmet can turn a severe or fatal injury into basically a nothing incident.

I was pushed of the road by some ******* a couple of years ago. Like you, I hit the curb and didn't make it over. I wasn't going very fast, but the side of my helmet kissed rough pebbled concrete pretty solidly. If I hadn't been wearing my helmet, that would have been a concussion and bad lacerations, minimum, and, at our age, likely worse.

It seems like such a no-brainer, but there is no common-sense thing that people won't argue against!

Again, glad you weren't badly hurt!

BobbyG

Glad you're okay. I may have mentioned before I bought my girlfriend a helmet back in the 1980s. She hated it, but I nagged her into wearing it. Shortly after we broke up she was riding home at night not wearing the helmet and hit a pothole and went down. She didn't hit her head, but the bike ended up on her head and held it against the ground as she slid down the pavement on a hill. She had a nasty scrape down to the skull that took a while to heal.

peterws

Also harrowing to read of these things. We all have stories to tell of peoples carelesness, sometimes our own.
If its any consolation, if you hadnt actually gone back for that helmet, you wouldnt have had that prang. . .

Not the best way of looking at this, is it?

ltxi

Always good to hear of no real/lasting damage done nasty accident like this survival stories. I've occasionally forgotten my helmet, too, and have always gone back for it.

Was having lunch with my ex-work wife/now spouse approved gilrfriend today and the conversation wandered to cycling. A normally very level headed person, she lets her teen kids cycle without a helmet. Wth...I used to do that, too, when I was their age and cars also didn't have seat belts, but today we know, or should know better. And...awhile back, my wife lost her helmet...decided to ride without one...bought/made her get another and it was but a day later she bike tripped over a curb at low speed and bounced her (helmeted) head off a good sized rock. She won't even think about getting on a bike no more without headgear.

Thanks for posting your story.

MrYummieandMe

I'm glad I read this post! Congrats on getting your money's worth with the helmet. I just bought my first one ever in 40 years of riding, and feel sort of silly wearing one. I know they help save us from serious injuries, but we all are most comfortable with what we're used to doing. I recently started riding heavily again, at night, coming home from work at the witching hour of 230am. Short story longer, I have had way too many very close calls coming home, one silly nit in particular who just blasted her stop sign in front of me...even as she was looking at me...(disc brakes are awesome!) and I was close enough to her window to hear her giggle and say "Oh, sorry." in a low voice. That resolved me to get a bucket, which I did today. Too many concussions on this old head from previous wrecks, late night sambas with the boys, and other assorted mishaps to not think twice. Good job surviving and reminding me it's $75 probably well-spent!

TimothyH

Someone in another thread called this a "psychological dependency."

I call it rational.


-Tim-

02Giant 

Or, you could look at it as if you didn't go back for the helmet, you and the vehicle would not have come together at the same point in time. There would have been no crash.

rydabent

Glad you are ok. But-------------the anti helmet types on the Helmet Thread wont believe you, me or anyone else that have had an accident.

Rubble

Or maybe I forgot my helmet and went back and the driver forgot his coffee and went back putting us there at the same time (and virtually on the same piece of asphalt).


One good thing that's come out of this - besides then non-crushed melon - is that I've convinced the county road dept to put those white reflectors on the white line around that bend. At least riders will hear the thump thump thump warning that a car is over the line. I was lucky to get a rider who answered the phone, knew the bend I was talking about and was well aware of the number of cars who stray into the bike lane.

Rubble

I'll admit that I only wore it half the time when I started riding a year ago. They look goofy and you don't get the 'wind in the hair' feeling. We have a park with a 4 mile loop around a lake here that I ride sometimes round and round and round. I felt safe with no helmet because there were no cars. Then I saw a hotshot rider (20+ mph) go down out there. Stupid fall but a fall none the less as he screwed up while replacing his water bottle. Took his eyes off the path while looking down and turned his handlebars a bit too much. After a few overcorrections several times both ways, down he went.


My vanity disappeared at that point.


Helmet shopping tomorrow to replace my cracked helmet.

Rubble

If I can save one person by telling my story.....


Over the past couple days while driving I've found myself wanting to stop helmet-less riders and show them my cracked helmet. There's one pretty 30 yr old with her blond hair flowing that I see almost every morning. I'd love to stop her but she'd probably think I was a DOM.


She may be kinda right..

jimincalif

"Spouse approved girlfriend"? As good as a helmet-saved-me story is, your story might be better!

kevindsingleton 

Yeah, I want to know how you did this!

02Giant 

That is completely unknown, you did alter your place in time with your actions.


That is a positive.

wphamilton

I did almost the same thing three years ago, with the minor difference that it wasn't the sidewalk but the ridge of the pavement that I tried to climb back up. A car getting too close, I was going 20-25, fell off the lip of the road (an inch or two drop, and the strip was only about 6-8" wide) and trying to get back on went over the bars.

I didn't think about my equipment at all, going back over it. My focus was what went wrong, what did I do wrong or right, and how do I not do the wrong part. I'd advise anyone having had an accident to do this.

My mistake was riding too close to the edge to begin with, and paying too much attention to the car that was crowding me. Having gone off the edge I should have just slowed and stopped, but I thought I could jump it back on for some reason. During the tumble after going over, I think I hit either the curb or the pavement edge with my shoulder so I should have paid more attention to the tumble.

So in general, I was guilty of bad strategy in lane positioning, letting an aggressive driver distract me, overconfidence in recovering, and somehow mis-executing the fall. I can't say if all or any of that applies to OP's crash, but I am certain that these are commonly made mistakes that factor in to a lot of crashes and injuries. Hopefully someone can take from this and avoid them.

Rubble

Like you I've given it some thought. I suspect I over reacted a bit but I can't blame myself for taking too big an action when a 50+mph fender is an inch from my leg. Maybe if I hadn't gone to the side walk but just to the edge of it he'd have zipped on by. However it was fight or flight time and that would have been a fight I would always lose.

99% of the 5 mile stretch of bike lane along sidewalk does not have a lip. Anywhere else along that strip I'd have been slowing down on the side walk and cursing a blue streak.

rumrunn6

good share, thanks, how's your head feeling?

Rubble

Lingering light headache but its better today than yesterday. I keep the Advil nearby.

Rubble

Went and found that thread. After going through a few pages, I can tell that there were many keyboards broken from pounding on keys.

ltxi

Haha...A close/best friend woman person 31 years my junior I worked with for about 10 years. Sorta joined at the hip to the point we were often professionally thought of/viewed as a work wife/husband couple....especially, perhaps, as we often bickered and business traveled together. After she left the office and I shortly after retired she was redesignated my spouse approved girlfriend. We get together at least once a month for lunch. She, I, her children, and respective spouses all know each other.

crtbike

My helmet paid off back in May when I was hit by a car. I was conscious the whole time. The EMT said that the helmet is what saved my life that day. I am now 2 months in to recovery. I had to get a new bike and a better helmet. I can't wait till Oct till I can get back in the saddle. Everyone please wear a helmet even if you just do a quick ride in your neighborhood.

AlexCyclistRoch

Oh, the irony....