First real "crash"
 

About two weeks ago I read a statistic that stated, on average, a roadie crashes once every 4k miles. On my cool down last Monday, on a rain slick perimeter road at my condo, I went down...hard. :eek:

THE SCENARIO:
I was going 10 to 12 mph (down from about 20 mph 75 yds earlier) into a 90 degree turn and I (later realized) woke up on the pavement with a very concerned neighbor talking to me and calling 911. She had been in her car and watched me fall. I had landed on my left shoulder, left hip and hit my helmeted head on the left side. The EMTs came and checked my vitals, asked if I wanted to go to the hospital (I declined), and left. I got back on my bike and pedaled about 150 yds to my home.

FOLLOW-UP
When I got home, I Googled head injury while my wife got a close friend who is a recently retired doctor on the phone. My wife and I performed a DIY neurological exam and declared me fit for service. Well, in all honesty, I declared myself fit for service; my wife wanted to take me to the ER.

DAMAGE

• My Giro helmet had a minor scuff mark in the left temple area and the foam behind the scuff had a single crack all the way through the foam.
• My left shoulder and left side of my neck hurt like hell.
• My left hip hurt and had a minor abrasion.
• There was a minor 3" cut on my left knee.
• A 1" x 1" abrasion under my left eye.
• A minor cut in my left eyebrow.
• Some marks on my (NEW!!) Florida Freewheelers jersey

DISCUSSION
In doing the after action review (hey, I am an engineer and a retired Naval Officer :) ), I found a couple of points very interesting.

• I have NO recollection of an impending crash or the actual crash process. This happened FAST!
• I had no road rash.
• There was no real damage to the bike. Further inspection found that the only indication that the bike went down was some road grime on the outside of the white bar tape on the left drop and the left left brifter was rotated inboard slightly.

By the way, and I think this is important, I really did not comprehend that I had been unconscious until several hours later when I was mulling over the accident.

REPAIRS
I iced down all of the hurting areas every couple of hours for the rest of the day and started taking ibuprofen at 1 x 600 mg every 6 hours. Straightened out the brifter and thoroughly inspected the bike. Monitored my neuro signs for 36 hours and bought a new helmet. Because of the injury to my left side, I stayed off the bike for three days. Each day of R & R I felt significantly better than the day before. In general I heal quickly and this was no exception.

CONCLUSIONS
I was very, very lucky! I discussed this all with a former Masters racer and his take is that, in light of the injuries and lack of damage to the bike, the wheels went out from under me. No sliding, skidding, swerving, etc. They simply lost traction and went to the right and the bike and I went left...hard and fast. The bike/rider system rotated around the longitudinal center of gravity which I approximate is the top tube of the bike. My left hip, shoulder and the left side of my head absorbed all of the energy of the fall. The normal mode of energy dissipation by sliding on the road did not occur.

In retrospect, I should have gone to the ER for a check up. Head injuries are not insignificant events.

Did I mention that I was very, very lucky?

Ride safe!!
Charlie

So Charlie,
You're good for another 4000 miles?
Glad it wasn't any more significant. Yea, you should have gone to the ER. Doesn't it tick you off when you realize your spouse is right after the fact.
Take care and heal.
Larry

How is the shoulder? I am also retired Navy btw, I dropped my bike on the wet pavement in September and the result of the impact with the asphault was identical to yours with the exception of being unconscious. I do remember sliding about 10 feet on my head. The bike shop guy just exchanged the helmet free of charge. My shoulder is still bad and I have to eventually get an mri. The ortho said it was most likely a torn rotator cuff of course and probably would need surgery. It hurts only after an hour or so of riding so I have been putting it off.

First, heal quickly and completely! The loss of immediate memory is a signal to which you should pay attention. Additionally, if you lost consciousness you most definitely should have been checked out. I went down earlier this last summer, and thought I was OK until my wife asked me how I got home. I knew I rode home on the bike, but couldn't remember any of it. We were then off to the ER, and it turns out I did have a Grade 3 concussion, and the next day found that the retina of my right eye was starting to detach. What many people don't realize is that after a concussion the brain needs time to heal. And people often think they are "back to normal" because their other physical symptoms have abated. Don't be fooled by this. While it was good to take the 36 hours off, it would have been better to take a whole week. Should you have had a second accident before the first concussion was fully healed, the chance of doing more serious permanent damage goes up quite a bit. Disclaimer: I'm not a physician. I'm just relaying what I was told by a neurologist that specializes in sport head injuries.

Charlie, As an engineer you know that an independant analysis can be helpful. Since you were unconscious see a doctor.

Brad

Welcome to BF. Ex-Navy myself, black shoe.

My most significant accident involved a concussion and I also had no recollection of going down nor the few instants beforehand - just woke up on the side of the road wondering what happened. Not even sure if I was out a few seconds or a couple of minutes. Next day my doc told me that the memory loss is very common.

Winter is my time for more accidents - wet leaves and mossy roads have been known to take me down, but I must be lucky as I have fewer accidents than 1 every 4K miles.

I have not yet had a fall on the road bike- but that is because I don't ride it hard emough.

But MTB's- Every ride had an incident. That was over 4 years ago and the first thing you knew about a fall was when the back/knee/shoulder hurt and the bike was upside down- with me still clipped in. But did a road ride on the MTB and went down on Ice. No damage till a few miles later and I had to take an aspirin- I had a headache. Took the helmet off and saw that it was scraped almost through the Styren.

But any hard knock on a helmet and replace it. Had a fall one ride and it must have been two rides later that the helmet creaked when I put it on. Checked it out and all that was holding it together was the flimsy outer casing.

Glad there is no major damage to you or the bike- but those scrapes- Sound painfull and it is- Wash them clean with surgical spirit. I know it stings like mad and I am a masochist- but it stops the pain for a few hours at least.

It's an old trick I learnt from the sadists in the hospital in the Marines. I had feet attached to my blisters once and I had 5 days treatment like this. Never had a foot blister since.

I echo the others suggesting a potential concussion; I went riding w/ an old gf once and she went down sans helmet. Her asking me where she was and how she got there (she was visiting from out of state) for the next three hours+ had me pretty worried until a dr. checked her out and confirmed the concussion.

Foam cracked all the way through = new helmet. Maybe see if you can send it in for partial credit, or something.

Heal up fast!

very concerned neighbor talking to me and calling 911. She had been in her car and watched me fall.

Get her some roses

Went down in a similar fashion, though not as much surface damage. That being said I've got a torn rotator cuff. Surgery would require me to be unable to use the arm for at least 6 months. I live w/t pain and swim to keep it loose. Sometimes, surgery isn't the answer. Glad you're okay, though. Falls can be devastating.

If you are retired military your benefits should cover a trip to find out if your head if OK. Get that checked out. Good luck on not having more extensive injuries or damage to your bike. The rain is both a blessing and a curse.....

Curse-probably caused the fall, Blessing, possibly kept you from road rash. Heal fast and ride with a new appreciation.

Free Helmet
 

If you break your helmet during a crash and it was made by Trek, they will replace it free in the first year! (-: I've broken two and had one replaced free.

Crashes are scary though. I'll save you the stories but one was head first (broken teeth and possible broken neck = ambulance ride to hospital), the second was broken ribs and head hitting pavement like it was the end of a wipe. I rode the 6 remaining miles back to the trail head. Then 3 months rehab from ribs and butt bone damage.

Both crashes occurred in an instant. I had a couple other ones but no harm; no foul!
6 years marines here................

Glad your OK after the fall.

I had a fairly clean crash record other than the usual slow speed crashes in cyclo cross and on the mtb until this year. In the spring I was riding with a local club in a pace when the lead rider went over a pothole and I followed and got two flats in an instant. I could not control the bike and slid off the side of the road onto grass and gravel. Just a dust up in that one.

In August in the State Master's Road Race Championship a rider took my front wheel out causing me and several others to crash just 3 miles from the finish line. Riders from behind rode right into my hip, back and even my head. That crash hurt in more ways than one. I lost winning the race for my age group and limped in finishing 3rd, my bike took a wallop, and I had road rash on my hip, elbow, wrist, knee and knuckles. It took a long time for the road rash on my knee to heal as I kept breaking it back open in cyclo cross race crashes.

Holy cow. I'm glad I keep one of those portable CT scanners (got it through Sharper Image before they went under) down in the basement. I definitely would have fired it up after that kind of accident.

+1 Very good points NOS88

Hi CharlieJ!

Nice write-up. Too bad it was about a crash instead of some fun accomplishment we could congratulate you for!

Anyway, the dangers of concussions have been in the news a lot recently. I also recommend seeing a doctor, especially since you hit hard enough to knock you unconscious . .it's not too late.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/e...cle/000799.htm

If you have health insurance it wouldn't hurt to visit the ER.

The best thing for concussion is sleep. Sleep in rather than ride for a few days.

4,000 miles between crashes?? Got to be kidding!!!

Pesonal: About a dozen crashes in over 300,000+ miles of bicylcing (225,000+ miles on tandems with my wife).
Three hits by vehicles; two of which hit from behind by pickups at +/- 45 mph. One driver had license suspended 90 days (drunk), the other had his restricted license revoked.
Third hit was by newbie driver out solo for first time. Broadsided us after we made a left turn at 4-way stop; he looked both ways and stepped on the gas (Oh, didn't see you!) back in 1978. Trip to the ER + $2,200 worth of damage to tandem.
Two high speed crashes without vehicles involved.
On tandem 30+ mph descent when chain bounced from small cog to dropout. Massive roadrash on stoker (she can't roll over the bars like pilot can); pilot got huge hematoma on hip; bent front wheel from instantaneous stop. Three days later with new wheel we were riding a 200 mile loop by the Grand Canyon.
Crashed single bike in northern Utah descending a paved mountain road with lotsa curves. Uncontrollable massive harmonic vibration. Rolled over the bars, busted shoulder (not collarbone) in two places and had antoher cyclist ride over the top of me and crash also. Got up and rode the rest of the way back home. Went to ER 3 days later.
Solo ride after cresting a hard climb, wind gust blew through a saddle (2 mountains) and blew me across the road. Rolled over the bars, knocked unconscious and broke 6 ribs and punctured a lung. Considered myself lucky as I missed a 50 foot dropoff my inches.

We always get back on the bike as soon as physically possible.
So you survived a crash that could have been a lot worse.
There are those that have not yet crashed and those that have.
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Rudy, you are one tough guy!

Yes, you are VERY lucky. Just be sure to keep an eye on your shoulder and hips to make sure that there isn't any kind of long lasting damage in there somewhere.

And your neighbor seems to be your guardian angel...thank goodness for helmets, eh?

The phrase "DIY neurological exam" strike me as, well, ill-advised. Not much to add beyond the good advice set out above. You'll find good info here on BF.

Holy Cow!! am I behind times. Every 4000 miles. I must be really lucky. Think maybe I should go to the casinos. On second thought, that would be really pushing my luck.

Glad you are OK, and welcome to the forum.

+1

And CharlieJ, check your math, it is probably closer to: just above saddle height.

And what is with this fourth post in two years, lets pick up the pace.

PS: Glad you are OK.

Mr Charlie

Glad it wasn't worse, and I echo all the advice already given about getting yourself thoroughly checked out.

And, out of curiosity, were you free of pedal clips? I took a slower left side fall, and the femur rods and pins still hurt!!

Heal fast

wobbly-
I was clipped in with clipless pedals/shoes...somehow (?) I disconnected and was free of the bike. Instinct? Luck?

Charlie

I think that 4,000 mile stat is for group riders. Crashes seem to increase when you are riding in a peleton of 15-70 riders. (even in a pace line)