Nelson M

My worst bike accident happened manyyears ago, at the end of my first long spring training, I was in agroup of cyclist, I was tired and we were getting near the end of theride, I left my guard down, the guy beside me just went into my bikelane by accident, push me on the side a little, I went for theunpaved side road, the front rear hit something (big hole or a rock),went over the bike

Result ; Front wheel KAPUT, CollarboneKAPUT for 5 weeks and a concussion

xrayzebra 

I have to smile when I think of my worst accidents, because they were all childhood incidents that would have killed a kid today and resulted in a lawsuit, but we were somehow tougher back then. I was a very wimpy kid, but I survived several bike accidents with no long term damage.

I was riding down the street at a pretty good clip and popped a sweet wheelie on my old 26 inch bike, riding it pretty far. When I came down, I saw the pavement come right up at my face, and then everything went black. The next thing I remember is walking down the street toward home, crying, with blood running in my eyes, and a bicycle wheel rolling down the street in front of me.

Apparently, the front wheel came out of the fork as the bike came down, the forks stuck in the pavement, and the bike did an endo, flipping over me, with my face hitting the pavement and the bike flying over me. I had a huge knot on my forehead, and the top layer of skin was gone on half my face. The accident scraped all the freckles off of the left side of my face, and when it all healed, that side of my face was pink and freckle-less for a couple of years thereafter until the pigment was restored in time.

I had a couple of major head/face trauma accidents back in the 60s, and never missed the brain cells lost in those catastrophes. Luckily for me, I landed on the densest bone, my skull, each time.

Cyclomania

Recently I'm riding in downtown Portland, Oregon. No big deal, right?! Well here comes this gang of kids and they're egging the kid in front, parallel to me to get the dweeb. My being the dweeb, the one wearing the helmet and obeying traffic laws. I nearly lost it when he pulled up his front wheel and does a wheelie on 2nd Ave at 10.00 in the am on a Tuesday for say half a block. Soon after that, the gang moved passed me and made a left, not signaling their intent, I suppose I was just as stupid at their age!

Anyway, there I was left behind, having those feelings one has when walking and having a stray dog follow you. Say the dog barks or gets in the way of a car, "That your dog?," someone might have asked, implying my lack of good stewardship. Same here, I felt a little twinge of responsibility running through my veins, even though those weren't my kids. "You need to take your kids to the sub-burbs!" Someone could have said unflinching in their accusation. Luckily no one said a word!

wabbit

Hit by a car at a badly designed intersection. The driver probably didn't see me until i was right in front of his windshield and he couldn't stop. He had just started up so he was going very slowly but it knocked me over and I fell on my ride side. Broke a finger and badly bruised my hip and lower back, the driver took off. Minor damage to the bike- my front wheel was toast. The bloodiest one was 2 years ago when I skidded on a gravel patch and tore open my left elbow, resulting in stitches...it also got infected. I also discovered they'd left a piece of gravel in there when stitching me up in emergency so I had to get that removed. I also had a huge hematoma on my right hip which left scar tissue under the skin and there's kind of a lump there to this day! The bike was ok though.

Alistair92

I was riding down a pretty steep hill with some friends (this was when I was about 13) and I was picking up some speed but I was confident that I would slow down no problem with my new mountain bike.
When we started to approach the bottom of this hill my friends used their brakes where as i sort of hesitated and used both...big mistake. Because of that, I stopped instantly and front flipped forward with my bike, which apparently looked pretty cool during that brief moment right before I landed on my face along with the bike landing on my back.
Luckily I didn't feel a thing...since I was unconscious, lol good times.

xrayzebra 

Good stories - good safety reminders. Personally, I don't ride on roads and I don't ride real fast unless I have a long, open line of sight. I usually ride on a trail during the off days and hours when there aren't many people on it, or I go to a part that is less used on weekend peak hours. Despite this, there are still close calls. Somebody comes busting up from behind without warning and passes on the wrong side just as I decide to veer off the path and stop for a rest. Somebody decides to stop in front of me without warning because they didn't hear my warning over their Ipod. You have to ride defensively, even on a trail with no cars, and you can't assume the person you are approaching from behind hears your bell or spoken warning. Unskilled riders turn to look over their shoulder when they hear you, and veer into your path as they turn their heads. It doesn't matter what etiquette you observe, or who has the right of way, you have to constantly anticipate that somebody else will make a mistake.

DataJunkie

In many cases trails are even more dangerous than the roads. Despite my accident I still ride on the road a significant portion of the time.
In no way shape or form will I be intimidated off of one.

Marauder9

My only accident of note was about 15 years ago when I was heading out of a village and picking up spead to about 20mph.

Suddenly went over the handle bars bashing my head on the ground. It turns out I went over a screwdriver lying in the road and flipped it into my front spokes locking the wheel up. I can't remeber if I had a helmet back in those days but I was a little concussed. Some nice people in the house opposite seen what happend and took me inside for a sitdown then took me to the doctors to get checked out. Nothing serious other than cuts and bruises. I needing a new set of forks and had a big dent on the underside of the downtube.

Cyclomania

Sad to say but I just recently, on the 12th had my most (the second, the first being the one that started this thread) serious bike accident. I had left a MUP that crosses a major Blvd in town. The Blvd has four lanes with one center turn lane, five lanes all together.

To cross the Blvd, required me to ride along it for a while looking for a break in traffic. By turning my head to check behind me every once in a while. Eventually I saw my window of opportunity, a sports car was about 100 yards behind me, so I signaled Left and began to merge toward the center turn lane. Suddenly a speeding car sound erupted behind me and I figured, well, he wants to pass me. So I'll just stay here in the right lane and hold my pattern.

Unfortunately, that was not a wise decision, I soon realized he was right behind me, but too late. He didn't even see me. Accelerated into me near the time of impact. You know the sound a car makes when taking a freeway onramp!? I went sailing over his car, bike and all, landing on the asphalt. I'm very lucky! I was able to pick up my bike and walk while bleeding to the side of the road. Unbelievable! How many cyclists have survived an accident like this?! I read recently of one who didn't in OC, CA.https://www.ocregister.com/news/polic...yon-shady.html Bruise to my forehead (I was wearing my helmet), scrape to my knees, two stitches to my right knee, sprained left thumb.

Overall, very little damage to my person, again, considering the circumstances. I still don't know why the driver didn't brake or honk or something before impact. It will be awhile before I am able to ride again. Healing takes time.

nathan.johnson

On Tuesday, I was riding the MUP early in the morning, going around a corner I've been around many times. Nothing too spectacular about this corner and I wasn't going that fast; I'd taken it faster in previous rides. When all of a sudden I bite it. No warning. Upon inspection, I hit a patch of sand I didn't see and obviously the wheels went out from under me. A little road rash, but because I wasn't expecting it, I landed funny and fractured my humerous up near the shoulder. It's in a place where they can't put a cast on it and not serious enough for surgery. The doc said to HTFU and gave me a sling for "comfort". Probably at least 2 weeks off the bike.

ClemY

I’ve had two accidents in 40 yrs. of riding derailleur equipped bikes. Many years ago I got rearended by a car while stopped. I got thrown down the road but fortunately avoided the street signs and landed on grass. I was bruised, but unbroken.

Three years ago, while minding my own business and riding on a beautiful day, I was surrounded by dogs who proceeded to take out my front wheel. I went over the bars, did a nice summersault, and landed flat on my butt on the pavement. I got picked up in an ambulance. While they were doing a CT scan of my head and pelvis, they also discovered internal bleeding, that went along with the separation fracture of the pelvis. I spent two weeks in a hospital, with a couple of surgeries to repair damage, received four units of hole blood, spent two weeks in a rehab hospital trying to walk with a walker, then two months at home cruising around in a wheelchair. After that it was crutches, then a cane. Full recovery took about 20 months. Marvelous.

Bianchigirll 

I have never been badly injured in an accident so I think my worst was actually harder on the bike. it was in Putney VT in '90 or '91 when I hit from behind while picking my way around a pike up. I just got a few small scrathes but my brand new set of tubular wheels were trashed! BUMMER. there was also a rather embarrassing commuting incident that involved a somesault through and intersection resulting is a slightly bent frame and tacoed rear wheel.

sknhgy 

Worst one was when I was going down a hill @ 30 mph and a dog jumped out in from of me. Got a plate in my shoulder to prove it. That taught me to always wear a helmet.

When I was about 16 I was riding down a dark side street when suddenly, WHAM. I rode into the back of a parked car. I remember my face slamming into the trunk. Stunned, but no permanent damage.

Six jours

Too bad you weren't wearing a helmet. Then you could post at BF about how "My helmet saved my life!!!"

Jeff Wills

I have a couple scars from minor accidents, but the one that struck the hardest happened to a friend a couple years ago:
https://bikeportland.org/2007/10/30/u...collision-5624
https://bikeportland.org/2008/06/26/t...collision-8026
Bob survived, and is back to riding, albeit on a recumbent trike (he can't balance anymore).

Not only were these friends and riding buddies, but Bob was in an ICU at the hospital where I work. I met Jan several times in the hallways- very tough to see her there, particularly when you're as task-focused as I am.

Northwestrider

I've been fairly lucky so far. The worst I've had was in a company garage at less than 1 mph when I must have hit a small puddle of water,as my wheels went out from under me instantly. I was on the cement with my helmeted head bouncing off the pavement, still clipped in. I ended up cracking a rib, but thats about it.

ktwbear

I have had 3 nasty spills . All pretty much the same but they have happen in 3 different decades.
1971 Schwinn 3 speed sting ray (sis got the lemon peeler 5 speed) I was 9 riding home from the bsll fields.
Pretty girl caught my eye...I caugth the curb...over the bars face plant and scab city for 2 weeks. 20 years later...On a Panasonic riding in central park NYC early in the the morning riding down trough the slight downhill section....Women was drop dead gorgeous!! swerved while checking her out right into the path of a guy walking his dog...same result curb...faceplant scab for 2 week...atleast I had a helmet ..hey it was the 90's..saftey first...haha.. 2009 on a Cannondale in So. Fla...mother and daughter on the sidewalk....walking toward me....I actually slowed down to check them out ....caught the crack where to road meets the run off gutter doink!! right over...but atlast a safe landing on the grass...no scab....

I have been lucky..never a bad injury...I know all the sad true stories...all 2 wheelers are potentially deadly...so be careful out there!

BTW: only the lady in central park cared enough to help. It was Paula Zahn and she was stunning....I went home told my wife the story and she told me I had great taste!

67walkon

Mine was Dec 1, 2009. At the end of a 25 mile ride I'd done hundreds of times, I entered my neighborhood and made a slow speed left hand turn. The asphalt roads had just been resurfaced with this shiny sealant stuff you sometimes see in parking lots. There was a little sprinkler overspray. My bike completely lost traction and shot out from under me; it was like nothing you could ever imagine a bike doing. I didn't get unclipped or get a hand down. I landed in the worst way and it drove my femur up through my acetabulum, which is the part of the pelvis that forms the hip socket. It took 10 screws and 2 plates to fix. I got to spend a total of 16 days in the hospital because I developed a dvt in that leg and multiple pulmonary emboli. I got 8 weeks in a wheel chair, with no weight allowed on that side. Eventually, I will have to get a hip replacement because that area will become arthritic or because there is a little area of dead bone on my femoral ball, whichever deteriorates fastest.

I got back on the bike in April and I'm pretty much back to where I was before the accident. It gets stiff and hurts a little bit, but I had a great surgeon.

wabbit

that's grisly!!! you and cyclomania!

cyclo, you're really lucky, that driver was a d1ckwad. I know a couple of people who had similar accidents.
As for your bike, was it badly damaged?

Artkansas 

In college, one dark and stormy night I was riding back from school along an unlit one-lane road with a row of trees on one side.

I sensed danger rather than saw it. I looked ahead but my leglight showed nothing. I tried to use the reflections on the asphalt to show me something. Suddenly, I saw a dim black shadow across the road and I hit it.

A pine tree had fallen across the road and the trunk had landed 27" above the asphalt.

I was thrown over the tree by my momentum and onto the road. My knee hit the tree and was very sore. I felt sure that my bike had been destroyed; bent forks, bent rim, a destroyed head tube and other images from an earlier crash filled my mind.

Struggling to my feet with the aid of the tree, I peered over, expecting the worst. I was amazed. There was my bike standing perfectly upright all on its own. I climbed over the tree and pushed on the bike to free it. It rolled easily.

There was no damage at all! The bike had rolled under the tree till the tire reached its maximum height and then the rubber of the tire met the tree and it stopped, pitching me over the top.

I lifted the bike over the tree and pedaled home, gingerly favoring my knee. My knee was pretty messed up and it took all quarter for my knee to heal.

The other accident I mentioned was the second worst. As a teen, I attempted to jump a hole in the ground with all my friends watching. BMX hadn't been invented yet so I used a Raleigh 3 Speed and didn't have a ramp. I slammed into the ground at hip level. I was shaken and very bruised, but the bike was history as the head tube had been split in half at the bottom and the front fork was bent.

sknhgy 

When my nephew was very young he came into my brother's house bleeding profusely from the face. He had been riding his bike with his eyes closed and his face hit a mirror on a parked truck.

Paranoid.Guy

My worst accident was when I fell off my bike. . It has happened to me more than once, but never in traffic.
Nothing worse than that has ever happened to me.
When using my bike in traffic, I always cycle as close as possible to the edge of the roadway, to prevent being touched by cars. When the road is too dangerous, I cycle on the sidewalk-as long as foot traffic is light enough or non-existing.

Cyclomania

Rear wheel and back rack trashed, however hub intact and reusable (yea!)... seat rails tweaked, Shifter/brake lever (shifters unusable), lock nut for headset split. Frame and fork OK! Front wheel OK! Seat post, handlebar, bottom bracket and derailleur (front and rear) OK!

I have a second bike, thank goodness. Glad to be alive! Rode 15 miles yesterday!

I think I suffered a slight concussion, headaches now and then and throbbing. Had the stitches to my left knee taken out yesterday! Swelling's down and feelings coming back to my sprained left thumb.

ro-monster

Mine happened during a drizzly morning commute on a busy street in downtown San Francisco, on the first day after the New Year's holiday in 2009. My route took me down a hill with several T intersections on it. As I approached one of them, a taxi abruptly pulled away from the curb on the cross street, headed into the intersection. I thought he was going to drive right into my path (he actually stopped short of hitting me though), and attempted a panic stop. That didn't work very well! I managed to torque the front wheel slightly to one side and was thrown off the bike at an angle, slamming into the pavement on my right shoulder. The first thing I saw was the taxi driver taking off. Another driver stopped and helped me out of the street. After sitting a while, I walked home with my bike, which was undamaged aside from a couple of scratches. I, however, couldn't move my arm.

My boyfriend finally convinced me to go to the ER after a couple of hours. They referred me to an orthopedist, who gave me this little souvenir.


I thought I was just banged up a little. Turns out that the top of my humerus was broken completely off and split into three pieces that were floating around in my shoulder joint, and there was one giant bruise covering my entire right arm and my side from shoulder to hip. Final score: 2 surgeries, 2.5 months unable to work at all, another couple of months before I recovered enough strength and mobility to zip my own jacket, 7 months of rehab, 11 months before I could ride a bike again. The shoulder still hurts most of the time and probably always will.

The strangest part of all is that this was a low-speed crash, maybe 15 mph at most.

ClemY

Good luck on your continued recovery.

What is perhaps most amazing is that inspite of significant accidents and injuries, I don't see much talk of not riding in the future.