Lanceoldstrong

I wasn't with him, this is from his report when I spoke to him today.

Great guy, and super strong rider, gw_12 crashed yesterday.
He hit a shade obscured tree root/raised asphalt hump on the Iron Horse trail.
He went over the bars and landed on his hip with a loud "pop."

Result: broken pelvis at the socket, and broken femur at the ball.
He will have surgery soon to repair the damage and won't walk for a couple months.

Please send him your thoughts, love and prayers.

He is one of the best of the best, as a man, a cyclist, and a friend.

bikingshearer 

Healing vibes going out. Hope you beat the doctors' time estimates. If you want someone slow to ride with when you get back on the bike, gw_12, I'm your guy. Lanceoldstrong knows how to reach me.


I've gone down because of an object hidden just inside the shade on an alternating sun/shade/sun/shade road. As was said by atg the end on roll call in "Hill Street Blues": "Let's be careful out there."

Kaminokaze

I am so sorry to hear about this unfortunate crash. I wish you well and a speedy recovery.

If you need anything you can reach out to me. I have been down this road before as you know. Take your time and do the PT is the best thing for getting back on the bike.

prathmann

Sorry to hear of the crash and hope his surgery goes well and leads to a complete recovery. Has the location of the crash been reported to the East Bay Regional Park District so that hopefully they can smooth that trail hazard? In the interim a little bright paint could be useful in warning other cyclists. (Did that recently on the Iron Horse in San Ramon just south of Alcosta for the roots there.)

Lanceoldstrong

Great suggestion, I reported it.

Joe Bikerider

sorry about your friend, hope he heals up soon. Would you care to share the location? I for one would be interested for my own safety. Re paint: some one recently outlined with white a couple big dips near Walden Park in WC. Very helpful. Written sitting on the bench where IHT dips under Willow Pass in Concord. It'l be hot soon!

Amitoj

Wishing your friend a speedy recovery. Active people generally take lesser time to heal than the doctor's estimates.

I encountered quite a few raised asphalt bumps on the Nashua River Rail Trail here yesterday, but managed to stay upright, probably due to the 32mm tires.

Lanceoldstrong

It is the section southbound between the Las Lomas High School sports fields and Rudgear Road.

Midland

Crushed to hear this. All the best Glenn. God Speed on recovery and rehab. Daniel and I will keep in contact and want to help in any and all ways.

DiabloScott

Scary and painful. Broken pelvis is painful, although Glen's is clearly a lot worse than mine.

Hey, did you see Dr. Coufal in the ER? He's treated more than one of us in the BF broken bone club.

cccorlew

C R A P
I am so sorry to read this. I know healing is a long slow process. I wish you the best.
And, as Rich suggested, do let us know when you're ready for your maiden relaunch. You came to mine after I was well enough to ride again, and it meant a lot.
Peace be with you. Along with effective healing.

FBinNY 

Always sorry to hear about crashes like this. Especially because the outcome was far worse than average. Best wishes for a speedy and FULL recovery.

cthenn

Awful to hear. I can't imagine the recovery time let alone the pain of the injury. I wish all the best in the recovery process, hopefully it is sooner rather than later.

Many times I hit shade obscured ruts and potholes, those damn things always seem to lurk in places like that.

spdntrxi

sorry to hear this...healing mojo sent.

Further reason to hate all things Iron Horse Trail.

FrenchFit 

Best wishes for a full recovery.

If you have nothing to do but watch TdF, you might call a PI attorney. If the bump is big enough and neglected there may be a claim against WC or EBRP. It's a shame, but that seems to be the remedy to focus attention on the problems areas with that trail, some of the really bad spots along IHT in WC and Concord seem to just get worse.

My friend broke his hip riding with me, it's been a few years but he is a regular rider these days; patience is rewarded.

"between the Las Lomas High School sports fields and Rudgear Road". I keep telling my spouse I hate, hate, hate riding IHT. Wish there was a better way of getting around through the downtown WC area.

bikingshearer 

Agreed. And unfortunately, you need to do this sooner rather than later for the reason set out in the next paragraph. Make sure it is an attorney who is familiar with "dangerous condition of public property" cases and the requirements for filing a claim with the appropriate public entity.

Filing such a claim is a prerequisite to any court action. By law in California, you cannot file a tort case against a public entity unless you have first brought that claim against the public entity(ies) and it/they tell you to pound sand - and they will. The deadline for filing such a claim 3 to 6 months, if I recall correctly (do not quote me on this - this is from memory and I did not look it up). That is much, much shorter than the deadline for filing a lawsuit. But if you don't file the claim, your lawsuit will be tossed. That much I know for certain.

Gt well; that is your main focus. But do not neglect your legal rights here.

Midland

Rest comfortably as possible Glenn. Hate that this happened to such a good guy.

FBinNY 

Maybe because I grew up and started cycling in an area with trolley tracks, potholes, uneven pavement, bridge expansion joints, and (back then) parallel sewer grates. That was on the good roads. So I'm a bit baffled by the "blame the pavement" attitude.

Yes, there was a root and a ripple, but it's not like it reached out and grabbed anyone. It was there, and an attentive rider watching where he was going would have seen it and been ready to handle it safely.

I don't blame the victim here, because crap happens to the best of us, but I don't get blaming anyone else either.

cccorlew

The thing is, if we want these things fixed, and I think we do, you need to get the attention of the public agency first. They notice money.

And really, that path sucks. To call something a bike path, with the relative safety that implies, an dthen let it go to hell... that's just wrong. It's like they are tricking you into riding it.

cthenn

This is a good point. It's one thing to be riding in an urban area where we all know there are all kinds of hazards (manholes, tracks, cracks, potholes), we understand that as seasoned riders. Heck, I think anyone with common sense knows riding on open roads requires a certain amount of awareness. It's a different matter IMO when something is called a bike path under the jurisdiction of a "Parks" district. There is a certain expectation of a degree of safety when riding in a "park" on a "bike path". Of course that should not relieve the user of ALL responsibility, but that path has been on a course of deterioration for decades. Even if you ride it every day, there is no way to memorize every problem area, and even if you are paying attention, you may see one bad area and while you are avoiding that one, another one will pop up right in front of you. The bottom line is that path is in TERRIBLE condition, and it's been that way for a very long time. The Park District should be maintaining that section much better than they have. (BTW, don't know what they would say about that path, but I'd be highly skeptical if they claimed "no money". I've been seeing a lot of improvements lately around EBRPD parks, and they sure do have a lot of new trucks!)

FBinNY 

This is a Catch-22. If everyone KNOWS that the path is in terrible shape, it's hard to press the claim based on expectation of a smooth path. In short experienced cyclists who willingly ride on a path they know has various hazards it's their responsibility to ride accordingly.

This might be different if a novice, who we don't expect to know better, gets hurt, but it'll be hard to rally jury sympathy, when the victim" is knowledgeable and experienced, and aware of the path's condition.

I'm all for pressing agencies to maintain paths under their jurisdiction, but am not convinced this is the right approach. They may counter with reduced speed limits "in the name of safety", while they postpone the repairs or "study" the problem.

Tactics aside, I also see a certain hypocrisy in here. When cyclists are injured by motorists, (even when the cyclist is clearly in the wrong) there's all sorts of noise about what the motorist could or should have done. But when something like this happens, it's blame the road. So, a question---- to what extent are we responsible for our own safety?

To be clear, none of this is to assign blame to the rider here. Even with care stuff happens because we're riding an inherently unstable two wheeled vehicle. Likewise, what I say about a potential lawsuit doesn't attach to him either because he hasn't (so far as I know) made any attempt to blame anyone else. That's coming from other folks here on BF.

Lanceoldstrong

Update: One Surgery done, front side of hip socket bolted back together with titanium upgrades. It went well.
Surgery #2 tomorrow, to fix the back side of the hip socket. Expect some more titanium upgrades.

Good news: upon further review the ball of the femur has no break.

... and now for a little levity, this keeps going through my mind:

FBinNY 

Glad to hear he's doing well. But Titanium? That's so passe. For what they charge, he should have insisted on CF.

prathmann

Unfortunately I believe the precedent set by the Prokop v. LA decision would preclude this since the court granted public entities immunity from liability regarding bike paths and trails.
PROKOP v. CITY OF LOS ANGELES | FindLaw
Another reason for riding on roadways rather than paths.

FrenchFit 

Section 831.4, subdivision (c) provides that a public entity is not liable for an injury caused by a condition of “[a]ny paved trail, walkway, path, or sidewalk on an easement of way which has been granted to a public entity, which easement provides access to any unimproved property, so long as such public entity shall reasonably attempt to provide adequate warnings of the existence of any condition of the paved trail, walkway, path, or sidewalk which constitutes a hazard to health or safety․”