Road Mishaps
 

NOTE: This thread contains accounts that some may find disheartening or otherwise disturbing.

What is the worst crash road mishap you have ever been in? We’ve all been in one – in my case, more than just one. We all know it happens to the very best, even. The fact that you’re here now – and hopefully still riding – means you survived to tell the tale.

I am not asking out of some perverse, morbid curiosity here. I do not delight in the misfortune of others. These things, however, can be instructive. I have learned a lot listening to other bike riders. Surely some of the most instructive conversations have been those about road mishaps, because they tell you what to avoid, how to think. And that just might save your life one day.

Three years ago I figured in an accident that involved a speeding motor vehicle that swerved off the correct lane. I’d seen him coming from a long ways off. He seemed OK and steady. I was on the opposite lane of a very wide road. I do not know why he veered so far into my lane just as he sped up to some 10 yards away. It was almost as if he meant to run me off the road. I swerved to avoid him and hit the curb so hard my bike flipped over.

I broke my right wrist and two right ribs. I also ripped a chunk of flesh off my right thigh. I passed out, not from banging my head on the curb but from the pain I think. I owe my life to a couple who happened to be jogging by. They called emergency services, made sure I was OK, and stayed with me until help came. The driver got away. He didn’t stop, didn’t even slow down, I’ve been told.

Lesson learned? Never underestimate just how crazy, careless – even downright criminal -- some motorists can be. Pretty generic, common sense thing, I know. But it never hurts to remind yourself that people and their motor vehicles are the most dangerous things out on the road, not bicycles.

I've broken my clavicle twice racing. The first time the cause was a rut in the road that I hit as I pulled off the front, the second was when a guy in front of me panicked as he closed in on the riders in front at the bottom of a little incline, hit a wheel (I think) and went down right in front of me - in the direction I'd chosen to go around and move up. Not sure what the lesson learned is there, except that riding really fast, really close - in the half-light of dawn especially - is risky. Also, strong, muscular shoulders wouldn't be such a bad thing for a bike racer to have.

I've had three over the course of my cycling career. The first one was when I was in my teens riding near dusk. I was right-hooked by someone who obviously saw me but thought he'd try to make the right turn anyway. I ended up on the curb. A couple of scrapes, but no serious damage.

The second was a few years ago on a wet morning commute when I took a right turn too fast. The bike got sideways and then over. Kind of a surreal feeling, like it was happening in slow motion, but yet you're helpless to do anything about it. Landed on my hip/butt. Again, other than some bruising no serious damage.

The most recent one was about 1.5 years ago while riding on a side street with my wife behind the stays on the front fender came loose and lodged themselves on the side tread of my very aggressive CX tires. Once it hit the fork the front wheel seized immediately causing the dreaded end-over. Landed on my shoulder, then probably my head. Ended up with a separated shoulder and a sprained digit.

Lessons learned here:
1. Do regular equipment checks, especially in the front end--brakes, tires, fenders, etc.
2. Slow down when it's wet.
3. Assume drivers don't see you...and they're about to do something really stupid.

About 2 years ago on a commute, I had just turned in to the Greenway. There is an sharp S-curve there as the path drops about 15' and a jogger ahead at the end of the curves. Since it drops you can see everything around the curves to the end, and I always check at the start of them. It had rained earlier so I was being very cautious and had already seen the jogger so I was approaching at around 8 mph, maybe less. Swinging wide to pass, I thought I was crossing the painted line completely vertical, and straight on. Nevertheless, my front wheel shot out from under, catching me so off-guard that I didn't react at all and landed square on my side. On the outside of my shoulder, breaking the collarbone (which had been broken a couple of years before, in the same place).

The lesson, even if you are alert and fully aware of the dangers, and doing everything "right", you still need to be ready. And I pass between the lines now if I can, in any conditions, and not at all on curves, even those with good sight-lines.

The other lesson I took from it was more specific to me, a realization that I needed to strengthen my skeleton since it really shouldn't have broken from that impact.

My first ever mishap, was when I was a newbie learning the hard way, and the lesson that we all know but a huge surprise at the time. I was just chugging along with a serious load of groceries, right-hooked went over his fender and rolled across the road, and the guy didn't know he'd done anything wrong until the cop explained it. I'd been driving since the 70's and yet I never expected that someone with a license, who was not impaired or horsing around, could pull a stunt that stupid let alone think it was blameless. But as we know, many drivers are routinely idiots around bicycles.

Left hooked by a car. Bike destroyed. I slid up on the hood into the windshield. Got away with cuts and bruises. Lady was a jerk and it took a long time to settle insurance. This was maybe 6 years ago.

Taking a shortcut through a park MUP. A lady riding a heavy cruiser bike was on the wrong side of the path around a blind corner. Missed a head on collision, but got broadsided. Brand new front wheel and chain ring destroyed. My left leg got a large welt and still doesn't feel right to this day. This was about 3 years ago.

3 years ago I was going down a twisty mountain at 35 mph and hit the deck. Had a concussion and had to get airlifted out. Other than a few scratches, thankfully I was okay. The bike suffered a crack in the head tube and had to get put down though.

had a chain come off at full sprint, 35+ MPH, and went over the front and slid, and slid, and slid. Lesson = don't skimp on maintenance, a stretched out chain replacement is cheap compared to you're entire side being turned into Hamburger.

Also got hit by a car at night, crossed in front of me and I plowed into it at 20mph, separated shoulder. My suggestion is do not ride at night at all, maybe with a very powerful light but even then.......

Probably 6 wrecks in the last 6 years of regular riding. 2 were pileups in races, 1 was a pileup in a group ride (all caused by people overlapping wheels/hooking bars and going down ahead of me, nowhere to go). For my solo crashes, 1 was caused by catching the seam between two planks on a wooden bridge at 30 mph and going over the bars, 2 more were caused by taking corners too quickly with damp/leaf strewn pavement and going down.

Luckily, the worst injury I've sustained was losing a chunk of flesh on the inside of one of my elbows that required stiches. Everything else was road rash and soreness. Lots of scars on my hips, arms, and knees. Lots of paint chips and scratches on my bike. No real damage to the bike other than broken spokes. Few bruises to my ego, but that's about it. I definitely consider myself lucky compared to some of you here that have been hit by cars.

Road rash from my first Cat 5 crit umpeen years ago. The whole field was like a bunch of weebly wobblies. Other fellow and I were sprinting to the finish. He veered over unexpectedly and cut my front wheel out. Boom. Painful but no serious injuries.

I moved up to Cat 4 the next race. Much better riders, although much faster and stronger -- I got dropped quickly but the organizers let me tag back onto the back of the pack after I caught my breath.

My last painful crash was back in February. Drafting too closely to a rider ahead of me on a local MUP segment that was unfamiliar to me. I misjudged a "Y" split, nicked the pavement ledge. Boom. I managed to roll just enough to avoid landing on my shoulder, but hit pretty hard on my left side so I had painful ribs for several weeks.

At least three local friends broke their clavicles this year. One on single track, smashed into a tree. The other fell on a gravel ride. Both of them still managed to snap selfies of their bloody bodies for Facebook, which is pretty badass. Don't recall the details of the third. And another acquaintance broke his femur on a low water crossing on the MUP.

I've stopped riding in groups on the MUP. Even with slower groups, around 10-12 mph, too much can go awry very quickly on a narrow paved path shared by oncoming cyclists, with faster cyclists squeezing by three abreast on a 4' wide sidewalk, pedestrians, joggers, kids, dogs on 50-foot retractable non-leashes, rabbits and other critters at night. I'll only ride it solo and fairly slowly. There are plenty of safer streets to ride fast.

I wish more groups would take a sensible attitude like that. Large fast groups are scary enough on open roads let alone on a MUP.

Was going down the road and a guy in the right turn lane ran a stop light making a right turn in front of me. He was on the blind side of a moving truck in the straight lane so I didn't see or have time to react. I flew over his hood and landed in front of his car. Instead of breaking, he decided he was going to try to flee the scene and kept on the gas. My shoulder was pinned under his bumper and he pushed me another 50 feet down the road. If I had landed on my back or stomach, the bumper would not have caught my shoulder and his passenger side wheel would have ran over my chest cavity likely killing me so I got 'lucky' there.

Finally he decides to try and turn away from me. He then drove off the road and ran through a double layer brick wall about 4 feet tall and high centered on the bricks. This was a decorative brick wall for an apartment complex. I was left in the road: was able to stand up and walk over to grass and collapsed.

Other than my whole right side having road rash from being pushed down the road, I suffered a brachial plexus injury to my shoulder, An injury common during child births, and to this day 13 years later, my left thumb still tingles like it has fallen asleep. My sunglasses shattered and glass inbedded into my face an inch from my right eye. Stitches were required and later plastic surgery to help my eye not be so wide open from the stitches pulling my lower eye lid open too far. My eye still involuntary tears non stop because my eye is open further than the other eye. I still have a scar there. Also I have been pulling glass shards out of my face over the years here and there. The last shard I pulled out was last year so it spent 12 years in my face before it worked its way out. Somehow I didn't beak any bones though.

Bike was trashed.

I've never broken any bones (knock on wood) in bike crashes, but I had a couple incidents that were pretty bad wipeouts.

In 1989 in Switzerland I went down while carrying too much speed down a hill and turning fairly sharply to merge with a road going along the base of the slope. Wiped out into that road (luckily no incoming traffic or I'd have been run over) in front of a half dozen people waiting at a bus stop. My pants were mangled and I had a little road rash, but otherwise the bike and I (minus my pride) were OK.

Also in 1989 another guy and I were riding fast down a very long mountain descent in the Jura mountains outside of Solothurn, Switzerland when the other guy attempted to take a curve in the road with his inside pedal straight down. The pedal struck the road, he went down hard and broke his collarbone. I chained both bikes to a fence around some sheep grazing land near the side of the road and a passing motorist drove this other guy and me to the local hospital. Another guy drove me back to recover the bikes the next day.

In 1990 a pivot pin for a lever that actuated my bike's drum brakes (bike was a drop-bar road geometry bike but had drum brakes, which I'd never seen before until I got to Switzerland) sheered off, wrapped the brake cable around the axle, and jerked my handlebars 90 degrees to the right in a fraction of a second. I did a Superman over the bars and landed on my hands. Fortunately I was in great shape and had been doing lots of pushups for several years so I was able to break the fall without breaking either my hands/wrists/arms or my face, and so other than gravel embedded in my palms and a hole in my pants, I was OK. I was able to repair the bike, replace the brake cable, that sheered-off pivot, etc. and get it ridable again.

Other than some falls that really hurt on my MTB, and hurting my shoulder really badly after falling over once while clipped in on my MTB after coming to a sudden stop and not getting my shoes unclipped in time, I've been fortunate over the last few years since I've been riding again. No serious incidents yet on my road bikes (and trying hard to keep it that way, knock on wood).

I have many friends who don't ride alone because they don't feel safe. I feel safer riding alone because I am not endangered by bad riders.

Last June, I was t-boned by a car going 40 mph. I went up onto the windshield and witnesses said I flew 50 feet. I wear a Kask Mojito helmet and it came off in the accident. I got concussion and 14 staples on my head, I broke my ankle on both sides, I broke my tibia, my fibia (in 4 places) and I broke my shoulder. I have a plate in my ankle, a rod up to my knee, and a plate in my shoulder.

I was riding with a large group training for a charity ride. I freaked everyone out because the ERs cut my jersey off and my $400 shoes (I guess they didn't know how boa shoes work). Someone took photos of me shirtless laying on a gurney with blood all over my head. Unfortunately, my bike was destroyed.

Dr. said I wouldn't be able to walk or drive for 3 to 6 months. I took my first steps at 2 months and my first ride was 77 days after my accident. I've gone through 5 months of physical therapy and I can walk with a little bit of a limp. I don't remember the accident, but I am more cautious of cars now. Still working hard to get better. This was a hard way to get a new bike...:)

Ha, just released from the hospital last night from my latest mishap on Sunday. Fractured pelvis and sacrum, bruised ribs, assorted lacerations and bruises, and blood on my brain. Not doing too badly considering....

One year ago, a car turned in front of me cutting me off while I was on a downhill (doing about 28 mph, slowed to 20). He slowed so I thought he saw me, then he went anyway. I flipped forward and somehow missed him. Trip to the hospital with a burst bursa sack the size of a baseball on my shoulder (thought it was broken), and bruised ribs. Treated and released. Helmet was crushed. Bought a new one which was quickly wrecked in the mishap described immediately above.

No offence to OP, but threads like this one are not good for morale:( Makes me want to sell all my bikes...and yes, I know, I don't have to read it.:rolleyes:

Oh, dear. I realize now that discussions of this this nature are not for everybody. I do apologize for any distress my question may have caused you. While I can be a tad insensitive at times, that was most certainly not my intent here.

I’m going to try and remedy this with an addendum to the original post – a word of warning of sorts.

Again, I’m sorry.

My worst was a left hook about 10 years ago: I took a minivan to the side, and went down, on my butt, hard. While I was laying in the road, dude comes over and starts yelling at me! In the meantime, there were some homeless people who had a cell phone and called it in. Dude got a pretty serious ticket.

I was in grad school at the time, and had the school insurance that didn't pay for anything. The school clinic basically told me to take Tylenol and that I could go pay for x-rays at a real hospital. I'm pretty sure I broke some ribs, but I remembered that my dad never went in when he broke his ribs, so I didn't either. It wasn't horrible, but I couldn't ride (or sit normally) for a few weeks, and it hurt to cough for a good six months. (Other than needing a wheel true, the bike was ok!)

The other mishap was more recent. I was descending not all that fast, hit a pothole, and somehow ended up in the ditch. Nothing broken other than my pride.

I've learned from both experiences, and it's made me a better rider.

So what happened to the driver who tried to bolt?

Essentially nothing other than a failure to yield/stop ticket. Since he didn't actually leave the scene, there was no hit and run even if in my opinion the intent was there. Nothing to really prove reckless driving according to the cop on scene, but how the heck do you not immediately slam on the brakes and stop when you see some one flying over your hood right in front of your face?

Respondents can take a different approach ... when i read your post my first thought was to tell the story of the time I nearly wrecked my car running some pretty, long-haired young lady cyclist off the road ... she flipped over the curb and I barely kept the car on the tarmac ......

People read these threads voluntarily .. and frankly, if they cannot face the risk of road riding I'd sooner they not ride on the road. Not that I want it all to myself, but because they could panic and do everything wrong in a tense situation and maybe make things worse for themselves and everyone else ... like the drivers (in the days before ABS) who, at the first sing of trouble , would stomp the brake pedal to the floor, thus surrendering all control over the vehicle and sliding sideways into whatever they probably could have steered around if they hadn't panicked.

If you want to get out there with cars and trucks, Face the Realities. Know What You Are Doing. Realize that bad things can happen. Hopefully, in the one-in-ten-thousand chance something a little scary does happen, the rider can ride around or through it, and not into it.

If nothing else, they can play drunk and completely relax when they fall and maybe not get so hurt.
Glad you survived ...

and sorry, I thought you were someone else and didn't see who it was until the last minute ....

Ha, classic. He didn't think you'd stick to the bumper. Murphy's Law. :crash: