Hit a truck today
 

I went out to do a quick 40 mile recovery ride this morning. On one ot the sections heading West, I have a tailwind, my HR is low, so I dial it up to about a 30mph, knowing that in a mile I turn North and will be fighting the wind more. This is in a rural area, full daylight, and I'm wearing a predominately orange team kit.

A Ford F-150 heading east pulls across from their lane across mine to enter a parking area for one of the farms on this road. I locked up the brakes, felt the bike fishtail, somehow recovered, and headed from my lane into the east bound lane, into the path of a car that was behind the truck; luckily, it was able to move into the westbound lane to avoid me. I actually hit the truck with my right hand and tore my glove from the contact. I'm still surprised, because I thought I was going down in front of the truck when I felt the bike fishtail.

I'm pretty pumped on adreline, confront the driver, and give her an earfull. I proceed to call the police to file a report. Her family comes out to see what the commotion is, she's crying, saying that she didn't see me and didn't mean to do it, which I believe to be true. When the cop arrives, he lets me drop the whole thing, as I truly believe that it was an accident, and fortunately for me, not one with more severe consequences.

I know it gets preached on here time and time again to be careful when riding. But by the grace of God, I just got lucky. If I had been any closer before she turned, I would have made a lot more contact with the truck, and would likely have a different outcome. And there would have been absolutely nothing I could have done about it.

Glad you're ok but 30mph on a 40 mile recovery ride?

At least she stopped. Glad to hear things didn't turn out any worse.

Check your tire.

If you fishtailed, you could have worn your tire to the threads.

Glad you're okay. I would have made her pay for a new set of tires and gloves.

It was a really good tailwind. :thumb:

Tires are relatively new...I checked a little while ago to see if I flat spotted. I didn't see anything, and didn't notice/fell anything on the rest of the ride. I'm kind of surprised, I've flat spotted doing a whole lot less before, so I guess another "+1" for Conti 4 Seasons.

I bet you had the same tailwind I did today. I was routinely doing 35-40MPH with a 25MPH (30MPH+ gusts) tailwind today. By the way, I was barely moving when riding into the wind! Glad you're OK!

Most motorist have never seen a 30 mph cyclist. Glad your A-OK.

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes.

The most upsetting part to me is that the driver's mother was trying to console her by saying that she was sure she (her daughter) didn't do it intentionally. I'm guessing the daughter to be around 35. I know I was initially pretty angry with the driver, and I also know that the driver didn't do any of this intentionally. The scary part to me is that they don't understand the consequences of what they did.

I can only hope daughter will be more careful in the future, but I'm guessing probably not.

At least your ok, but why did you have to call the pigs?, obviously it was an accident, cops just make things worse...

Same reason I call them to report harrassing drivers; so there is a record of the event in case they cause another accident down the line. The difference on this one is that they could have cited her since she admitted fault.

Actually, the officer was really cool. I approched him, laid out the story, and asked if he minded if I just let it go, to which he was fine. I might have been too nice dropping everything, but like I've said, I really think it was just an accident. It wasn't caused as a result of any malicious intent, or negligence other than inattentiveness (i.e., no cell phone, etc.). Hope I'm right.