First real crash in London

Eugenio Mastroviti

Riding down the High Road in East Finchley, i was giving what I thought
was a reasonably wide berth to the parked cars (about 1m), a car pulled
out of its parking space, did that thing i absolutely HATE (that my wife
does religiously too when she drives, grrr), starting the turn indicator
only when it was already moving. It was quick and too close to stop - I
braked, but I hit the front right of the car, bounced and flew over the
bike. Grazed shins (against the handlebar), some pain in my left knee (I
dented the car with it) and a badly bruised right hip. What really got
me mad was

a) there was a bus some distance behind me. It didn't even attept to
brake, if I hadn't gotten VERY quickly on my feet and pulled the bike
away it would have gone over it;

b) the elderly lady driving the car was in a state of absolute shock, I
couldn't even release some steam by yelling at her and getting properly
angry. She was extremely kind, spent all the time apologising and
offered to drive me to the hospital (offer that I, rather stupidly, refused)

Oh well. Bike's ok, I'll be fine in a few hours. Could have been worse,
I guess. I cycled to work and got the opportunity to burn some adrenalin
500m further on, when a guy in a red Rover just ignored the stop sign
and missed me by about 10 cm. He was terrified by my reaction, I'm afraid.

Eugenio

Pete Biggs

Bad luck Eugenio. Get better soon but don't be in a rush to get back on
the bike.

~PB

Simon Mason

"Eugenio Mastroviti" <eugeniom@gointernet.co.uk> wrote in message
> Oh well. Bike's ok, I'll be fine in a few hours. Could have been worse, I
> guess. I cycled to work and got the opportunity to burn some adrenalin
> 500m further on, when a guy in a red Rover just ignored the stop sign and
> missed me by about 10 cm. He was terrified by my reaction, I'm afraid.

Yeah get well soon pal. Who will be next?

--
Simon M.

MSA

In article <HpqdnWP1IKyeIlzcSa8jmw@karoo.co.uk>,
simon@simonmason.karoo.co.uk says...
>

>
> Yeah get well soon pal. Who will be next?
>
> --
> Simon M.
>
>
>


Yeah, seems to be a bad month for us lot.

--
Mark (MSA)
______________________________________________
Remember, half the people you know are below average

Mark Thompson

> a) there was a bus some distance behind me. It didn't even attept to
> brake, if I hadn't gotten VERY quickly on my feet and pulled the bike
> away it would have gone over it;

Noooooo! Don't pull it out the way! I dream of having my bike destroyed in
an impressive but painless accident and the bus company buys me a shiny new
bike :-)

Adrian Boliston

"Eugenio Mastroviti" <eugeniom@gointernet.co.uk> wrote:

> Riding down the High Road in East Finchley, i was giving what I
> thought was a reasonably wide berth to the parked cars (about 1m), a car
> pulled out of its parking space, did that thing i absolutely HATE (that my
> wife does religiously too when she drives, grrr), starting the turn
> indicator only when it was already moving. It was quick and too close
> to stop - I braked, but I hit the front right of the car, bounced and
> flew over the bike....

This sounds nasty! If you are doing any more than a sedate 10mph then 1
metre is much too close to any parked car, as even a door being flung open
could easily extend a metre. I would aim to take a path about midway
between the parked cars and the oncoming cars, unless it's a very wide road
that permits overtaking room in spite of the parked cars.

Paul - xxx

Mark Thompson composed the following ...
>> a) there was a bus some distance behind me. It didn't even attept to
>> brake, if I hadn't gotten VERY quickly on my feet and pulled the bike
>> away it would have gone over it;
>
> Noooooo! Don't pull it out the way! I dream of having my bike destroyed
> in an impressive but painless accident and the bus company buys me a
> shiny new bike :-)

Heheheh .. 'cos your bike's a new and shiny one already, right ?

--
Paul ...
http://www.4x4prejudice.org/index.php
(8(!) Homer Rules ...
"A tosser is a tosser, no matter what mode of transport they're using."

eugenio

Adrian Boliston wrote:

>>Riding down the High Road in East Finchley, i was giving what I
>>thought was a reasonably wide berth to the parked cars (about 1m), a car
>
> This sounds nasty! If you are doing any more than a sedate 10mph then 1
> metre is much too close to any parked car, as even a door being flung open

Come to think of it, it was probably fairly more than 1m - say a little
less than 1/2m from an OPEN door; and although i was going downhill, it
was shortly past a traffic light at which I'd stopped - I was doing no
more than 25 kph, which should translate in about 15-16 mph. Which was
lucky, in hindsight.

John Tomlinson

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 15:25:46 +0000, Eugenio Mastroviti
<eugeniom@gointernet.co.uk> wrote:

>Riding down the High Road in East Finchley, i was giving what I thought
>was a reasonably wide berth to the parked cars (about 1m), a car pulled
>out of its parking space, did that thing i absolutely HATE (that my wife
>does religiously too when she drives, grrr), starting the turn indicator
>only when it was already moving.

Sounds just like what happened to me 18 months ago. Sadly my bike was
destroyed as the driver went straight into a three point turn so I hit
him square on.
>
>b) the elderly lady driving the car was in a state of absolute shock, I
>couldn't even release some steam by yelling at her and getting properly
>angry

Again that was my reaction - which is very strange considering the way
I have raged at near misses in the past- something I am not proud of.

I would recommend getting checked over by a doctor. I had some
injures that my GP was concerned about that I did not even know I had.
Namely a rather large hematoma (sp?) on right arm - how I missed it I
do not know, it was the size of a golf ball.


JT
Remove the singers of Spam before replying

John Pitcock

I was knocked off by a doddery old lady, I thought she shouldn't be driving,
but didn't say so. She was shocked, (I think she was surprised, but
relieved, when I got up from just under her front bumper). I felt OK, a
little bruised on the chest, (landed on my wallet in inside jacket pocket),
mudguard damaged. I accepted £10 for a damaged mudguard (fixed for pennies).
Details not exchanged. Later pain intensified, I'd cracked a rib!.

On another occasion I was riding past a row of stationary cars in a traffic
jam. I was keeping well to the other side of the road to give cars a wide
berth and see round the left bend so I could react to oncoming vehicles. One
queuing car decided to turn right into a side road without indicating. I
just avoided hitting it but fell off. Lucky I was keeping out - gave me time
to react. (H.C. rule 143 says do not overtake at a junction).

half_pint

Its best to stay as far away from parked cars as possible so that at
least you have some time to react.
Give it two meters if you can.

Failing that take to the pavement and take some flak
from the 'jobworths', rather than end up beneath the wheels of a
42 tonne atriculated lorry.

Maybe it is that you cycle too close to the pavement/parked
cars and that is the reason why people fail to see you
(twice in the same journey?).

May you should invest in a bright light/siren?


"Eugenio Mastroviti" <eugeniom@gointernet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:32dnqsF3lnpqhU1@individual.net...
> Riding down the High Road in East Finchley, i was giving what I thought
> was a reasonably wide berth to the parked cars (about 1m), a car pulled
> out of its parking space, did that thing i absolutely HATE (that my wife
> does religiously too when she drives, grrr), starting the turn indicator
> only when it was already moving. It was quick and too close to stop - I
> braked, but I hit the front right of the car, bounced and flew over the
> bike. Grazed shins (against the handlebar), some pain in my left knee (I
> dented the car with it) and a badly bruised right hip. What really got
> me mad was
>
> a) there was a bus some distance behind me. It didn't even attept to
> brake, if I hadn't gotten VERY quickly on my feet and pulled the bike
> away it would have gone over it;
>
> b) the elderly lady driving the car was in a state of absolute shock, I
> couldn't even release some steam by yelling at her and getting properly
> angry. She was extremely kind, spent all the time apologising and
> offered to drive me to the hospital (offer that I, rather stupidly,
refused)
>
> Oh well. Bike's ok, I'll be fine in a few hours. Could have been worse,
> I guess. I cycled to work and got the opportunity to burn some adrenalin
> 500m further on, when a guy in a red Rover just ignored the stop sign
> and missed me by about 10 cm. He was terrified by my reaction, I'm afraid.
>
> Eugenio

half_pint

I have a fairly accident free month cycling on the pavement :O)

I'm not gloating of course :O|

regards half_pint.



"MSA" <onyerbikemark@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:MPG.1c2bd77b6b0e7087989690@News.Individual.NET...
> In article <HpqdnWP1IKyeIlzcSa8jmw@karoo.co.uk>,
> simon@simonmason.karoo.co.uk says...
> >
>
> >
> > Yeah get well soon pal. Who will be next?
> >
> > --
> > Simon M.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> Yeah, seems to be a bad month for us lot.
>
> --
> Mark (MSA)
> ______________________________________________
> Remember, half the people you know are below average

Jon Senior

half_pint wrote:
> I have a fairly accident free month cycling on the pavement :O)

I've had a completely accident free month of cycling on the road. Your
pointless was.[1]

> I'm not gloating of course :O|

No. You can't even manage that properly!

Jon

[1] In the style of Guy

Shuggie

In the incident described by Eugenio, where his bike was flung into the
path of the bus following collision with a car, I'm not sure the bus
company would have been all that forthcoming in the shiny new bike
department. And yes, I saw your :-)