Hard spill on railroad track in rain
- Thread starter gs12
- Start date
Those and newly painted road striping can create a mess quickly. I have almost lost it and I have seen people lose it on both tracks and DOT thermoplastic painted stripes. Fortunately I got my education of these things riding with seasoned cyclists and watching them approach tracks at 90 degrees and slow if it was raining.
At Three State Three Mountain they have a lot of crashes at one particular RR crossing and finally started putting down rubber mats across the tracks.
Glad to hear you are okay.
At Three State Three Mountain they have a lot of crashes at one particular RR crossing and finally started putting down rubber mats across the tracks.
Glad to hear you are okay.
We have metal grate draw bridges here in Florida and I have ridden over them a few dozen times. However in one group ride we were approaching one of these metal bridges in the wet and the guys up front all stopped to walk their bikes over the bridge. I followed suite since I really did not know any better but one more experienced rider explained to me that once the metal gets wet, we would certainly have several wrecks if all 20 of us tried to ride over it
Yeah, it sucks. road rash on right hip, right elbow and right shoulder. Should took the brunt of it, thought for sure it was broken, however x-rays are negative.
The person who stopped to help me, just happened to be an EMT - how lucky. He knew exactly what to do, while i writhed in agony on the tracks. He also happened to have a pick-up truck, and insisted on giving me a ride home. His son was in the passenger seat, probably about 9, the look of horror on his face when he saw me climb in the back! Poor kid, probably scarred for life!
Anyway, the guy who stopped couldn't have been nicer, or gone out of his way more to help. Kinda redeems humanity to me in some ways, all the jerks that honk at you as they pass by, or worse. This guy was the 'salt of the earth' as we say around here, good people.
The person who stopped to help me, just happened to be an EMT - how lucky. He knew exactly what to do, while i writhed in agony on the tracks. He also happened to have a pick-up truck, and insisted on giving me a ride home. His son was in the passenger seat, probably about 9, the look of horror on his face when he saw me climb in the back! Poor kid, probably scarred for life!
Anyway, the guy who stopped couldn't have been nicer, or gone out of his way more to help. Kinda redeems humanity to me in some ways, all the jerks that honk at you as they pass by, or worse. This guy was the 'salt of the earth' as we say around here, good people.
I was there that year dhk2 was talking about or it could have been another year since there seems to always be a pile up at that one RR crossing. When we came up on it we could see the carnage and about 10 laying on the ground, several standing around brushing themselves off and a bunch more trying to walk across and through the chaos. There were officials trying to get people to dismount their bikes. As we got close there were a number that were still trying to ride across even though the officials were demanding they get off their bikes.
Crazy how the various levels of experience of cyclists they would just slowly ride straight into the crash and slowly crash. Crazy!!
We have a couple of bridge crossings that have wood decks that are dangerous when wet or dry. Those are another where you want to get off your bike or unclip one foot and use that foot on the wood planks to slowly propel your bike across. Even if they are not wet there is a danger if the planks are running long ways. I have seen guys roll their wheel into big cracks between the planks, which will stop the bike immediately and throw you over the bars. We were on one ride where the ride leader warned that the route was going over a wood bridge and for all to stop and walk across. Wouldn't ya know that one guy ignored it and tried going across without slowing down. The planks were wet with dew and his bike went out from under him. The railing was very open and he went under the bottom rail and 12' drop down into a rocky creek. That was an ambulance call. Here is one of our rides in 2010 on a similar bridge and a couple of my friends carefully crossing. http://thecyclingaddiction.blogspot.com/2010/10/armuchee-fouche-gap.html
Definitely be careful with wet rails. I really had some narrow misses even crossing slick tram tracks in cities around Europe. The bike can just slip from under you without warning.
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