Mark,
Glad you made it. I hope you don't learn as I am that the insurance aspects can be almost more
painful than the accident itself.
Isn't it hard to believe that there are poeple who object to the concept of wearing a bike helmet?
They're just people who haven't had their surprise encounter yet. I pray they'll have changed their
minds about helmets before they do.
My big crash was last October. I was at the right edge of a newly 4-laned road outside of a small
town. There was a tailwind and I was on a downhill stretch approaching an intersection. I had a
green light. A van passed me just before the intersection. A teenager in an oncoming car let the van
pass and just assumed it was clear to make a left turn. There was plenty of time to see me if she'd
have looked. I saw her, but like you, I had no options. We had a full-on head on collision.
Fortunately, she was in a small Saturn. I don't know how all I hit. All I know is that, after
impacting the front fender, I glanced off the windshield and went straight up in the air.
Eyewitnesses say I went about 30 feet straight up. I came down on my head. I had a broken hip,
pelvis and ankle. I also had a compression fracture of the spine and a major laceration on my lower
left leg. All I knew at the scene was that my hip was screwed. (Now it's screwed permanently.)
But God created some amazing biological machinery, and thank God he put people on the earth who are
willing to be EMTs, doctors and nurses. Seven months after this horrible accident I completed a
tough mountain century that I've done each year for the last seven years. I did it in a new personal
best time -- 4:59:43.
Shades of Lance Armstrong ... I lost 15 lbs. through the ordeal and that weight loss, combined with
lots of hard work to get back in shape, have made me like a new rider. I have a permanent limp and
I'll probably never take a running step again in my life ... but I can still ride!
Unfortunately, the insurance wars are ongoing.
Anyway, that's my story. I hope yours turns out well.
Bob C. "Mark Hickey" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Thought y'all might get a kick out of the results of an encounter with a pickup truck (whose
> driver didn't think to check for traffic in the bike lane he was crossing). I didn't see him until
> it was far too late to do anything about it...
>
> The good news is, more permanent damage to the truck than my bike!
>
>
http://www.habcycles.com/bikecrash.html
>
> Just in case there was still anyone out there unaware I have a VERY hard head... ;-)
>
> Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com Home of the $695 ti frame