Your Worst Crash

[Stevedvg]

My worst crash happened a few years back. I was cycling back from a friend's home when a car pulled out in front of me - He must have totally misjudged my speed. I ploughed into the sideof the car, flew straight over it, somehow got detached from my bike in the process and landed flush on the point of my jaw. When I regained consciousness a number of concerned bystanders where hovering over me. The driver of the car had just driven off and left me unconscious and bleeding in the middle of the road. Amazingly apart from 15 stitches in my chin, a cracked molar and the odd bruise or two, I was fine.

 

[FTSDad]

Pretty impressive thread. I have two experiences to share:

1. Coming back from a summer training ride, I was t-boned by a 1965 Plymouth Fury. When I landed on the ground, I knew something bad had happened to my lower left leg (where the left front fender hit me). The impact had shredded the meat off the bone. It was pretty surreal being able to see inside my leg (bones, veins, tendons, etc.). I scooped everything back to where I thought it should be and started screaming real loud. At the hospital, two doctors wanted to cut my leg off at the knee. A third came in and fixed me up. My leg looks funky, but I can still ride! My bike at the time (1983 Medici Pro Strada with Nuovo Record components) was toast. I sold the parts to help pay for college. I still have the folded frame as a trophy hanging in my garage.

2. This one caused less physical damage, but is has caused lots of psych damage. About halfway through a late afternoon mountain bike ride, I was seeting up for a tight turn ahead during a real rocky descent. As I gripped the rear brake, the level went all the way to the bar and the brake cable snapped. All I had was about 5 seconds and my front brake to keep from going off the cliff. I ended up laying the bike down and taking a real beating on the whole right side of my body. As I was halfway through the ride, I had to manage the remaining 10 miles with only a front brake, a gimpy right side, and nightfall. The worst part is that now I'm paranoid about my brake cables snapping.

 

[ChangMan]

Mine was about a little over a year ago in a local race. The group had started the sprint and a guy to the right of me had wipped out taking me out in the process. Lucky for me I wasn't at full speed, but I was still at around 35mph. I ended up with a concusion, a broken collar bone, a broken arm, and two broken ribs.

 

[Phuong L]

I ended up with a concusion, a broken collar bone, a broken arm, and two broken ribs.

Ouch! I'm not sure where my crash is ranked in the scale of ouch-ness!

I only learnt how to ride the bicycle last year and my boyfriend at the time had warned me that I was going to fall off my bike one way or another. So I was riding on my pink BMX in the Double Bay area (in Sydney, Australia) with my then-bf following behind and was crusing downhill and enjoying the speed when I reached the bottom and turned left and decided to start pedalling again to keep the momentum going. Not realising I was still moving too fast to pedal, I pushed my foot down a little too hard and it slipped off the pedal and into the spokes of my front wheel. I just remember coming off and having some guys run up to me asking if I was ok. I quickly recovered and said I was fine and the first thought that came to my mind was "Yay! My first fall off my bike!" My bf quickly caught up to me and had one look at me and said "We've gotta take you to a dentist". Apparently I'd gone over the handle bars and smashed three of my front teeth and had blood dripping all over my chin! Surprisingly it didn't hurt much at all!

Second fall was about 3 months after the previous one when I was cycling past the University of NSW after an action with The Wilderness Society outside Peter Garrett's office. I merged into the middle lane to overtake a stationary bus when he started moving again so I was busy looking at the bus and traffic behind me. All of a sudden my foot came off the pedal (I belive it was because I'd cycled over a pot-hole of some sort) and I tried to put it back but placed it somewhere wrong... when I came off this time I remember thinking "Must protect face. Too expensive!" So I landed in an impressive contorted position and later discovered very impressive bruises all over my legs ;-)

If only I had been using clipless pedals...

 

[Phuong L]

Pretty impressive thread. I have two experiences to share:

Ouch, ouch and OUCH!!

 

[EoinC]

I'm not sure if it was my worst, but I posted this last year as one of my riding tips. This happened to me when I was a tad younger than I am now.....

Tip 4) When you are young (a long time ago) and you offer to ride your mate's bike down a long winding hill, with a big drop-off on the left, a high bank on the right, rough-chip surface and ending in a T-intersection, perform your pre-start checks. Always check to see that the stick you put in place to retain the back-peddling brake's torque arm (after the bolt fell out) is firmly in place. It is a good chance to be reminded of the consequences that may befall you if the stick falls out. They run in this manner : Sinking feeling - Sudden assessment of ongoing acceleration - Sudden assessment of nasty alternatives to left, right and ahead - Survival manoeuvre to push off handlebars in the hope of dropping off the back of the bike - Immediate sense of having provided insufficient input to the manoeuvre when hot-spot tells you that you have landed on the back wheel and are now accelerating towards the seatpost - Strange sense of "wellbeing" (very relative concept) when your feet hit the ground and immediately propel you into a series of forward rolls, parting you from the bicycle (like a spent booster on an Apollo mission) and cushioned by the welcoming rough-chip road - Upon pulling up to a halt, an overall sense of bafflement takes over as you gaze through the haze of the smoke coming off your ruptured jeans to where your mate's bicycle went over the cliff-of-death into the pine trees below, and wait for him to come running down the hill to tell you what he thinks about what you did to his bike. Some friendships just weren't meant to last - ask me how I know.

 

[Eden]

After reading this thread I feel so lucky I've never seriously damaged myself. I have however damaged the bike.
My husband and I were riding along on a path thoughtfully put through a local buisiness park, that got us under some very hard to cross RR tracks. The path was beautiful brand new smooth blacktop and it was high noon - no shadows. We came to a place where the path split into 2 lanes with a white line dividing the two. Not being able to resist the wonderful pavement and otherwise completely deserted trail, I was barreling through and decided to cross the line to the right side of the path. It wasn't a line, it was a curb, a 6 inch high curb from which I launched at full speed. I kept the bike up, but landed pretty hard - this was an all steel road bike- but after a quick check everything seemed ok. Not! after about another mile, my husband still behind me said - stop a minute it looks like something is wrong with your rear wheel- at about the same moment said wheel completely taco'd- so bad I couldn't even push the bike. Got a new rear wheel built, but later that week started grinding all of the teeth off of the cogs on my rear derailleur during a ride. Stopped into REI which was along the route and the guy at the bike reparir counter called me over to say what did you do to this bike! My little flying lesson had bent the derailleur hanger and the seat stay!

 

[Eden]

After reading this thread I feel so lucky I've never seriously damaged myself. I have however damaged the bike.
My husband and I were riding along on a path thoughtfully put through a local buisiness park, that got us under some very hard to cross RR tracks. The path was beautiful brand new smooth blacktop and it was high noon - no shadows. We came to a place where the path split into 2 lanes with a white line dividing the two. Not being able to resist the wonderful pavement and otherwise completely deserted trail, I was barreling through and decided to cross the line to the right side of the path. It wasn't a line, it was a curb, a 6 inch high curb from which I launched at full speed. I kept the bike up, but landed pretty hard - this was an all steel road bike- but after a quick check everything seemed ok. Not! after about another mile, my husband still behind me said - stop a minute it looks like something is wrong with your rear wheel- at about the same moment said wheel completely taco'd- so bad I couldn't even push the bike. Got a new rear wheel built, but later that week started grinding all of the teeth off of the cogs on my rear derailleur during a ride. Stopped into REI which was along the route and the guy at the bike reparir counter called me over to say what did you do to this bike! My little flying lesson had bent the derailleur hanger and the chain stay!

 

[wilmar13]

Ahhh why do household chores when you can read about other peoples horrific crashes...
My worst crashes in terms of injury are just the typical people crossed wheels in front of me with the requisite damage to clothing, skin, bones, and bike... My most memorable crash though not resulting in serious injury was about the closest I have come to biting it. I was commuting to work on my race bike. It was a summer in college and I was working afternoon shifts as a machinist where you have to be at work “on-time”, of course I was late, it was raining and I was time-trialing my ass off. There was a train track that is at roughly a 60 deg angle to the road, very dangerous in the dry, when wet I had gone down on it before. Rather than slowing down and trying to ride across it as close to perpendicular as possible by using the whole road (there was a semi-truck coming in the other lane) I decided to keep on the boil and just hop it. Well the rear wheel landed on the second rail, it spit the bike out to the right (the direction of the rail) and I kept going forward. The road was so slick I just slid and normally it would not have been a huge deal, except the truck in the oncoming lane panicked, and locked his brakes. His truck began to Jack-Knife and the trailer was heading right for me as I was still sliding. Anyone ever in a motorcycle accident can relate to this feeling, I tried to get up but began to roll because I was still sliding, I managed to roll off the road just as the wheels of the trailer went past my head. It was like I was a stunt man in a movie. It was so weird how it all happened. I wasn’t even really hurt except for some minor road rash and my wheel rear wheel was bent. I was only a few minutes late, but I had a good excuse to tell my boss.

 

[FatherBob]

I guess I've been lucky enough.

I learned to ride when I was 4, and aside from a fairly sedentary period during my 20s I've cycled pretty much all my life. Not well, but I've been at it.

And in all these years, I've only had minor wrecks. Never even managed to utterly destroy a bike.

And that's despite having been smacked by a few cars while street riding.

My worst bike crashes have only resulted in bruises and abrasions. At 34, I've yet to break a bone, to my knowledge. (And from what I'm told, I'd know it.)

 

[JAPANic]

I was looking for a thread called... 'My 1st crash'... this one will do though..

I had my 1st/worst/last? crash on May 22nd in the Tour of Japan.

We were 4kms from the finish and the peleton was starting to get jittery....
We were all trying to get up near the front going about 45kph.

We were on a 4 lane road that converged around a bend into one lane.

I was sitting on the far right as it was the side to be on for the sprint finish and was much cleaner than the sometimes gravelly left side. I planned this race and the right side was supposed to be the safest and best side....

So I thought.

We slowed up a bit to squeeze through the one lane right hander. Somebody on the left side went down and I could see that possibly a few more were going to go down out of the corner of my eye.

I was looking to the left a little but holding my line. The peleton swelled outwards to avoid the pile up. I was already on the edge and had no road left. As I glanced up to look for some space I found a witch's hat (red traffic cone) in front of my wheel. There was nothing I could do. My front wheel turned right. My weight and speed were trying to take me through the hat. I cart wheeled over it at 40kph (according to my POLAR) 1st to hit was my helmet. It split in two. The helmet pushed my sun glasses down onto my face and cut my upper cheek. (3 stiches). COntinuing to cart wheel my right thigh came over the top and slammed into the ground. My knee hit something. I could feel the rider behind me start to run into my back. I was holding my head in fetal position waiting for other riders to hit me as well. Luckily there was only the one.

8 riders down.

Check out the pics...


Next race on Sunday...


http://mcentyre.com/IMG_3161.jpg


http://mcentyre.com/IMG_3159.jpg


http://mcentyre.com/IMG_3158.jpg

http://mcentyre.com/IMG_3157.jpg

http://mcentyre.com/IMG_3156.jpg

After the race I went back to the scene. The witch's hats were lined up badly. The first set were in line with the curve. Then they jumped out into another line of cones covering some small metal speed bumps. This was the only part of the course we could not check before the race becasue it was on the wrong side of the road. They diverted traffic so we had to use this part un-seen.

I was lucky not to have broken any bones. I rolled well like the ball that I am.
I have broken my collar bone 2 times, dislocated it once and broken my scapula on the left side that I 1st landed on before. I don't know why it didn't break this time.

My knee is still sore...but the energy I got from that crash and anger is carrying over... I'm ready for a big race this Sunday......

 

[LottomagicZ4941]

My worse bike crash was due to a semi truck that was hogging the road.

I ended up crashing into a bunch of stickers to make the crash even worse.

Should have just stopped biking till after the semi passed but I tried to drive a tad off the road and biffed it.

 

[gubaguba]

Riding down the coast line here in New Jersey. Crystal clear morning visability for miles. Cross in front of a church and get hit by a little old lady pulling into the parking lot with the biggest buick they ever made. A friend was working on the roof of the church and said I got thrown about 25 feet and landed on my head on the opposite side of the parking lot. I don't remember a thing was out cold last thing I remember clearly that day was putting on my shoes and helmet. Woke up in the hospital and there is a priest hovering over me saying some prayers. Not a good sign I'm figuring. Police cop comes in and tell me he has collected all the pieces of my bike. For some reason I wanted to know where my helmet (a Giro) was the doctor shows it to me and it looks like packing material in the shape of a helmet. The doctor tell me I would have been dead if I didn't wear the helmet. Otherwise I wasn't to bad major road rash I got the nick name scab for about the next four weeks. In three months was on the bike again after physical therapy. Though my family thought I might want to consider some mental therapy.

 

[wilmar13]

In three months was on the bike again after physical therapy. Though my family thought I might want to consider some mental therapy.

Although few non-cyclists would understand, getting back on the bike was the best "mental therapy" you could have done for sure.

 

[wendyf]

About a year ago I fell and completely dislocated and fractured my elbow. I did not think I locked my elbow but apparently I did. I just remember how painful it was and thinking I could maybe start riding again in a week. Thought they could just pop the elbow back in and I was good to go. Funny what you think you can do on a morphine drip. First dr. kept me in a cast too long and my range of motion was not much. They pinned the bone back and it healed fine, but now since it has the double click going on , the pin comes out next week. The range of motion is there but I dont think my arm will ever be straight. But its straight enought to get back on the bike again.

 

[cucamelsmd15]

About a year ago I fell and completely dislocated and fractured my elbow. I did not think I locked my elbow but apparently I did. I just remember how painful it was and thinking I could maybe start riding again in a week. Thought they could just pop the elbow back in and I was good to go. Funny what you think you can do on a morphine drip. First dr. kept me in a cast too long and my range of motion was not much. They pinned the bone back and it healed fine, but now since it has the double click going on , the pin comes out next week. The range of motion is there but I dont think my arm will ever be straight. But its straight enought to get back on the bike again.

When I had a 4-wheeler, I broke my arm in 2 places, and my wrist in two places. My range of motion is greatly improved over what it was, but every time I rotate my wrist, it pops from where the bones healed incorrectly. Im like you though, my wrist wont ever be straight again.

 

[FastFly]

Well I was riding my mountain bike down a street with my friends. I was well in the lead and come to a intersection....stop sign for the other street my street had no sign. I continue and a blazer comes flying and I know it cannot stop...I slam on my brakes and turn toward him trying to cut before him....couldnot make it so I leaped off my bike and road....the bike went under the rear tires...and was completely out of wack....I made it out with only a few scratches and a bruised pride....it was the scariest moment of my life.

Two weeks later a kid in my grade rollerblading was killed in the same area when he was hit by a car.

 

[agentg]

Hard to say since I've been in so many but for my first post I'll describe one of my favorites:

Back in college the house I lived in was right next to the campus. I used to go for rides around the campus and the quickest way to get back to my house from the other side of campus was to ride down a long grassy hill then across the football/soccer fields then into the parking lot. Well, I used to do this a lot and got used to going down the hill at a high rate of speed thus I could shoot across the other fields without having to pedal that much. I even used to do it at night time to. Well one night I came to the top of the hill and pointed my bike down it and started pedaling about as hard as I can. The time of year was unfortunate because it was summer and that meant the fields were being used for the Denver Broncos training camp and to mark off the field they stake posts around it and put up a nylon rope on these stakes about 3 feet high and this is at the bottom of the hill. So as I came rocketing down the hill I happened to see the rope but unfortunately it was only about 2 feet in front of me when I saw it. As soon as I saw the rope sheer panic set in. I didn't even have time to hit the breaks or do anything else as the neck of my bike hit the rope and stretched it. Then, acting like a sling shot, it shot my bike backwards while I flew forwards over the handlebars. My body started slowly to turn forwards and I hit the gound heafirst with all of my weight landing on my forehead - while I was still in a rding position then I flipped over and landed on my back. After I landed I had a slightly bloody nose and lip but that was about it. It trully freaked me out and I was paranoid about some sort of spinal injury but everything seemed to be okay. Probably the scariest wreck I have ever had.

 

[NYY2183]

It happened this morning. It was about 5:30am and I was riding down a street and the street lights were off. Well little did I know that some idiot had left a beer bottle in the street. I did not see it. Ran over it, both of my tires went flat in a flash, I got thrown onto the curb. Now the right side of my leg (whole leg) has scrathes, is bruised and I am so darn sore right now it sucks. But hey, sh** happens.

 

[Yippie Kye Ay]

My first crash happened this last weekend while riding with the CAT 4/5 men as opposed to juniors. It was a criterium and I was riding towards the back. When I rounded the final corner at about 28mph I saw the crash begin. The first man didn't keep his line and the rider behind him slammed into him. They both went sliding across the road knocking down several more riders. It quickly became a wall of bodies and bikes across the road. I quickly realized that my intended line was blocked by two downed riders. Avoiding slamming a body I hit a wheel and was flung off my bike and onto my side. I was not sure what happend next but based on my road rash and my cracked helmet I assume I hit my head and slid on my back. The next thing I remembered was two paramedics and my coach above my body telling me if I could to cross the finish line. Trying to walk was too painful on my hip so I got onto my bike. Completely disoriented with no idea of the start finish I crossed and roade another lap before I regained my bearings and realized the location of the start finish line. I later found that the time between the crash and the time I was responding to the parmamedics was just under 5 minutes. The result of the crash was an unknown hip injury and the eventual abandoning of the circuit race and road race. This was my first group crash and was my worst crash on a road bike.

I considered myself fourtunate becuase the next day during the SPUDMAN triathalon a rider was hit going 60 mph by a dodge ram. He was able to escape with severe road rash on his legs and arms and a destroyed TT bike. (his front wheel was broken into 5 pieces)