I suppose this is a pretty good excuse for not doing homework this afternoon...
And it started off as such a nice day too! Got some laundry done, watched the season finale of Downton Abbey (with a grin on my face for at least ten minutes straight), and I even got some research done!
In fact, I was feeling so well-rested and productive that I decided to bike through the crisp late fall air along the canal to school early so I could return a few library books and sit and read in the Underhill Reading Room.
Then I got hit by a car.
I'm okay, first off. I was just shaken up, with a cut finger and some bruises. My head didn't even touch the ground. Because of the cold weather, I was wearing a lot of padding layers, including two sweaters, tall boots, jeans, gloves and a winter coat. I'm mostly okay.
Along the route I currently take to school, I only have to cross two roads: one a block away from my apartment, one a block away from campus, as I get to and from the lake and the canal, which are biking/walking lanes with no cars in sight. I was waiting at a set of lights to cross over with some pedestrians.
I play it safe. I don't bike across on red lights, especially because a grad student was actually killed on her way to Carleton a few weeks ago.... granted, at night, on a more dangerous road, but still. It pays to be careful.
Maybe I should have dismounted. But I watched the lights the opposite direction go yellow, then red. I looked towards my destination: walking man. So I proceeded into the intersection, with pedestrians about a meter behind me. Then a guy waiting at the same (previously) red light as us did a slow right turn.
He had been looking left, he said. He told us after he thought he was turning right at a red light, which is a legal manoeuvre in Canada, provided your way is clear.
Provided your way is clear. He was turning slowly (he was elderly, I saw later, but I'm not sure what was going on in his head). I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, I shouted "hey!" I then shouted it twice more when he kept proceding. I remember thinking that it was really slow, but there was nothing I could do to avoid him. I couldn't speed up: I was in too high a gear and so the resistance on my pedals was too much. I couldn't reverse, I couldn't dodge, I could only yell.
His car knocked me down, and he then stopped. Luckily, a group of pedestrians coming from the other direction (who also saw the walking man light) came over to help.
I got up almost immediately, but I was very shaky. The police (and paramedics) were called. I got checked out, though I didn't go to the hospital. My laptop, which was in a saddle bag which was first hit by the car, didn't get broken, cushioned as it was by a scarf and by those library books. My bike's rear wheel rack is dented in on one side, though my bike is otherwise undamaged, as far as I could tell.
Ironically, five minutes before I had left, I'd written down info on tomorrow's bike safety info session on campus tomorrow (a reaction, I think to the student cyclist's death a few weeks ago). It includes a free bike tuneup. I'm going.
But first I'm going to get myself checked out by the campus medicenter tomorrow, especially if I wake up feeling like I was hit by a car. My knee in particular is pretty bruised, and I think that the finger that had gotten a cut is sprained. Maybe. I'm not sure. We'll see.
It could have been worse. I'm okay, though. I just wish my day had gone another way.
(Not the least of which was because I totally wish I'd been able to get more reading done. Life of a grad student, eh? At least that's life.)
In fact, I was feeling so well-rested and productive that I decided to bike through the crisp late fall air along the canal to school early so I could return a few library books and sit and read in the Underhill Reading Room.
Then I got hit by a car.
I'm okay, first off. I was just shaken up, with a cut finger and some bruises. My head didn't even touch the ground. Because of the cold weather, I was wearing a lot of padding layers, including two sweaters, tall boots, jeans, gloves and a winter coat. I'm mostly okay.
Along the route I currently take to school, I only have to cross two roads: one a block away from my apartment, one a block away from campus, as I get to and from the lake and the canal, which are biking/walking lanes with no cars in sight. I was waiting at a set of lights to cross over with some pedestrians.
I play it safe. I don't bike across on red lights, especially because a grad student was actually killed on her way to Carleton a few weeks ago.... granted, at night, on a more dangerous road, but still. It pays to be careful.
Maybe I should have dismounted. But I watched the lights the opposite direction go yellow, then red. I looked towards my destination: walking man. So I proceeded into the intersection, with pedestrians about a meter behind me. Then a guy waiting at the same (previously) red light as us did a slow right turn.
He had been looking left, he said. He told us after he thought he was turning right at a red light, which is a legal manoeuvre in Canada, provided your way is clear.
Provided your way is clear. He was turning slowly (he was elderly, I saw later, but I'm not sure what was going on in his head). I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, I shouted "hey!" I then shouted it twice more when he kept proceding. I remember thinking that it was really slow, but there was nothing I could do to avoid him. I couldn't speed up: I was in too high a gear and so the resistance on my pedals was too much. I couldn't reverse, I couldn't dodge, I could only yell.
His car knocked me down, and he then stopped. Luckily, a group of pedestrians coming from the other direction (who also saw the walking man light) came over to help.
I got up almost immediately, but I was very shaky. The police (and paramedics) were called. I got checked out, though I didn't go to the hospital. My laptop, which was in a saddle bag which was first hit by the car, didn't get broken, cushioned as it was by a scarf and by those library books. My bike's rear wheel rack is dented in on one side, though my bike is otherwise undamaged, as far as I could tell.
Ironically, five minutes before I had left, I'd written down info on tomorrow's bike safety info session on campus tomorrow (a reaction, I think to the student cyclist's death a few weeks ago). It includes a free bike tuneup. I'm going.
But first I'm going to get myself checked out by the campus medicenter tomorrow, especially if I wake up feeling like I was hit by a car. My knee in particular is pretty bruised, and I think that the finger that had gotten a cut is sprained. Maybe. I'm not sure. We'll see.
It could have been worse. I'm okay, though. I just wish my day had gone another way.
(Not the least of which was because I totally wish I'd been able to get more reading done. Life of a grad student, eh? At least that's life.)