cycling accidents
Yesterday I had a cycling accident. It involved me, a van, a mirror, and the ground. Namely a van cut me off, I hit his mirror, then I hit the ground.
He pulled over, We calmed down from being shaken, and exchanged information. Luckily I didn’t hurt anything, and my bike is a hardy animal. This wasn’t the first time I’ve been hit on my bicycle, it likely won’t be the last. Accidents are a reality you live with when you use the road, and in my city…well let’s just say Toronto is not a bicycle friendly town. Most drivers I find however, will stop if something happens, be apologetic, and exchange information freely…or maybe I’m lucky in that the ones I’ve dealt with when something has happened, have been on the level.
What I did not expect was the random guy who stopped his car in the middle of the intersection, who was not involved at all, to yell at me that I was a “Bleep bleep dumb ass cyclist, and that was your own fault, and you shouldn’t be on the road at all.”
…Wait…What? Really? Did that just happen? I have just been hit by a vehicle, the driver and I are dealing with it, and this random dude just decides that this is a good time to voice his opinion?
I should not really be so surprised especially when this happened a little while ago.
Plus as a society we seem to be good at breading ideas like “if you disagree with something you’re a whiner”, “me first”, and “my opinion means everything.”
But I was pretty caught off guard by this action, mainly because it had no grounding. And in a way it was the equivalent of a bully trying to hit you when you’re already down from being punched.
Toronto, I issue you a challenge to not let this mean kind of groundless bullshit take over, we can do better.
PS, this is the aftermath. The rainbow trout of bruise.
Mirrored from Nadine Lessio.