car vs bike... car wins...
So I had a new experience today - got knocked off my push bike by a car.
Now in terms of "knock offs" this was about as good as I could have ever hoped for.
I'm fine
I'm barely hurt - I have a few scrapes but I have (as of 6 hours since the accident) almost no bruises. I have some soreness in areas that hit the road and where the bike fell on me - but otherwise - I'm perfectly fine.
The bike is also not terrible - except it bent the back wheel to a point where it wouldn't work... so taxi home.. :(
So... I've been cycling, I've been getting pretty good about making myself do it - and I've hit over 600km since I started 2 months ago - not a huge distance but 600 more than I did in either 2014 or 2015.
Anyways... today was just my day - I left work later than usual, so heavier traffic, and I just wanted to get home and I misread the cues. I saw the car stop at the intersection, I have right of way so I kept going and it wasn't unti I was already in his path that he started to move again - obviously at slow speed and caught my back tyre - I just wasn't fast enough to get out of the way.
I had actually started to give the car a wide berth because I was cautious but I didn't go wide enough. :(
Anyway - young male nursing student, more shaken up than me. He admitted he hadn't even looked left when turning into the street (which is kind of dumb - there are a lot of cars that use that) - but he had been stressing about being late to work.
He checked me over and used his first aid kit to clean and bandage the only really good scrape I had on the elbow. He wanted to make sure I was ok - we exchanged details and I got the details of a witness that helped me out. I sent him to work (and so his car would no longer be blocking the road) and then I just sat there waiting for the taxi. 5 minutes later he was back, with water for me, and approval from his boss that he could stay with me until the taxi arrived. He offered to buy me dinner, he just wanted to make everything better for me. It was heart breakingly sweet. I think I tried to make lighter of it because of how shaken he still looked.
While we waited, we talked about a few things, found out why he was studying nursing, what he did for free time ( he works 2 jobs and volunteers as well as the full time study), and I even took a selfie with him to show we were both ok. I was definitely on adrenaline because I was talking a lot, and quickly - but he handled it well.
And when the taxi arrived he put the bike in the back and paid the driver.
He is also paying for the damage to the bike.
I mean seriously - how good was this kid? We're all human and we all make mistakes - the mark of a human is how they respond to those mistakes and he passed every single possible aspect of it.
And the taxi driver was pretty cool too - he knew I had been knocked off, and when the taxi fare came to more than the $$ the kid had given him, and I reached for my wallet - he said "don't worry" - and carried my bike into the garage for me.
Seriously - today, even with all the insanity of my first real cycling accident - it was the nicest, kindest accident I could have had.
I think I might have actually fallen just a little in love with Melbourne today - this city came through!
Now in terms of "knock offs" this was about as good as I could have ever hoped for.
I'm fine
I'm barely hurt - I have a few scrapes but I have (as of 6 hours since the accident) almost no bruises. I have some soreness in areas that hit the road and where the bike fell on me - but otherwise - I'm perfectly fine.
The bike is also not terrible - except it bent the back wheel to a point where it wouldn't work... so taxi home.. :(
So... I've been cycling, I've been getting pretty good about making myself do it - and I've hit over 600km since I started 2 months ago - not a huge distance but 600 more than I did in either 2014 or 2015.
Anyways... today was just my day - I left work later than usual, so heavier traffic, and I just wanted to get home and I misread the cues. I saw the car stop at the intersection, I have right of way so I kept going and it wasn't unti I was already in his path that he started to move again - obviously at slow speed and caught my back tyre - I just wasn't fast enough to get out of the way.
I had actually started to give the car a wide berth because I was cautious but I didn't go wide enough. :(
Anyway - young male nursing student, more shaken up than me. He admitted he hadn't even looked left when turning into the street (which is kind of dumb - there are a lot of cars that use that) - but he had been stressing about being late to work.
He checked me over and used his first aid kit to clean and bandage the only really good scrape I had on the elbow. He wanted to make sure I was ok - we exchanged details and I got the details of a witness that helped me out. I sent him to work (and so his car would no longer be blocking the road) and then I just sat there waiting for the taxi. 5 minutes later he was back, with water for me, and approval from his boss that he could stay with me until the taxi arrived. He offered to buy me dinner, he just wanted to make everything better for me. It was heart breakingly sweet. I think I tried to make lighter of it because of how shaken he still looked.
While we waited, we talked about a few things, found out why he was studying nursing, what he did for free time ( he works 2 jobs and volunteers as well as the full time study), and I even took a selfie with him to show we were both ok. I was definitely on adrenaline because I was talking a lot, and quickly - but he handled it well.
And when the taxi arrived he put the bike in the back and paid the driver.
He is also paying for the damage to the bike.
I mean seriously - how good was this kid? We're all human and we all make mistakes - the mark of a human is how they respond to those mistakes and he passed every single possible aspect of it.
And the taxi driver was pretty cool too - he knew I had been knocked off, and when the taxi fare came to more than the $$ the kid had given him, and I reached for my wallet - he said "don't worry" - and carried my bike into the garage for me.
Seriously - today, even with all the insanity of my first real cycling accident - it was the nicest, kindest accident I could have had.
I think I might have actually fallen just a little in love with Melbourne today - this city came through!