Living Well With Diabetes

It had to be one of the world’s slowest car-bicycle collisions. I was on my bicycle and at the end of my commute home from work. I was within sight of my own driveway. The car approaching me from the other direction was slowing as if setting up for a left-hand turn. I didn’t slow because, well, because the left-turning vehicle always yields to oncoming traffic, right? Besides, I was thinking the driver must see me. It was broad daylight after all so there was no reason he shouldn’t see me and therefore he would yield before executing his left hand turn into his driveway. But apparently he didn’t see me. When I realized he wasn’t stopping, I braked and came to a stop, but not soon enough. As he proceeded with his left turn, his front bumper collided with my front fork. Both my bike and I fell sideways into the driveway.

And that’s when I started cussing like a sailor. Both from pain and from the shock of just having been hit by a car. When I finally stood back up (I was relieved that I was able to), I unwove the car’s plastic license plate frame from the spokes of my front wheel and handed it to the driver who was now apologizing and telling me he didn’t see me. The only response I managed was “Oh really?”

I was angry and hurt and I didn’t want to talk. I stormed off in anger towards home carrying my bike (its front wheel was bent beyond usefulness). Let me tell you, it’s nearly impossible to do the “storming off in anger” act while wearing those crazy cycling cleats!

I’ve got bandages on four fingers, an elbow, and one knee and a very painful bruise on my right thigh. I think I was pretty lucky. My bike, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. As I mentioned earlier, the front wheel is a goner. There’s blue paint from the car on my custom carbon-fiber front fork. Its integrity is suspect at this point so will probably have to be replaced. There’s also a new bend in the right side of my handlebars. I’ve taken the whole thing to the local bike shop for an estimate.

Comments(3)