How did I fall, was it avoidable, and are there any lessons to learn?

First of all, thank all of you for your good wishes. I’m getting better, nothing is broken (that’s good news), but I will not be able to ride for some days, not sure for how long (bad news), as I can’t do it one-handed.

...It happened around 5:45 p.m. last Friday, on my way from work. I just cleared the narrow part of the LFT next to Ohio Street beach...

...there was almost no one there, except for couple of people on bikes, heading south, may be two or three hundred feet ahead. I just started to speed up, when one of them, a girls about 11 or 12, turned right in front of me.

The last thing I remember before hitting the concrete, is the sparkling fragments of my bicycle mirror shattered by that metal basket mounted on b-cycles.

Boom!

I am almost sure I did not hit the brakes—that would have sent me over the handlebars. I landed on my left side: left hand, elbow, knee, left eye, but my bike was on its right side when I peeled myself off the ground. The tip of the right grip was literally shaved off by concrete.

My theory is: I managed to avoid a headlong collision, but the b-cycle kicked my bike from under me, hitting the frame behind me from the left. I’ll never know for certain.

Was it possible to escape the whole thing altogether? I don’t think so. I saw them, mother and daughter on bicycles, riding in opposite direction, didn’t notice anything unusual about them before the daughter swerved right in my path. I was told by people who helped me afterwards that they saw that girl shortly before my accident; she was, apparently, zigzagging all over the place. Had I seen her for a bit longer, I might have given her a wider berth.

So, the first lesson: Beware little girls on bicycles.

Lesson two: I usually carry with me a small medical kit, but that little Neosporin spay thingie is totally not enough. Need a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, iodine, gauze, etc. Just in case.

Three: if you wear glasses, have a spare pare with you. I didn't.

*****

. . . Anything else?

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on October 19, 2012 at 7:11am

I also believe in the "one more thing" philosophy although we are all human and mistakes happen to the best of us.

When someone doesn't quite catch the "one more thing" and something bad happens the person who pays the price is always that person who wasn't able to avoid it. It doesn't matter who was ultimately "at fault" -the buck stops at the individual and it's up to that individual to take care of himself even when others make mistakes.

Too bad we aren't supermen and can't always foresee "one more thing" that would let us escape these disasters -but we should always be trying, at least.

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Permalink Reply by prof.gfr on October 19, 2012 at 7:43am

My sympathies to you - that looks really unpleasant and I hope you have a swift recovery.

As bad as your injuries are, I'm just as interested in the welfare of the other cyclist in this accident as well. It sounds like they weren't making the best choices as a rider, but are they ok?

And despite some comments to the contrary, I would strongly argue b-cyclists and tourists on bikes are an important part of the cycling infrastructure in this city and a necessary component to improving cycling for all of us. It will be an uneasy transition as more people with less experience hop on bikes, but in the long run it has great promise to cyclists of all stripes. I've ridden all over Paris on the Velib system and it is amazing, efficient and safe after several years of sometimes bumpy transition, which included mass re-education of drivers by introducing a glut of cyclists into an already congested road system.

Lastly, I doubt you intended to offend, but as the father of a 6yo girl who rides a bike all the time, I would also caution any of us against unintentionally castigating an entire subgroup of cyclists. We need *more* little girls on bicycles, not fewer. That said, all kids could all certainly use "rules of the road" training, which my daughter receives from me and gets reinforced on kidical mass rides.

Again, best of luck and to everyone, be safe. It's been a rocky few weeks.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on October 19, 2012 at 7:50am

A number of folks have (naturally) asked about the girl involved in Serge's crash. I am taking the liberty of linking to the comments on one of the photos he posted just after it happened in which he mentioned a couple of times that she was not hurt, although was upset (naturally!).

http://www.thechainlink.org/photo/img-20121012-181615?commentId=221...

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Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on October 19, 2012 at 7:53am

This is why I totally avoid the lake front path...

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Permalink Reply by blair on October 19, 2012 at 8:29am

I really wish there was some sort of quick :60 video clip or '5 Things to Remember' leaflet when bikes are rented out. I don't find myself on the Lakefront path often, but when I do, I don't feel safe. Tourists usually take offense and think you're yelling at them if you say "On your left!". The Bike and Roll locations in Millenium Park, Navy Pier, etc. also come to mind. I can't tell you how many times I've been clipped by a tourist using one of those bikes on the Michigan Avenue sidewalk during rush hour. When you tell them it's illegal, a lot of them act confused. If I didn't live here, I probably wouldn't think of these things my first time renting a bike in a city.

Wishing you a speedy recovery!

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Permalink Reply by Anika on October 19, 2012 at 4:16pm

Ouch. This looks mildly uncomfortable to say the least.

I find that the combination of child and weight of bike versus what I am riding greatly impacts the outcome of such an accident. I have a 5 year old who rides with me on her own bike a lot. She knows the rules of the road and such but sometimes her bike doesn't behave in a way she (nor I expect). She has only coaster brakes and little kids' bikes are often incredibly heavy. On my cargo bike, she merely bounces off of me if we collide but on my personal bike (which weighs 10lbs less than hers), she takes me out. It's not intentional - just part of her getting to know what her bike can (and can't do).

That said, this could have been a similar situation of the child not really knowing the bike she was riding. The swerving could have been a result of "learning curve" or poor fit rather than paying poor attention. If the later was the case, that parent should have called attention to her riding long before you came along.

And those B- bikes look incredibly heavy. I'm sure in any collision with those, that would greatly factor into damages. I am incredibly wary of individuals on those bikes, often assuming that they are not regular riders or at the very least probably don't know the rules of the road. I think the only thing you could have done differently was to slow way down or possibly stopped until this rider passed. If you had seen their actions prior, you probably would have at least given more berth.

I guess the lesson learned is to be on guard of Tweens on rented bikes.

I hope you are feeling better soon.

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Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on October 20, 2012 at 2:38am

Yes - sorry to hear about your crash - and yes, it sounds like it was un-avoidable. As Kevin notes your posting this provides us all with a productive exercise, so thanks for sharing.

After a couple of much more minor crashes that banged up my hands I got into the habit of aways wearing gloves. My hands have been less banged up by falls since I got into the habit. But of course, most biking gloves don't offer much protection on the knuckle side of one's hands. Is anyone aware of any biking glove that provides a bit of knuckle protection?

In the cooler, but not cold parts of the year I usually wear some kind of fairly cheap padded work glove, most of which offer a bit of knuckle protection, but in the summer I wear regular bicycling gloves which are only padded on the palm side. It would be great to find a set of gloves that sort of merge the features of a motorcycling glove with a bicycling glove...

I might suggest swapping out your proposed bottle of hydrogen peroxide for a flask of whisky, as it could serve double duty.

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on October 20, 2012 at 3:04am

+1 Million on gloves. I won't ride without gloves.

Motorcycle gloves work well in the winter when it gets cold but when it is warmer out just are too hot for bicycling. Riding a bicycle creates more body heat and the amount of wind traveling over your hands is much less so hands get too hot. Summer-weight motorcycle gloves work well for most of the winter unless it is really, really cold. Medium-weight insulated motorcycling gloves work well down to the worst sub-zero temps.

It's really easy to mess up your hands. Helmets help keep your noggin from a concussion but actually do a very poor job of that unfortunately due to their extreme light-weight design and limited coverage. Better helmets would be nice but they would be hot that nobody would actually buy them or wear them for actually riding bicycles. C'est la vie! -The protection of a typical bicycle helmet is minimal but every bit helps I guess.

But a good pair of gloves makes a HUGE difference as hands are so easily injured/damaged too, even in a slow-speed fall onto concrete can do serious hand-damage. Just a cheap pair of utility gloves gives a ton of protection. A good pair of cycling-specific gloves with padding and armor can do wonders. Fingerless gloves help a lot as well. It can be seen by the photo above that most or at least much of the damage done to hand is to the knuckles, palms, and areas that fingerless gloves still cover. Fingerless gloves are like a bike helmet -better than nothing! Best to just wear them.

I've seen folks that have crashed a motorcycle at over 100MPH on a race track and their gloves saved their hands from serious road rash. The gloves were destroyed but their hands were fine inside them. Imagine what they can do at 5-20MPH? Seriously, I don't ride without gloves.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on October 20, 2012 at 3:59am

Sometimes helmet.

ALWAYS gloves!

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on October 20, 2012 at 4:16am

Same here. It depends on which bike I'm riding, where, and how fast. I almost never ride my faster road bike without a helmet. I will run errands on my slow city bike on back-streets without it at times. Probably not the smartest but I'm an idiot sometimes.

Never will I go without gloves -or good shoes for the same reasons. When I do wear sandals they are closed-toebox Keens. I've seen folks riding around in flip-flops, flooopy sandals (Jesus boots) and even bare-foot. OMG, not me!

But these are all choices for everyone to make for themselves I feel. Make the wrong choice and that self-same chooser will be the one paying the price, in the end, if they go down with less-than-optimal protection on whatever part of their body ends up dragging on the big meat-grinder they call the road.

Darwin.

Kevin C said: