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 David P. on October 18, 2012 at 12:26pm

I'm sorry about your crash! Maybe it was possible to avoid it, maybe not. I suppose it depends on how early you notice the girl on her bicycle. I always assume that children may go in any direction at any time with no warning, and give them a wide, wide berth or slow way down. Did they stop when you crashed, or ride on?

David

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on October 18, 2012 at 12:35pm

Ouch!  Those pictures look worse than the ones of your face you posted earlier.  

I'd contact one of the cycling lawyers.

Did you get any contact information?   Did someone contact the B-cycle people with regards to personal injury and damage caused by someone using their property?  I think they do have liability insurance regarding this type of thing. 

You should see a doctor if you have not already, that pinkie finger looks like it needs stitches badly and looks to me like a real source of infection if it is not closed up properly. Iodine or no, that hand looks really bad.  Those scabs should not be that dark IMHO.  Take care of that hand.  Infections are nothing to scoff at and it is easy to get your hands infected even if you are trying not to use it. 

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on October 18, 2012 at 2:07pm

I was riding the LFP every day, and the kids on bikes were among the scariest.  A couple of times, I just about stopped when I saw them ahead of me weaving in and out.  They think it is fun, and often their parents don't realize the problem until there is a near collision, or, unfortunately in your case, an actual collision.  Short of riding veerrryyy slowly along the LFP whenever there are others around, I don't know what you could have done.

Permalink Reply by Chuck a Muck on October 18, 2012 at 2:10pm

One of these days I will get around to hosting a How to Fall clinic...

Slamming on your front brakes would have work if you know the Hurdle technique.

Basicly you slam on the front brake. Keep both hands on the handlebar. Stay in an upright position and you will be able to hop or hurdle the bars, release the bar and land on your feet. I usually push the bike back before I release the handlebars to make sure the bike does not hit me in the back.

Also I do not clip in so I do not know if this works if you do... 

 

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on October 18, 2012 at 2:32pm

Ouch!  I'm sorry about your crash.  I'm not sure if this was avoidable.  I think the only way you could have avoided it might have been seeing her erratic riding soon enough to stop and pull off to the side of the path until she passed.

If you haven't already been to an urgent care facility or ER about that hand, go ASAP.  That looks like it could turn into a bad infection as soon as tomorrow afternoon, if not earlier.  And make sure they give you an antibiotic prescription.  I've learned the hard way about how speedy and nasty an infection can be after getting road rash, especially if it's deep or you get any grease or chunks of pavement in the wounds.

Permalink Reply by E A on October 18, 2012 at 5:22pm

Youch! Please seek medical attention... just in case. +1 on contacting a lawyer.

Permalink Reply by Craig S. on October 19, 2012 at 3:32am

Ouch.  That is the worst spot for that damnable bike share operation in the city.  I cringe whenever I see anyone getting bikes out of it.  For that matter, I cringe whenever I see rental bikes on the lake front.

Permalink Reply by Bikefreeek on October 19, 2012 at 3:34am

How's the girl? Was she injured?

Permalink Reply by millenial removing Bernie tattoo on October 19, 2012 at 6:19am

There is stupidity you can predict and I do all the time while riding on the paths and on the streets, but nothing will save you from the random stupidity of a tweener left-hooking you on a bicycle.  Around real little kidds I slow down and give them a wide berth, but a tweener is not a little girl and should know better.

 

Sorry 'bout the accident.

Permalink Reply by Robot Gabe on October 19, 2012 at 6:20am

This is why I avoid LFP, shared bike lanes, and pretty much any road where you're told to ride your bike. Way too many people who have no idea what they're doing. I'll stick with my side roads where I'm all by myself, can ride at my own pace and not have to swerve around slow riders and be passed every two seconds by more experience riders.

I'm sorry to hear about your crash. I hope this doesn't keep you from riding.

Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on October 19, 2012 at 6:42am

Again, I am very sorry about this crash, but I also think this is a productive exercise. I subscribe to the "one more thing" theory of accident avoidance; i.e. there is always one more thing I could have done to avoid the accident. I am not suggesting that you or anyone else is/was at fault in connection with any particular crash, or that someone else didn't violate a statute or that they didn't behave in some unpredictable or boneheaded way. But I am suggesting that we are each our last best shot at avoiding a crash. I've been doored from the driver's side of a parked car once-in 1986. I have never been doored from the driver's side again. Just luck? Maybe. But I also like to think that what I look for and how far in front of me I scan, has something to do with it as well. When in doubt, there's no shame in slowing down. I am the one ultimately at risk for someone else's boneheaded behavior. After the fact, I consider it cold comfort to have been "in the right."

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on October 19, 2012 at 6:54am

+1^ 

I think Serge's point was to think about what he might have done to try to avoid such a thing in the future--as you have done.

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