Well today didn’t go as planned.
I was finally able to head out on my daily bike ride at about 4pm. I was hoping for ma nice 17 mile ride like I do on Sundays. Everything was going well, there wasn’t much traffic on the road (the Superbowl was going to start shortly afterall), and I was moving along my normal path. I was out in front of Costco and I saw cars in the left turn lane in front of me. One car started to turn and I was like, well ok, but then the car right behind it also decided to follow that car right on its tail.
I yelled and started to hit my brakes, but it was no good. I hit the car on its front quarter panel area (basically I hit the front passenger tire). I had started to turn in the same direction the car was going and I coninuted to slow down, but still hit it pretty hard.
I was laying on the ground in the entrance to Costco (the gasoline end of things) and a number of people stopped to see if I was ok, and the person who hit me stopped too. My guess is that if she hadn’t with the number of people that were there soemone would have gone after her. People were asking me if I needed them to call 911, or if I needed water or anything. At first I just said I wanted to get out of the road. I didn’t want to get hit by someone else for some reason. One of my feet was still hooked to my pedal so I had to get it out first, and then I got off the road and onto the sidewalk.
Then I evaluated myself. My left hand, hip, and back hurt a little. I clearly had hit all those areas, but thankfully nothing seemed too bad. I had full movement of my wrist with no pain, I could move my arm with no issues, and my bike clothing all seemed to be in one piece with no tears.
During this my Garmin watch had alerted “B” that an incident had occurred and she tried calling me. One of the nice people that was there at first said, “Your phone is ringing.” I missed the call, but then called her right back and told her I had been in a car/bike accident and she needed to get me in the 4Runner, but after she had emptied it. (She was on her way home with “A” from doing 4 hours of cookie selling). She got worried, and I tried to convey that I was fine (at least I thought so).
I told the people there I didn’t need 911 called, and then the witnesses started heading out. The lady that hit me had come over and we started talking some. She said, she didn’t see me (I am not sure how in my BIRGHT yellow/rainbow outfit and helmet, but oh well). I said she needed to get her insurance info and that I was going to call the police to fill an incident report.
My bike was not in good shape, and I was pretty annoyed about that during this time. I will show pictures at the end.
I called the police and while talking to them they said, oh wait, there is already someone headed your way. Someone had already reported it. At that exact moment I head an approaching firetruck. So, we hung up, and then the firetruck got there, and then 1 police car, then 2 more. So, 3 police cars and a firetruck. (I was waiting for the 8×10 color glossy pictures with the circle and arrows to be taken). The fire people checked me out and asked if I wanted an ambulance, which I declined. They said I seemed fine. The police took reports from the lady in the car and myself.
A couple of the police hung around until “B” got there to take me home. I got the incident report and when I got home I cleaned myself up and then called the ladies insurance company (Progressive). I talked to someone that gave an a claim number and told me a claim’s adjuster would contact me tomorrow about my bicycle. So, now I have to wait until tomorrow to see what happens next.
Here are some pictures of the bike and my back because that was the worst looking of my injuries:
I am not too bad, but I am unsure about my bike. There is damage to the handlebars and shifters for sure, and you can’t see it in the pictures but the front tire is shifted a lot, and I am not sure if it is round. I haven’t tried adjusting it yet to see if it spins, but right now it is jammed against the inside of the fork so much that it won’t spin at all. I am going to have to have it inspected by professionals for sure. I just hope the insurance company doesn’t give me too much hassle to get it done and have them pay for it. I am so not looking forward to that. And then I am not looking forward to getting it all fix or replaced. I have no idea what it will cost or the timeframe of getting it done.
One of my concerns is that fact that the frame and fork are carbon fiber. It means the bike is is strong and lite, but it also means if it breaks that is it and there is no going back. If it is broken I am not convinced the insurance company will give me anything near what I would need to truly replace it. My rims are also not cheap to replace, and I am not sure what condition the front one is in either. My pedals took a bit of a beating on one side as did the tire “clamp” as you can see in one of the pictures above. It is mostly cosmetic, but still.
And to top it all off it means I don’t have a bike to ride for the time being. That irritates me as well. I have a road bike at my cabin and I will strongly think about brining the bike carrier up the next time we head up so I can bring it down, but still, I am irritated about it.
I also apparently really stressed out my oldest. She was in the car with my wife when the incident happened, and when I had texted that there were 3 police cars and a firetruck she thought spomething really bad had happened. She’s a great kid, and I feel bad that I made her so worried when I was basically fine. My youngest had no idea what had happened until later.
I seem to be fine. That is a blessing. It could have been SO much worse. I was thankfully paying attention and I saw it coming so I was able to prepare for it and lessen the overall damage to me. I am sore and probably will be for a few days, but if that is all then I am thankful.