Death of a BicycleOr: |
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The story: |
Thursday, February 17, 2005 Well, thanks to my dad, and my friends at KC&F, I got my old bike today. It came via FexEx Ground. And I was really looking forward to getting back on the bike. Unfortunatly, somebody forgot to pack the seat... (don't worry Larry, I won't tell anybody. :) Not that it matters, it's supposed to rain all weekend, and I hate riding in the rain. Well, it's not so much the riding in the rain part that I hate - it's the having to clean my bike afterwords that sucks. Yea, yea, I know - I'm lazy. I am what I am - what are you? Sunday, January 30, 2005 Hello all! I'm visiting the Phoenix area in order to enjoy this wonderful weather (compared to Indiana), and would like to share a cautionary tale of cycling that happened to me Sunday. Now, I know that some of who may read this have endured, or witnessed, events that, by comparason, make the following story seem rather trivial. However, I have a bit of time on my hands - due to the events that depicted below, and think there is a lesson to be learned. And, well, I just felt like writing it! So, without futher ado... Well, as I mentioned, I was enjoying this wonderful weather. And as a part of that enjoyment, I was riding my bike. It is...was... a relatively new bike - I got it in early August, I think. It is...I mean was... a Trek 5000. Now, while the Valley of the Sun is basically as flat as an Indiana corn field, it does experiance a very gradual 1000 foot change in elevation from the middle to the edges (over 10 miles). And, the low mountains that surround the Valley are great for cycling and can give you another one to two thousand feet of climbing fun. Overall, it's easy to choose a ride that ranges from flat, to rolling hills, to an outright mountainous climb. It may not be the Rockies, but it carries it's own in the scenary and workout departments. On this particular day, I had decided to take a moderately easy rolling route. For you Hoosiers out there, it would have equated to a ride around Bloomington (with far fewer trees, and a lot more cacti). The particular route that I chose circles around the back side of South Mountain Park in Phoenix. I wanted to ride up the "mountain", but I thought there might be to much traffic on a Sunday to deal with. However, during my ride, I ignored my gut instinct, changed my mind, and decided a good workout was in order. (Can you detect the subtle foreshadowing...:-) So, when I should have "turned left at Albuquerque", I went straight. While on my way to the park, I join up with a couple of local riders that just happen to be heading the same way. One of the guys is clearly more fit than I and has no problem spinning away up the hill. His buddy, who looks fit, but is taller than and has a few pounds even on me, takes a few minutes longer to reach the top. On the way down, however, the "slower" rider was a bit more fearless than either I or rider 1. He quickly disappears around the many sharp turns of the decent. I comment, "your buddy is a bit of komakaze, isn't he?". Rider 1 agreed. I had no idea, of course, of the soon to be ironic nature of my comment. Anyway, the 7 mile ride down the steep and dangerous portion of the park road was rather uneventful. If the road had been straight, it would have been an easy 45mph cruise. However, the many switchbacks kept the average speed down around 25. Near the base of the hill the road flattens and straightens out a bit (relatively speaking). I, tired of drafting, decide to strech my legs and pick up the pace a bit. I pass rider 1 and quickly catch Mr. Kamakaze, who had slowed to rest, and cruise on by. I thought they might grab onto my wheel to ride in my draft for awhile. Fortunatley for them, they didn't. About a half mile or so down the road, irony says hello... Up ahead, I see a car turn left across my path. There was enough room for him or her to make it safely thru the turn. I stop pedaling and take note of the turn signal on the second car, and that there is a third car behind it. The second car was just behind the first car, but hadn't started to turn. I thought he was waiting for me. He wasn't. The first car was all the way thru the intersection before car 2 starts to turn. I was going 25-30mph (slight downhill). The 50 feet I had to respond disappears rather quickly... I yell something to try and get the guy to stop... I think, "crap, there goes my bike"... There was a crashing sound... I take a 20 foot tumble thru the air - the sky and ground swirls around me... and THUD, I land in the road. I must have "slammed" on the brakes, as there is a 14 foot skid mark that, as a park ranger put it, "abruptly ends". :) Three seconds later... I lay there stunned, dazed and confused for a few moments. I take a few more moments to determine if any part of me was broken. My legs, while quite scrapped up and sore, seem straight. My arms are likewise sore, but my gloves had saved my hands from road rash. My helmet, as well as my head, are intact. My chest and tailbone feel, for the most part, ok. At some point - I don't remember exactly when, and possibly with assistance, I sort of crawl over to the side of the road to avoid becoming further road kill. My bike, on the other hand, is dead. And broken doesn't adequately describe it's condition. Destroyed - that's a little closer. The pictures you can see don't quite convey it's state of broken-ness either. Evidently, the stress limit of a carbon fiber frame is somewhere below a 20 mph head on collision. I say 20mph to account for some deceleration due to breaking...umm... I mean... braking... prior to impact. The driver of the first car thru the turn had heard me yell and witnessed the event in his rear view mirror. Some people had rushed over to me and told me to lay still until the ambulance got there. I didn't feel like lying down, so I sat up. I got a bit of a head rush, so I laid back down. But, I still felt stupid laying there, and sat back up after a minute or so. I couldn't quite stand, however. There was a passenger in the negligent car, and he kept asking if I was Ok. However, while he was very apologetic, I don't think he had my interests at heart. For ,he also kept asking, "How fast were you going?". And he wanted me to tell the police officer that the accident was not the drivers fault. I didn't say anything of the kind. I wanted to take the remains of my bike and...well... never mind. After a while, some paramedics, and a fire truck, arrive. They take my vitals and check out my wounds. They also ask if I want to go to the hospital. I say no. I still could barely stand on my own. Never-the-less, I sign off that I will not go to the hospital. They offer to call an "ERV", or something like that, to give me a ride home. I had ridden about ten miles to the park and was obviously not going to ride or walk back. However, I was able to call my sister and she came to pick me up. Amazingly, my cell phone, which was in a jersey pocket during my tumble, survived unscathed. During this time a police officer had been talking to the various participants of the little circus that had formed. After the paramedics left, he gave me and the negligent driver each an "Accident Information Exchange Form". He said something about this being a "civil matter". I don't know what he means, but I say ok and thank him for his time. The negligent driver was very apologetic and also wanted to know if I was Ok. I think he was sincere in his concern. I accept his apoligies, but say we'll be in contact with each other in the next day or so to deal with insurance issues. Or so I thought. But that's another story. One that's still in progress. The paramedics hadn't so much as cleaned my wounds, so a park ranger that waited with me while I waited on my sister offered to bandage them up. He said he needed to clean out his bag, and besides, he didn't want me getting blood in my sister's car. I thought he was kidding, but it actually sounded like a good idea. Anyway, a summary of the damage:
The car:
My right hand:
My feet:
My legs: Overall, I was pretty damn lucky.
My Bike, on the other hand: I'm gonna be sore tomorrow. But I don't really care about that, I'm just gonna miss my bike. I hope that guy has a cooperative insurance company... On Monday, during a call to the police officer that had responded to the 911 call, I discovered that no moving violation or citation was issued to the negligent driver, because, "the road is on private property" and "the total property damage was under $5000". I think, "What the ????". The "private property" is a city owned park?? I politely express my confusion to the officer. He says he understands, but, reiterates that a city owned park is considered private property. That seems rather contradictory to me. Whatever... Oh, and he - the negligent driver, doesn't have insurance. And he hasn't returned my calls in over a week.
Grrrrrr.........
Oh yea - what was the lesson of all this??
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