How many times have you been taken out?

hoolio

Twice.
First time was last year while on a combined pedestrian and cycle path a car cut across without looking and took me out. I had total right of way! They were interviewed under caution etc and I sued for compensation. Injuries were miraculously light with just gravel rash and a lot of bruising (bike had a bent frame).
Second time was this morning. Car got about halfway into overtaking me and then pulled back in, hitting me and running me off the road. I was doing about 25mph at the time. They drove off while I was unconscious. Witness saw it all and called the police and an ambulance. Unfortunately he didn't get the car reg. Aside from bruising, gravel rash, and concussion I'm ok. I did get strapped to a spinal board though - they're pretty uncomfortable! And my crash helmet now splits into two. :shock:
The witness was quite funny - copper asked what had happened, witness points at me on the ground "He did everything absolutely right, and the other guy just cut him up, hit him, and drove off. I can't fkg believe it!!"
Succinct.

Agent57

Once.

It was about 24 years ago, when I was 16 or so. I passed a junction; I was on the main road, and a car pulled out from the side road as I rode past. I don't really remember it, but apparently a woman screamed as I got tossed into the air.

I wasn't hurt, and the bike only had a buckled wheel which the bloke's son replaced for me. The driver was a 72-year-old Polish guy who had the same birthday as me.

DVV

Once:

Bombing down a hill, trying to get home, all of a sudden:

BANG!

I'm lying on my back on the road, feet pointing in the direction i'd just come from. I don't know what happened, but I must have flown over my bars. Turned out someone had opened their car door on me.

Must have looked quite dramatic. I told him to be more careful next time and rode home...

I don't ride so close to parked cars now.

snooks

I'm not going to answer, it sounds too much like temping fate, are you trying to trap us :shock:

You'll be asking when the last time we had a P...oh no don't go there either

hoolio

I'm not trying to tempt fate for you, just a bit peed off that I got hit again!

andrewlwood

Once. A van came out of a side road along the riverbank in Putney, clipped my wheel and sent me veering onto the slipway, which was covered in mud and slime. I came off and remember thinking 'must not land on knees or elbows', so broke the fall with my chin and then forehead instead - doofus.
My Bell helmet with a hard shell was cracked in two, and my mum never had to ask me to wear one again.
I split my chin open, but thought I would grin and bear it. It was the second day of my first job, and as I struggled into the office, covered in river sh!t and bleeding heavily, my new CEO just walked past and said 'Morning young man'.
Had 10 stitches, but my chin was full of crap and got majorly infected. By the next day, my neck had disappeared and every time I talked my chin 'leaked'. Grim. At least I've got a scar for the ladies now...
Other time I took myself out - 13 years old and trying to break a 20-mile speed limit on my racer. Head down, staring straight at the dynamo-driven speedo on my crappy bike. Looked up just in time to see the back of a parked jag about 4 feet away - I go over the top, and straight down his windscreen. The worst injury I had was four really neat gouges out of my shins from the rat-trap pedals...

Headhuunter

It's happened to me a couple of times. So far nothing too serious. Usually involves a car suddenly throwing a right/left or U turn in front of me.

The last time I remember I was buzzing along the road from Deptford to Greenwich alongside a queue of traffic when some idiot decides he has had enough of queuing and decides to chuck a u without looking to see if anything's coming up behind him. Luckily I wasn't going that fast and I managed to swerve and only clipped his wing mirror with my bars.

Also happened as I descended a hill in New Cross again alongside queuing traffic. Without indicating some nonce decided to turn right out of the traffic. I was on the MTB and the brakes took a good testing and I managed to stop - the driver claimed he had been indicating, but he most certainly hadn't.

Oh an actually, a couple of months ago, some loon cut across in front of me from a road on the right as I zoomed along a completely clear main road through Dulwich, he was trying to cut across from a road on my right to one slightly out of line leading off from my left. I managed to slam the brakes on in time swearing loudly and screaming at the damn fool.

always_tyred

Three.

Once by a coach passing too close at high speed.

Doored once.

Deliberately hit and run once.

(four if you count being taken out buy a giant pine cone when I was 10 and making an appointment with gravel - it leapt out of the trees and secreted itself under my wheel, I swear)

MattFT

once - car didn't see the cycle lane along Tavistock Square and pulled out. I went over the bonnet, but no major damage to me or machine. New bonnet and wing for the BMW though...

Porgy

Loads!!

a lorry on the A38 in about 1980 - didn;t see me and knocked off the road down into a ditch. Cuts and bruises only and apologies from the driver.

a small child running across the road between two parked cars sent me flying across the road. The small child was OK. I suffered quite a bit of lost skin on arms and legs. Lucky for the kid that he got hit by a bike not a car - his mum fell overself to apologise to me as I was just a kid at the time too - though about 8 years older than the one I hit.

a van cutting me up to turn left when I was first living in London - the bloke was all caring until he asked me how I was and I said somehting like OK till you fuc.king ran me over. He got back straight back in his van and drove off - c*nt!! He obviously wanted me to be eternally grateful to him for stopping!

a merc deliberately took me out near victoria, well documented elsewhere on these boards. Concussion, two weeks off work, bike written off - legal action, counter sued, gave up.

two seperate black cabs in paddington rode over my back wheel while i was about to move off at a green light.

a bus in north london tried to run me over while i was walking across a zebra crossing with my bike, managed to jump out of the way but he just cuaght my back wheel and f**ked it.

a car door in bethnal green - couldn't walk properly for a month - it was my birthday - the guy stood over me while i was writihing in agony and told me i was lucky i hadn't damaged his door.

a white van handbrake turned his van to flip the back of his van into me and sent me flying in the middle of three lanes of busy traffic. Luckily i was OK.

car pulled out suddenly in front of me in lewisham in wet weather - i applied brakes but kept going - the wheels had stopped but i'd completely lost friction on the road. decided to fall off buike rather tan hit car and lost quite a bit of skin. Shouted at driver - who replied - nothing to do with me mate - I was nowehre near you! :evil:

simonaspinall

Twice

Once with a landrover in a bus lane and just broke harshly and I thought "why's this guy in a bus lane and stopp...!" - Fortunately was very uninjured, though my shed of a mountain bike was bent (shame!).

Second time was in a cycle lane dividing two lanes; going along a long line of stationary parked cars and a mondeo just pulled out at 100mph from a standstill as I was going past and took me out...so random and unlucky- wrote off my lovely tri-cross. I woke up in an ambulance looking like I did ten rounds with Tyson to see a very good-looking paramedic. He admitted liability and I got a gorgeous Casati with the compensation - Proper Italian Exotica!

So there's a lesson...don't ever take even stationary traffic for granted as random drivers will just randomly pull out! (without signalling obviously).

cee

twice...

once when i was a kid, on my paper-round. similar to a couple of the above stories...i was on the main road, a driver pulled out of a side road and straight into me. she didn't see me (the sun was right in her eyes)...she payed for the bike to be fixed.

a year and half or so ago...riding to work down the North Bridge in edinburgh....two lane road...i am in the outer as the inner is a bus lane and was chokablock...a small van in the bus lane decided to do a u-turn right into me...i hit his drivers side front wing and launched across the bonnet.....i picked myself and bike up and tried to get off the road....he continued his turn and disappeared in the other direction.

taken myself out loads of times riding trails and dh, but they don't count.

il_principe

Once. Hit and Run. Myopic cabbie. Hospital visit - top lip stitched back together again.

MonkeyMonster

Oxford Street going East overtaking a bus and an (illegal) car on the road ahead instead of turning right through into a clear side road (no opposing traffic either) just slams on brakes.

I was going >15mph and almost nipped around back of car clean but clipped right bar on rear window and flung myself through air onto the road right in front of the bus that was still tootling along.

It braked before hitting me and the car drove off very quickly. Bar bruises to flesh and bone was fine luckily.

lost_in_thought

Once by a bus in Oxford, once by a WVM in London.

The first one was a hit-and-try-to-run-but-fail, the second one got away.

Concussion and some broken bones each time.

_Brun_

Something tells me I'd be better off sitting on this, but other than a couple of clipless moments and once trying to drunkenly hop up the kerb outside the house, I'm accident free.

Certainly had a few occasions that could very easily have ended up worse*, and if I put that down to luck rather than judgement it does suggest that it's a case of when rather than if.

Will be v careful on the way home tonight.


*the most scared I've been was when a person on a bike about two feet from the kerb suddenly decided to turn right as I was overtaking them. Massive swerve onto the opposite side of the road which was thankfully traffic free, if not I'd have had no escape.

suzyb

Once as well.

Like DVV I was bombing down a hill, next thing I know I'm waking up on the road with someone directing a bus around where I'm lying

No one actually saw what I hit, just me flying over the handlebars but it must have been either a traffic island or badly filled in roadworks.

benno68

Only taken out once (touching wood saying this), cycling to school in Bristol (probably 1981 ish) a car turned right and went straight into me. I remember going through the air with a strange sense of calm which seemed to last an age - then I landed

Went to hospital but just cuts and bruises, the guy was very pleasant initially and said he'd pay for repairs - eventually needed a solicitors letter to prompt him into paying - TW@T!!!

I rode into the side of a moving car when I was 9 (on a Peugeot road bike), with a skillful piece of bike handling (even though I say it myself) I managed to stay on the bike and carried on cycling - some would call it a hit and run :oops: .

No injuries, new pair of forks for the bike, didn't stop to inspect the car.

@Porgy - have you got a cycling jersey with a target on your back - jeepers!!!

jamesco

Riding my BMX to the shops as a youngster (probably about 8) I came round a corner at a T-junction and straight into the path of a car that was on the main road. He braked, but unfortunately still struck me and my bike; the bike and I went over his bonnet, through the windscreen, and - when the car finally stopped - back out where the windscreen used to be and down to the road.

The bike had a 90-degree bend, I didn't have a scratch. The poor driver lost his license, which was a really unfair as the accident was my fault.

clanton

This thread makes for worrying and depressing reading! Porgy you're either the luckiest cyclist alive or the unluckiest, can't decide which!

I've had two altercations with vehicles, both this year. Once in Argentina, taken out by a pickup overtaking and cutting in too soon, clipped the front pannier and sent me over the railing, no injuries at all!

Second was at leats partly my fault, going downhill too fast on a narrow lane, car coming up took the corner very wide and I had no room to get around her, had to steer into the bank to avoid the car. Cuts and scarpes, concussion, damaged cocyx that took 6-7 weeks to stop hurting and a fractured cheekbone.

They say it comes in threes.......

fossyant

Three times.

Once by car turning right out of side road - stayed upright, bent frame. BC won the case.

Once by a van, left turned on me as I was doing 25 mph - straight through wing mirror, over bonnet, landed in between scaffolding about 20 feet away.....bike hit and written off. One broken wrist. Van legged it

Last Christmas - hit side on whilst on roundabout - shoulder and nerve damage - legal case still going on, but now finished physio to sort it.

tebbit

I was once the villian of the piece, in 1989 I was in a collision with a cyclist at the Fordton Roundabout on the A49 in Warrington, the collision was my fault, I had just been cut up by another driver, I had a low speed collision with the cyclist. The driver who cut me, stopped and acted as a witness, gave his details to the cyclist, and said something about bloody boyracers and drove off. Me being a club cyclist at the time, fixed the guys bike (a Carlton Sport I think), gave him my details including insurance, offered him a lift with bike to casulty or wherever he was going, and offered to pay him a couple of shifts if he had to take time off work because of me and didn't want to claim, as it was only minor.

Three weeks later get back off holiday, the Police phone they have been trying to get in touch for the last week, did I drive a red Citroen that was involved in a collision, apparently I had driven away from the scene of the accident leaving said bloke there, the cyclist had got my registration number off a passing witness. Could the road traffic officers come to see me? An hour later a police traffic car is at my parents, and I am being interviewed, apparently I was a reckless boy racer who drove away from the scene of an accident.

They wanted to have a look at my "boy racer's" car which had hit this poor man at speed, they were most bemused to find a white and red Citroen 2CV Dolly, with a minor dent in it. With reference to the failing to stop, they were also most amused to find that I had the man's name, address and phone number, also that I had spoken to him to see what he wanted to do.

I didn't get prosecuted, but guess who did? The cyclist and the witness.

I to my eternal shame have been guilty of knocking a bloke off his bike, who could have made an honest insurance claim that I wouldn't have denied or contested because it was my fault, but instead decided to try and carry out an insurance fraud at my expense. Definitely not pre-emptive justice, but sods like that make all our lives harder.

I do apologise to the forum for being a driver who collided with a cyclist and it was my fault, I should have concentrated on the road and not some aggressive tosser who had just cut me up.

cjcp

Hmmm.

1. Direct hit side on by a car coming on to a aroundabout in Newport in 1996.
2. A ped on Bishopsgate/Gracechurch St
3. A coach at Stockwell.

Porgy

clanton wrote:

This thread makes for worrying and depressing reading! Porgy you're either the luckiest cyclist alive or the unluckiest, can't decide which!
.

The way I see it is lucky 8)

Gazzaputt

4 Times.

Paperboy pulled into the road from a driveway straight into my path. Broken ribs, bad cuts to hand and legs.

Last year hit and run. Hit from behind so knew about it. Hospitalised to many injuries to list.

Idiot throws a left out of a queue of traffic into the path of of me in the cycle lane. Chased him for a mile but caught him.

And of course today! Stupid bloody bint crossing without looking. Nothing serious scratches and bruises.

verloren

Once so far - as I teen I was returning home from a ride, no more than 100 feet from my front door. I sat up, riding briefly no hands (which I've probably only done 5 times in my entire life) to stretch my back, and a black cat ran into my path. At the last minute he saw me, and (I swear) lowered his shoulder and tucked his head in to more effectively take out my front wheel. He scarpered, I limped home, bike OK.

petefellows

Minding my own business in Staffordshire, Pottal Pool Lane. Perfectly straight rode probably riding at around 20mph, Black BMW's wing mirror clips my arse then smacks my handle bars, How I stayed on I don't know, by the time I'd stopped wobbling he was too far away for me to make out his reg... Bruised hand & sore throat from shouting after him. Lucky, not my day to get hurt I guess.

Constantly looking for a black beamer with a smashed passenger wing mirror.

The only consolation is that it will cost him a bit for the repair....

:x

always_tyred

I've been taken out 8 times.

All of them at traffic lights. :shock:

Kieran_Burns

Always Tyred wrote:

I've been taken out 8 times.

All of them at traffic lights. :shock:

were you selling t-shirts?

roger_merriman

none and long may it be so, helped by the fact for most of my life it's been MTB and mud etc than road.

hambones

None for me and would expect that to continue. I find it quite hard to picture some of the offs people describe unless they have zero road sense or concentration...