A near miss............
brucey72
Posts: 1,086
Following my last knee replacement in March I decided to go on only my second outdoor ride and it so nearly turned out to be my last ever ride.
Cycling up a very quiet road single lane road (Berwick Hill for anyone in the Newcastle area) I was passed closely and at speed by a silver Honda (big bore exhaust, lowered suspension etc) and waved an arm at them to gesture I wasnt happy. 5 minutes later I could hear a car coming towards me which I knew from the noise it was making was travelling very quickly. The silver Honda I had seen previously then came round the bend into view and to my horror I saw it clip the grass bank and lose control. The car was now snaking straight towards me going from one side of the road to the other and everything seemed to go into slow motion and not knowing which way they were going to go I turned my bike into a ditch sending me over my bars just as the car left the road right in front of me missing me by about 2metres at most.
The car ended in the same ditch as me with all its airbags blown and front smashed in and i watched its four occupants clamber out. They were all in their teens and looked a bit shook up but when I said "what the hell were you doing, you nearly killed me" one of the lads got really aggressive so being on my own thought it best to head off. When I calmed down (my HR monitor was showing a HR of 206 when the highest I have ever achieved on a ramp test is 194) I decided to report the incident to the police who have been excellent. They took a statement and I have just had a phone call from the traffic officer to say that the driver had only passed his test 3 months ago and they will be taking every step to have his licence revoked.
I am still in a bit of shock as I keep thinking if I had set off on my ride just 2 seconds later I would almost certainly have been killed. My knee has also swollen up badly so its off to hospital tomorrow to make sure I havent damaged my new knee joint but mostly I just feel lucky to still be here.
Cycling up a very quiet road single lane road (Berwick Hill for anyone in the Newcastle area) I was passed closely and at speed by a silver Honda (big bore exhaust, lowered suspension etc) and waved an arm at them to gesture I wasnt happy. 5 minutes later I could hear a car coming towards me which I knew from the noise it was making was travelling very quickly. The silver Honda I had seen previously then came round the bend into view and to my horror I saw it clip the grass bank and lose control. The car was now snaking straight towards me going from one side of the road to the other and everything seemed to go into slow motion and not knowing which way they were going to go I turned my bike into a ditch sending me over my bars just as the car left the road right in front of me missing me by about 2metres at most.
The car ended in the same ditch as me with all its airbags blown and front smashed in and i watched its four occupants clamber out. They were all in their teens and looked a bit shook up but when I said "what the hell were you doing, you nearly killed me" one of the lads got really aggressive so being on my own thought it best to head off. When I calmed down (my HR monitor was showing a HR of 206 when the highest I have ever achieved on a ramp test is 194) I decided to report the incident to the police who have been excellent. They took a statement and I have just had a phone call from the traffic officer to say that the driver had only passed his test 3 months ago and they will be taking every step to have his licence revoked.
I am still in a bit of shock as I keep thinking if I had set off on my ride just 2 seconds later I would almost certainly have been killed. My knee has also swollen up badly so its off to hospital tomorrow to make sure I havent damaged my new knee joint but mostly I just feel lucky to still be here.
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Glad to hear you're OK! But by the sound of it you have the beginnings of an honest to goodness damages claim there.
Specialized Roubaix SL3 Expert 2012, Cannondale CAAD5,
Marin Mount Vision (1997), Edinburgh Country tourer, 3 cats!
Damn glad you got out of that as intact as you are. Good luck with the knee - I really hope it's ok.
And they wonder why young males have so many accidents. I hope they throw the book at the little tyke.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed herein are worth exactly what you paid for them.
That is more accurately called a near hit. For it to be a near miss he would have hit you.
Credit:- George Carlin and plane "near-misses". Check it out for a laugh!
a near miss wouldn't have hit him....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_miss_(safety)
http://app.strava.com/athletes/30000
Sorry but just because a phrase is used, it doesn't make it accurate.
Did the car miss him? Yes. In which case it was a miss, not a near miss.
Yet another case of Americans destroying our language.
For a better/funnier explantion, watch this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFW6NHbWX0E
If you've had a near miss then you've avoided some kind of unwanted event.
You're not being pedantic, just confused.
In any event it sounds like a horrifying situation and I'm glad we're not hearing about this via a newspaper.
Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved
No. A miss is a miss.
Nearly winning the lottery is not the same as winning the lottery.
Nearly missing something is not the same thing as misssing something.
Anyway I was only trying to inject a wee bit of George Carlin humour into an otherwise serious event. Signing out...........
Get back on the bike ASAP, if you dont you'll lose confidence.
Good luck.
It does make you think that if your number's up, your number's up!
With the recent high winds, you hear of people getting hit by a falling tree and you
think that if they had been driving a bit faster/slower it would've missed.
Hope it doesn't put you off going out but at least you know your reactions are spot on!
Best take the bib shorts as well.
Hope all is well after that lot,could have been alot worse.
& as you no doubt kacked in your pants, demand they hand wash those while in custody.
Hope the knee is fine and glad you are safe.
I remember a Cavalier blowing its front tyre out on the 2 lane Queensferry Bridge as we cycled towards it. Somehow it did a 180 degree spin without hitting the sides of the bridge or us. We didn't even stop we were in shock/
But if everyone drove like they were on their test there would be very few crashes
"As I said last time, it won't happen again."