'Not IF i get knocked off but WHEN'

awavey

Ive actually been closer to having my head knocked off by a bus wing mirror as a pedestrian walking along a not necessarily narrow pavement, but the guy was just too close to the kerb and had his mirrors super extended

but Ive certainly felt the brush of a bus on the arm or shoulder, more than once as theyve overtaken too close on my bike which isnt a good feeling, & then you get that draft and get rattled around and think I dont want to end underneath your rear wheels. :shock:

oddly closest Ive been to being knocked off, ignoring the time whitevan man drove directly at me because he wanted to intimidate me because he had a van and I was just a girl on a bike :x was actually an ambulance, so I guess theyd have stopped

but I was just cycling along a perfectly straight road could hear the road noise fine, and this ambulance who I obviously hadnt clocked as anything different to A.N.Other vehicle behind me suddenly let rip on the siren just as they got up behind my right shoulder,

I must have leapt about a foot in the air in surprise,completely lost control & contact with pedals and fortunately fell in not so graceful heap towards the pavement, and not the other way as Id have been getting a lift of them to the hospital if I had. and I still dont get why they did as the road was clear enough to pass safely, I wasnt in there way, there werent cars bumbling along oblivous to them, it seemed like it was deliberately to make me jump.

though as theyll be the ones collecting the bits WHEN it happens, Ill give them the benefit of the doubt on it

GBR1

So it happened yesterday. not to me but my friend.. I don't know the full details yet, just spoke to his wife last night as he was in surgery!! He will be fine but was having surgery to repair what I think is damaged ligaments in his knee, his wife was pretty shaken up and didn't find out more.

Plenty of road rash and app the doc said that if the helmet didn't save his life it certainly saved a severe head injury!!

He was, as always lit up like a Christmas tree, high vis jacket, flashing lights etc etc etc, happened around 8.30am and the woman app didn't even see him!!!

thescouselander

GBR1 wrote:

So it happened yesterday. not to me but my friend.. I don't know the full details yet, just spoke to his wife last night as he was in surgery!! He will be fine but was having surgery to repair what I think is damaged ligaments in his knee, his wife was pretty shaken up and didn't find out more.

Plenty of road rash and app the doc said that if the helmet didn't save his life it certainly saved a severe head injury!!

He was, as always lit up like a Christmas tree, high vis jacket, flashing lights etc etc etc, happened around 8.30am and the woman app didn't even see him!!!

Here we go- what a ridiculous comment. How could the doctor know such a thing? Was he there, what did he know of the mechanics of the crash, is he an expert in this area. I think not. Doctors should stick to making people better rather than scaring people with comments that aren't qualified to make.

I hope your friend makes a quick recovery.

Tom Dean

thescouselander wrote:

is he an expert in this area. I think not.

The area of injuries caused in road accidents? :roll:

dynamicbrick

Waaay back in the dim distant past I was a motorcyclist. You learn fast on motorbikes, or you get hurt. The basic premise is to assume nobody has seen you and act accordingly - basic defensive road skills. I'm always slightly perplexed by the helmet cam warriors on youtube who fail to grasp this fairly simple concept or seem to wilfully put themselves in a position where something bad could happen.

About 20 years ago in Japan there was a study on motorbike headlights (at the time bike headlights-on was compulsory in Japan). They put car drivers in a simulated environment of pulling out of a T-Junction with a variety of vehicles approaching. It didn't matter whether the motorbike had lights on, lights off, flashing lights, or painted any number of silly schemes - the results were entirely inconsistent. They came to the conclusion that, basically, if the brain decides that there isn't going to be a bike in that spot, it simply won't be seen. Similar to that video of people having a pillow fight where a man in a gorilla suit walks across shot; not expected, simply not seen.

I've been lucky so far, but you make your own luck to a certain extent; one evening a few months ago I had some tri nutter barrel past me at 35mph+ in full TT elbows-in tuck, along Brighton seafront road (with side junctions every 100 yds). Lights or not, that's an odd and small profile for a car driver to spot, moving very quickly, and without immediate access to brakes.

thescouselander

Tom Dean wrote:

thescouselander wrote:

is he an expert in this area. I think not.

The area of injuries caused in road accidents? :roll:

No, in the area of predicting the survivability of a crash. The doctor might know about the sorts of injuries that can be sustained in a crash and how to treat those injuries but predicting the survivability of a crash is something else altogether - this is a very specialist area. I wouldn't ask an a&e doctor to do this any more than I would ask my gp to perform brain surgery.

inkz

I like the guy that rushed past me this morning then needed to turn left where I was so had to sit in the middle of the road and wait for me to pass on the inside!

pippi_langsamer-2

If I ever get my arse in gear to start commuting, I'm seriously considering wearing my GoPro just in case a situation arises where hard video evidence would come in very handy...

I've also seen quite a few instances where riders who've been cut-up/ buzzed have taken pictures with their smartphones of the offending trade vehicle/ reg etc. Many of these companies have Twitter accounts, and a few Tweets/ re-Tweets could have a positive effect on drivers being reprimanded by their bosses/ logistics managers etc.

Sad to even have to talk about these things, but....

GBR1

thescouselander wrote:

Here we go- what a ridiculous comment. How could the doctor know such a thing? Was he there, what did he know of the mechanics of the crash, is he an expert in this area. I think not. Doctors should stick to making people better rather than scaring people with comments that aren't qualified to make.

I hope your friend makes a quick recovery.

So been in and seen my friend....

Basically he was doing about 20mph when a woman (French and new in town) pulled up to a junction and looked the wrong way and pulled out just at the wrong time.. She has said it was her fault etc etc..

So on impact the bike (probably) broke the head lamp which my friends leg then smashed into as he was going into the car tearing a pretty big chunk out of his leg.

It was the first responder that made the comment about the helmet at the scene, helmet has a huge dent where the foams compressed. He will be fine, had surgery last night to stick his leg back together and has more tomorrow as they needed to give it some time between ops..

AlunP

Pippi Langsamer wrote:

If I ever get my ars* in gear to start commuting, I'm seriously considering wearing my GoPro just in case a situation arises where hard video evidence would come in very handy...

I've also seen quite a few instances where riders who've been cut-up/ buzzed have taken pictures with their smartphones of the offending trade vehicle/ reg etc. Many of these companies have Twitter accounts, and a few Tweets/ re-Tweets could have a positive effect on drivers being reprimanded by their bosses/ logistics managers etc.

This sort of thing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNstUDa19WA

secretsqizz

dynamicbrick wrote:

I've been lucky so far, but you make your own luck to a certain extent; one evening a few months ago I had some tri nutter barrel past me at 35mph+ in full TT elbows-in tuck, along Brighton seafront road (with side junctions every 100 yds). Lights or not, that's an odd and small profile for a car driver to spot, moving very quickly, and without immediate access to brakes.

I knows that guy
Trev the Rev in full flow