Just over a month after being knocked off I have received some cheques as part of the compensation for material loss. This is down to the very effective solicitors that have been appointed by the British Cycling Ride Membership. Its not all sorted yet but progressing well and more quickly than I expected. I have also had an assessment for the personal injury element. I am not chasing this that vigorously - I have been lucky and not badly injured. I'll definitely let the solicitors argue that one
For the first time in over 30000 miles and nearly 7 years I have been knocked off. The fact that I am writing this tells me that I was lucky. 3.2 Miles from home, on a roundabout a car just pulled into me:
Its not quite accurate but you can see the that bike carried on and stopped and then was brought back to nearer me!
The data shows I was hit at about 16mph:
I think the car clipped the rear wheel, knocked me off the bike and flying about 10ft down the road and the bike went a further 10ft or so as well. My pannier was thrown off and ended about 30ft away in the opposite direction!
Fortunately the driver stopped as did another couple of cars. I was momentarily stunned, then angry, but then very shaken and couldn't get out of the road and needed help to get to the traffic island
The other cars called an ambulance and as I was about 1/2mile from the A&E one arrived very quickly (one of the first responders, followed by a "proper" unit about 2 minutes later).
The police also arrived - but seemed very impressed with the number and power of my lights on the front. I had bought a big LED light the previous week and this was its first outing:
How I was not seen I still don't know!
While they were dealing with me there was a rear-ender from some onlookers passing by!
I was very shaken up and suffered a big adrenaline withdrawal after a few minutes, and was light headed. I was put in the ambulance but I only seemed to have soft tissue damage - a very sore and stiff shoulder
The bike was put in the ambulance and it looked OK, and I could only see at the time that the saddle was scrap - the seat part was very bent on the rails
I called my wife and she came and got me and I had another look over me and my bike
Despite my shorts looking OK, when I got home what I thought was just a bruise was a fairly deep bit of road rash right on my hip bone:
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| What it looked liked after being dressed when I got home |
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| What it looked like in the evening |
A closer look at my bike showed:
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| Destroyed Saddle |
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| Possibly a bent rear Derailleur |
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| Bent Left Hand side handlebar |
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| Non-drive side crank arm now fouls chain stay |
My lunch box also broke:
Amazingly my work laptop was OK! I Think my lunchbox took the impact
I did not go into work and spent the day feeling very low and bruised. Not looking forward to tomorrow
My bike will go to a couple of bike shops for an assessment in the next few days. Given some of the damage a lot of load must have gone into the frame so I hope its OK.
I am a member of British Cycling which provides legal assistance. I'll use them to try and recover the bike repair costs
