Was waiting yesterday morning for some oncoming traffic to clear so I could turn left off the street into work. Heard a screech, followed by a BANG and a THUD and I was flying through the air. I landed on my right side in the street. The driver came out of her car with her phone to see if I was ok. I was still trying to process things and make sure I could move everything. I stood up and seemed to feel ok except for my head was kind of ringing and my right arm & shoulder were hurting. I had on all my gear from my head to my feet, so no scrapes.
Another fellow stopped to check on me. He was driving in the opposite direction and saw the whole thing. He said she just wasn't paying attention. Maybe her phone in her hand had something to do with that. I'm hard to miss with a high-viz jacket and lots of extra lights on my bike, but I guess you have to actually be looking at the road to see me. A couple of guys helped move the scoot into a parking lot and a deputy came to fill out an accident report.
My wife took me to the hospital to be checked out. Several CT scans and x-rays later the doctor said everything looks ok and sent me home. I'm pretty sore today and taking the meds they gave me at the hospital. We called our insurance agent and they've started a claim. I saw one of my doctors this morning who's gonna keep on eye on things with me and made an appointment with my ortho doc so she can check out my shoulder and arm. I'd been given a shot in that shoulder about a month ago to reduce some pain and inflammation.
In thinking what I could have done to avoid this, I guess I should've been checking my mirrors, but I was looking more at the oncoming cars, waiting for them to clear. She wasn't going very fast, as we had just left a stoplight about 200 ft before my turn. If I'd glanced down at my mirror, I might've seen she wasn't slowing down and goosed it to just keep moving down the street.
My wife isn't thrilled. She said this is the 2nd crash I've had. The other was two years ago when I laid it down to avoid hitting a kid on a bicycle. She thinks maybe it's time to hang it up. I have a different opinion, of course. My bike is at the dealer for an estimate. If it gets totaled out, I'm thinking of what I can replace it with.
Everybody be careful out there!
