Car Wreck

Freshman year was the year of bike wrecks, I had three pretty major wrecks that year. One has already been outlined in an earlier post. The other one was a typical flip over the handle bars. But the last wreck was pretty terrific, terrifying and tremendous.

I volunteer at a non-denominational youth group called K-Life. The K-Life house happens to be 10.2 miles away from campus. Not having a car I had to get there either by riding my bike or taking public transportation. Travel time was one hour with public transportation or significantly less if I rode my bike.

One gray, rainy day in April I walked outside to survey the weather before heading off to K-Life. The day was gray and overcast, but it hadn't rained all day and the clouds in the sky didn't appear to be any more ominous than they had been all day long. I decided that the rain would hold off so I hoped on my bike and began the ride to club.

I was about ten minutes away from my destination when it began to rain. I had already been riding for thirty minutes and since my math skills are so good I know that 10 min <<>

I was one block away from my destination and I had just one street left to cross. I was waiting patiently at the light for my turn to cross the intersection. The light turned to green and I began across the intersection. As I was in the middle the light turned straight to red. There was nothing to do but keep going.

As I got into the lanes of oncoming traffic I took a look over my right shoulder to see a car barreling toward me. I had just enough time to think, "This is gonna hurt." before BAM! I was hit.

The next thing I know I am lying in the middle of the road separated from my bike by 20 ft. I look over my shoulder again and again see cars rushing toward me. I knew that if I didn't get up and out of the road I would be run over as well as run into.

I quickly hopped up, grabbed my bike and ran out of the middle of the road. A tow truck had seen the accident and quickly pulled out into the middle of the intersection to prevent any more cars from going through, thus allowing me to pick up some of the extraneous pieces of my bike lying around.

The old lady who hit me pulled over and we waited for a police man. She was quite shaken up and I felt bad for her. So I told her that everything was ok. She wasn't convinced seeing as how there was blood all over my legs. The lacerations weren't actually that bad, the blood was just going everywhere because of the rain.

Finally a police officer showed up. He decided that it wasn't an accident (I don't know what it would be called then), and that I didn't need to go to the hospital because I was still standing so I obviously didn't break anything. The fist sized knot now protruding from my shin didn't mean a thing.

I called the people at K-Life and one of them came to my rescue. After club that night I was unable to stand my legs were in so much pain. It was at this point in time that I thought a visit to the hospital might be warranted.

When I checked into the ER I informed the receptionist that I had been hit by a car a few hours before. She told me to sit in the waiting room and I would be seen as soon as possible. I waited for five hours. And then the doctor didn't even bother to take an X-ray. I was told that I was fine and that I should just try to sleep it off.

That has been my last big bike accident for several years, and hopefully it will stay that way. The riding is lots more fun without the crashing.