A friend of mine had a bad bike accident recently. Really bad. A driver in a car pulled into oncoming traffic to pass three cars in front of him. The oncoming traffic in this case was Steve, on his bike, and a van, both of which he hit. Read about it for yourself on the news if you want.
Now, im not going to get into the accident itself to much, except to say that this particular driver made a huge mistake, which i am sure he recognizes and regrets. He risked his life and that of others for the sake of being in a hurry. So, as somebody who drives and rides regularly on the streets of Tulsa I’m just going to ask that this serve as a cautionary tail to all of us. Whatever it is, its not worth killing or crippling somebody over…and to be frank it is pure selfishness that lets you believe that your time is more important then somebodies life so get over yourself.
Whenever I hear of a bike accident it hits close to home of course. I ride Tulsa’s streets occasionally, just a few times a week. I could have been the one that was hit. Just like ebola in Uganda this seems to call for wisome not fear. I don’t want to live a life of fear, but I do want to live a life of wisdome. In this case it makes me want to ride more, to do more of the thing I enjoy. If more people rode drivers would (I hope) be more aware, more cautious, more respectful. This has to go both ways of course. Bikers have to follow the law, ride properly, etc. But that is s different post.
Second, I think it is wise to at least consider the worst case. For me this means a couple of things. First, im going to continue to ride like a car*. It works, people give me room on the street. Second, I need to upgrade some gear..get some lights and flashers, and a mirror, these are things that will help me be safer.
I have only had one bad bike wreck, i was in the woods mt. biking by myself. I was fortunate to walk myself back to my house under my own power and Beth took me to the ER. If I am ever in a wreck again I want to give people who might stop to help me all the advantages they can have, so i signed up for icedot and bought a bracelet, i hope i never get to test it out, but ill let you know how it goes if i do.
Any way, just some ramblings…
Steve will be ok. He has a long rode of recovery ahead of him. He is going to be out of work for a while over this, he is a tile layer by trade…which is going to be hard to do with a couple broken bones. Our church has a fund set up if people want to donate to help him and his family out, let me know if you want info about that.
update 2: I keep writing these post about biking and it makes it sound like im some sort of super biker person. Thats not true, i ride occasionally, sometimes a few times a week, sometimes no times i week. I do find transportation issues interesting though…and this counts.
********Please don’t take this to mean that i am a “vehicular riding only ” person. given that there is no bike lane I’m going to ride like a car. Read up if your interested.
poolhousered 