I was at work last Friday night, and my cell phone went off- with my boyfriend's ring- thinking he got home safely (we work at the same place and bike commute when possible- he got me into riding), I picked up, only to hear him say " Can you come downtown? I don't want to freak you out, but I just got hit by a car". When my stomach finished jumping around enough to let me remember how to drive (was working way past dark that night), I found him and two very freaked out young women, plus one mangled bike on the corner of one of the busiest intersections in Seattle.

It turns out that he was riding in the bike lane next to her SUV (with full lights and helmet/etc) when she decided to suddenly take a right-hand turn without looking or signaling, thus hitting him on the left side of his body and knocking him off the bike and under her car. His only thought at that point was fear that she might run him over. Fortunately, she wasn't going that fast, and managed to stop- and fortunately his worst injuries are some big bruises and significant loss of skin. He hit his head on the curb, but his helmet took the impact. The cop who showed up clearly cited it as her fault, but left it up to my boyfriend whether to ticket her. She did agree to pay for the bike repair, plus a new helmet, but it's not clear how or when.

This really scared all of us- driver included. Hopefully she'll be more attentive, and hopefully we'll get over this incident, but for the meantime we're driving to work, and will stick to riding for fun on less busy roads instead of bike commuting. And I was just getting more confident! It goes to show that even doing everything right doesn't mean trouble won't happen.