Thank you for the info there, Emily. If and when she gets to the point of wanting to take legal action I will definitely let her know what you said. Luckily she too has good insurance. A couple of girls had pepper spray mounted on the handlebars but this dog suprised us and no one had time to react.

There are leash laws in the county and the cycling club has been working on getting these enforced. The number to report any incidents has been passed around, and most people have the phone number on them so in cases like this, the deputies can be notified immediately (and there have been multiple accidents this year). There were two official complaints filed today, and the deputy seemed fairly sympathetic (he had personally been taken out on his motorcycle by a dog before). The deputy also said he would check out another area where we have a lot of dog problems (complain has been lodged but nothing hs happened so far) Hopefully something will come out of it all.

One thing I would like to say is how proud I was of how the other riders and numerous members of our cycling club reacted today. Many people won't have anything to do with the club because of some "holier than thou" behavior, but that was not seen today. Everybody present worked well at the accident, immediately calling an ambulance, sherriff's office, and her husband. Those of us with medical background attended to her while we were waiting. People went to both ends of this very rural road to flag down emergency vehicles when they came and to stop the little traffic that was there. I went with her in the ambulance while two others started back to their vehicles on their bikes before being picked up by another club member (who herself had been injured by a dog earlier this year) and driven to the hospital to be with her. Others stayed behind to file the reports. Another club member was called to pick up our bikes and take them home for us. A big thanks to all of them.

I don't know if I will be able to do this, but I would like to organize some sort of first aid class for the cycling club. With the past few accidents there has always been somebody present who knew what to do (doctor or EMT), but this won't always be the case. One of the riders was talking to me about how terrified and hopeless she felt at the time, and just didn't know what to do to help her or keep her from getting hurt worse. Does anybody have any experiences with this or have any ideas on how to get started?

Oh, and her husband was a perfectly trained "husband of a cyclist." As we were leaving the hospital, he ran out asking "where is her bike and how do I get it back for her?" So cute. She did a great job with him And for her, some of the first questions to the ER doc before she even had her pain meds were will I be riding again, and can I go to Paris in a couple of weeks. She has her priorities straight. (and is already laughing about/dreading the evil procyclist PTs we have in town waiting just for her)