Bike vs truck

[Crankin]

I hope Nell is feeling better.
You probably have a good feel for what actually happened. But, an accident is an accident... it sounds like the young, inexperienced driver contributed a good deal to this, no matter what you or your daughter did. Most adults don't know what to do where a bike is concerned.
Oak, I do the same thing when I am turning left! My friend calls it the "mean schoolteacher finger." I signal forever and wag and shake, pointing my finger, to emphasize my intent to turn. Sometimes I am actually shaking my whole arm.

[Melalvai]

They ended up keeping her an extra day. This morning they say discharge today! Not eating yet but it's been several hours since she last threw up.

I don't know about calm & forgiving, but I know the driver's aunt.

I know that even with all this bicycling is still a safe mode of transportation and the health benefits vs safety. But it's going to be difficult to bike on that road again. And difficult for me to bike with her on any road. Of course the road is the one that our house is on. No way to avoid it!

I am going to get her bike fixed and get a new helmet. Then I will tell her, once she is able to, that she needs to get back on her bike right away no matter how scary it is, so that she won't be traumatized for life and never be able to get on a bike again. Not on that road--we'll go to a trail.

I'll have to think about how I want to present certain info when we teach the bike class in the spring. I was taught, and I believe & teach this, that since only 3% of collisions involve an overtaking car that we should be more concerned about traffic in front of us. I've also told students that it is different on rural roads, that overtaking cars are more of a concern than on urban roads. I guess my feeling now is to emphasize that difference more.

My neighbor said he's going to talk to City Council about how to get the speed limit lowered on that road. There's a lot of runners, hikers, dog walkers and cyclists there. I've always been concerned about the 55 mph speed limit since we moved here in June.

[redrhodie]

(((Melavai))) I literally felt nauseas reading that. How scary! I hope Nell is okay. Watching your daughter go through that--I can't even imagine how horrible it must have been.

[sfa]

OMG, how scary for everyone involved!!! I'm so glad your daughter wasn't more seriously injured! I'm also really impressed with your ability to look at the situation logically and see what could have been done to avoid the accident, and also about how you can incorporate this into your teaching. I know I learn a lot from experience, but I think at this point I'd still be shaking all over and the learning would come AFTER my daughter was home safe and sound!

[Cataboo]

This is me just being vaguely paranoid - but in case there's any issues with the truck's insurance company and assigning fault, maybe we should all edit our posts in this thread and make sure your daughter's name isn't mentioned?


I hope she gets discharged today!

[PscyclePath]

Mel:

Somebody has to be that 3%, I guess... and for the record, I'm one of them too Bad things sometimes happen to even the most experienced riders when they let their guard down.

I like your approach to the lesson, though. Probably the best teaching point from this experience is to remind your students never to move left or right on the roadway without scanning behind you to make sure the coast is clear.

There is a greater hazard with this on rural roads, because the speed differential is going to be much greater than on the downtown city streets. I live on the same kind of road down here, and there have been a couple times I've had to stop and make a "box turn" to get in my own driveway because of the traffic.

Hope all gets better...

Tom

[Melalvai]

Thanks, Tom, I was really hoping you'd weigh in on this. That makes me feel a lot better to know that you've been one of the 3%. This is a little crazy but one of my initial reactions was that my daughter's crash damages my credibility as an LCI! (I'm laughing at myself now.)

To tell the truth I'm kind of scared of going out on that road now. But I will make myself do it anyway. I might always do a box turn to come home. That's ok!