So I was sitting at a red light on the way to work. It turned green. I started to go but saw a guy on a 10-speed hauling ass into the intersection against the red light from my left. I stopped. The guy on the 10-speed didn’t. Neither did the guy next to me. The car on my right, who couldn’t see the guy on the bike, pulled out.
The biker didn’t even hit the brakes. Straight into the side of the car. He did a full flip and landed face down.
When I saw the guy on the bike I said, out loud, to myself ‘This isn’t gonna end ::: smash ::: well’.
The car that got hit stopped. I got out of the car and went to check on the bike rider. He was out cold for a minute or two. He then woke up and got out of the street. I talked to him a bit and he seemed to be ok. I called 911, as did everyone else, and sat with the biker until the EMTs showed up.
The biker was scraped up pretty well. He also started the ‘The car ran a red light’ bit. I told him that the car had a green light. I spoke with the other witnesses and everyone agreed that the biker was at fault.
Glad he was ok, even though he was an idiot. I have been hit by cars on 4 separate instances over my years of bike riding. Never anything serious, but even a low speed impact with a 1-2 ton vehicle really messes up your bike. The thing you always have to be aware of on a bike is that cars DO NOT SEE YOU. Especially, if you are doing something stupid like riding on the wrong side of the road or trying to blow through a red light. People in cars are looking for other cars. So, the moral of the story is that as bicyclist, your have to be doubly aware of what everyone else is doing or you will end up like the guy in the OP.
Or riding your bike full speed across a crosswalk - car drivers are looking for cars on the road, and pedestrians on the sidewalk (and, let’s be honest, not even that far too often) - they aren’t looking for someone barrelling down a sidewalk and into the crosswalk at 50 kph (and they shouldn’t have to, since it is illegal). I never want to hurt a cyclist with my car; I wish they shared my attitude.
A few days ago a drunk pedestrian wearing dark clothes on a dark night walked in front of a car. My cousin saw the car stop. A cop was driving on the road too but saw nothing until he got to the accident and saw a lump in the road. The guy had bones sticking out his leg according to my cousin. He almost was run over a few more times before the cop stopped in the road blocking traffic for the other direction. The guy didn’t die.
I live in a college town and I swear it must be part of orientation that they tell you to ride your bike at night with dark clothing and no lights on. I can’t tell you the number of college students on bikes I have just about run into in the dark because (a) I can’t see them, and (b) they don’t seem to think that they need to follow the rules of the road.
I ride both a bicycle and motorcycle and I ALWAYS assume that I am invisible to other drivers and ride accordingly.
The weirdest thing I ever did see was a group of college kids jogging in the left hand lane of a major ring road (90km/h speed limit) at midnight. Thinking back on it now, I should have pulled over and called the police, but I was too shocked at the time.
You are nicer than I am. Around my city the hipsters hop on their trendy “Fixie” bikes that have no brakes, and fly right through stop signs & stop lights. After a few heart-pounding times of driving through my neighborhood (I live next to a university campus), I decided I was no longer going to slam on my brakes, and if they plow into my side, so be it.
It has been hilarious watching guys without brakes veer hard, and then go careening into yards & sidewalks. I have been scraped once across the license plate of my car, which put a big gash in the guy’s leg. Of course he blamed me. The cop did not, and wrote him a summons.
I share the road with bicyclists, but they need to share it with me as well.
I saw this happen in DC to a Bike messenger, he ran straight into a taxi. A policeman saw the whole thing and after making sure the biker was OK, he wrote him a ticket for running the red light.