I ride a bicycle to work. There’s a trail that goes from the town where I live to the town where I work, about 7 miles or so. There are really only 2 “bad” intersections I have to cross. One has a button so you can get the walk light. The trail goes up the left side of the road and when you get the walk light all the lights turn red but people coming from your left can still turn right on red.
Well this morning when my walk light came on I started to go when I saw a pickup truck moving a little too fast coming to make that right turn, so I stopped and then she stopped. This was good except that this woman was transporting a pallet of kitchen tiles in her truck bed which promptly shifted forward, sending about 10 boxes through her back window and into her cab. Luckily for her they came in through the middle and not her side. If she had been going faster or had a passenger they could have been seriously injured if not killed. The only real result was a truck and a street full of glass; I don’t think she even broke any tiles.
Anyway I stopped and she was all right, she pulled over and got out of the truck and cut the plastic from the tiles and I and a nearby Penndot crew helped her move the tiles out of her cab and into her bed. The boxes were HEAVY, I’d say 40 to 50 pounds a least. She was very lucky and I was only about 10 minutes late for work.
Has anybody else had any scary near misses like this?
So she was going to attempt a right on red without stopping?
I’m glad you were not hurt, and I’ll admit to feeling a bit of schadenfreude at the other driver’s expense. How do you pass someone in a car and then immediately turn into them? I’ve been hit once by a driver who made a right turn into me (and have had many near hits). No major injury, I didn’t even hit the pavement but I did slam my hip into the side of the car, breaking the saddle.
When I was hit, the driver of the car told the police (yes, I was fortunate that the other driver stopped) that he didn’t see me. The police then talked to me, and went back to the driver who said that he didn’t think I was going that fast. The cop looked at his notes and said “At first you said you didn’t see him, and now you say you didn’t think he was going very fast”. He got the ticket.
Almost that same thing happened to me years ago, he was still beside me when he turned. The guy kept going. I got up, straightened my handlebars (the only damage to tha bike) and chased him. A person in a minivan coming toward him stopped and blocked the road and made him stop. I yelled at him, he said he didn’t think I was going that fast, I didn’t smell alcohol and didn’t call the police. The thing that pissed me off most was that a month before I’d wiped out and tore my knee up. It had just healed when this happened and it opened back up, leaving a nice scar.
I had that happen when I was in college. A white minivan pulled ahead of me to the point where it had barely passed me, then slowed slightly and turned right. I bounced off the side near the back, and my rubber handlebar cover left a nice, big black mark down the side of the van. I wasn’t really hurt - fortunately the van was far enough ahead when the driver pulled this stunt, or I could’ve ended up under the van/tire. Instead I flopped to the right and onto the grass, as did my bike. In this case, though, the driver did stop and was appropriately freaked out. Good.
