briantrumpet
Legendary Member
- Location
- Devon & Die
Grrr. Eighteen months after cracking my left radial head, I've done it again. Last time it was another club member falling across my wheel ... this time a 12-year-old girl running into the road having looked straight through me.
Perplexing how it happened - I clocked two girls standing waiting to cross the road at a fast bit of main road on my commute (by the pitch-and-putt on Topsham Road in Exeter, if you know it) - checked they were looking at me, had eased off a bit, in case (I'd normally be doing 30mph there), and they stood still, looked at me one more time, and when I was about 10 yards away suddenly ran out into the road. Only when I yelped did the actually see me - the second one dithered, took a step back where I had steered to avoid them, and bam! - I ran into her leg, and down we both went. Thankfully she got up straight away, I lay on the road for a little while, while I worked out if I was in one piece. Bump on arse, knock on elbow. All the cars had stopped in both directions; a kind couple in the opposite lane offered to run me home (but I preferred to get straight back on the bike and get there myself.)
Anyway, three hours in A&E later (I cycled there and back, of course), and I've cracked the radial head again, and the X-ray looks identical to the previous one. I've got a sore elbow, but it could have been a whole lot worse. It'll cramp my style for a bit (especially as it's my conducting arm.)
Anything to be learnt? Only that even alert 12-year-olds can look straight through a cyclist a metre out from the kerb in broad daylight with no traffic masking me. They were looking for cars, and didn't see one. I'm normally pretty good at knowing when people have looked straight through me (having been knocked off by a car in just such a manner when I was about 14), but I got this one wrong.
Perplexing how it happened - I clocked two girls standing waiting to cross the road at a fast bit of main road on my commute (by the pitch-and-putt on Topsham Road in Exeter, if you know it) - checked they were looking at me, had eased off a bit, in case (I'd normally be doing 30mph there), and they stood still, looked at me one more time, and when I was about 10 yards away suddenly ran out into the road. Only when I yelped did the actually see me - the second one dithered, took a step back where I had steered to avoid them, and bam! - I ran into her leg, and down we both went. Thankfully she got up straight away, I lay on the road for a little while, while I worked out if I was in one piece. Bump on arse, knock on elbow. All the cars had stopped in both directions; a kind couple in the opposite lane offered to run me home (but I preferred to get straight back on the bike and get there myself.)
Anyway, three hours in A&E later (I cycled there and back, of course), and I've cracked the radial head again, and the X-ray looks identical to the previous one. I've got a sore elbow, but it could have been a whole lot worse. It'll cramp my style for a bit (especially as it's my conducting arm.)
Anything to be learnt? Only that even alert 12-year-olds can look straight through a cyclist a metre out from the kerb in broad daylight with no traffic masking me. They were looking for cars, and didn't see one. I'm normally pretty good at knowing when people have looked straight through me (having been knocked off by a car in just such a manner when I was about 14), but I got this one wrong.
