Accident report
Feb. 13th, 2009 10:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
djm4_ljI realise that I haven't written up many details of the accident itself, and some of you might like to know. So here, in reasonable detail, is what happened:
It was around 7pm on Monday 9 February, and I was cycling along Warren Road, approaching the junction with Francis Road here. It was dark and raining heavily, but the road was well-lit, and I had working front and rear lights and a reflective yellow waterproof jacket and trousers. Aproaching the junction, I saw a car (light-coloured saloon) approaching the junction from Francis Road on the left. If you look at the Google map (especially the satellite-only view with no labels), you'll see that traffic from Francis Road has to give way to traffic already on Warren Road at that junction.
Anyone who's cycled regularly around anywhere where there are also cars will know that this doesn't always happen in practice, and I'm usually good at spotting cars that are blatantly not going to stop, especially at that junction. However, the car in question was going reasonably slowly, gave me the impression of slowing down for the junction, and gave me no reason to suppose that it wasn't going to stop. Unfortunately, as you may already have inferred, I was wrong; I continued in the cycle lane and suddenly found myself close between the headlights of a blatantly still-moving car.
What I remember about the accident was being knocked sideways, swearing loudly, and hitting the ground hard on my left side. My left cheek hit the ground with an audible crunch, and my left hand also broke my fall. I got up quickly, in time to see the car disappear round the corner and continue along Grove Green Road. I have no impression of the car even slowing down to check how I was, although it's possible that my sense of time was a bit distorted; realistically, I have no independent way of knowing. I'd ended up in one of the parking spaces next to the road (roughly where the red car is on the satellite image).
From the damage to the bike (rear wheel very bent) and the fact that my left leg is fine, I'm assuming the car didn't actually hit me, but hit the rear of the bicycle. But I'd be lying if I said that I could remember the accident in that detail, or had the good an impression of what was happening at the time.
Anyway, I was then standing by the bike. There were no other witnesses to the accident. There was a lorry and a couple of other cars behind me, but too far away for me to be sure they'd seen it - in any event, none of them stopped, and there's probably no particular reason why they'd have thought they'd need to. I probably looked like a perfectly normal cyclist standing next to his bike in the rain. At least one pedestrian stopped to help, although he hadn't seen the accident itself.
I realised that my left wrist was badly injured and might even be broken; I didn't like the angle it seemed to be sitting at, but it wasn't that easy to tell with the waterproof top on. Fortunately my legs seemed fine and I was as sure as I could be that I hadn't blacked out, so I decided to walk to Whipps Cross Hospital A & E to get checked out.
This has surprised a few people, I know, but it seemed the sensible choice at the time, and still does now. I knew where I was going, and roughly how long it would take me to walk there, whereas I had no idea at all how long it would have taken an ambulance to get to me. Furthermore, if I'd been waiting around for an ambulance, I'd have had to stay put, and I suspected that that was likely to cause the adrenaline to wear off faster, which would probably leave me in a pretty poor state both mentally and physically.
At the hospital, they X-rayed my arm, established that I had indeed broken my Ulna (I think - didn't get a good look at the X-rays), and that the two halves of the fracture had moved quite a lot relative to each other. So they pumped me and my arm full of painkillers, and pulled the arm straight again before putting it in a plaster cast and sending me on my way with an appointment to go back to the fracture clinic on Tuesday.
In other news, two bruises are coming up on my right wrist at the moment that are a clear match for the handlebar and brake lever on my bike - the fact that they're only coming up now (well, yesterday evening) suggests that they must have been quite deep. In better news, the teeth on the left side of my face seem to be meeting correctly again, suggesting that whatever shifted to stop them meeting after the accident has now shifted back again.
It was around 7pm on Monday 9 February, and I was cycling along Warren Road, approaching the junction with Francis Road here. It was dark and raining heavily, but the road was well-lit, and I had working front and rear lights and a reflective yellow waterproof jacket and trousers. Aproaching the junction, I saw a car (light-coloured saloon) approaching the junction from Francis Road on the left. If you look at the Google map (especially the satellite-only view with no labels), you'll see that traffic from Francis Road has to give way to traffic already on Warren Road at that junction.
Anyone who's cycled regularly around anywhere where there are also cars will know that this doesn't always happen in practice, and I'm usually good at spotting cars that are blatantly not going to stop, especially at that junction. However, the car in question was going reasonably slowly, gave me the impression of slowing down for the junction, and gave me no reason to suppose that it wasn't going to stop. Unfortunately, as you may already have inferred, I was wrong; I continued in the cycle lane and suddenly found myself close between the headlights of a blatantly still-moving car.
What I remember about the accident was being knocked sideways, swearing loudly, and hitting the ground hard on my left side. My left cheek hit the ground with an audible crunch, and my left hand also broke my fall. I got up quickly, in time to see the car disappear round the corner and continue along Grove Green Road. I have no impression of the car even slowing down to check how I was, although it's possible that my sense of time was a bit distorted; realistically, I have no independent way of knowing. I'd ended up in one of the parking spaces next to the road (roughly where the red car is on the satellite image).
From the damage to the bike (rear wheel very bent) and the fact that my left leg is fine, I'm assuming the car didn't actually hit me, but hit the rear of the bicycle. But I'd be lying if I said that I could remember the accident in that detail, or had the good an impression of what was happening at the time.
Anyway, I was then standing by the bike. There were no other witnesses to the accident. There was a lorry and a couple of other cars behind me, but too far away for me to be sure they'd seen it - in any event, none of them stopped, and there's probably no particular reason why they'd have thought they'd need to. I probably looked like a perfectly normal cyclist standing next to his bike in the rain. At least one pedestrian stopped to help, although he hadn't seen the accident itself.
I realised that my left wrist was badly injured and might even be broken; I didn't like the angle it seemed to be sitting at, but it wasn't that easy to tell with the waterproof top on. Fortunately my legs seemed fine and I was as sure as I could be that I hadn't blacked out, so I decided to walk to Whipps Cross Hospital A & E to get checked out.
This has surprised a few people, I know, but it seemed the sensible choice at the time, and still does now. I knew where I was going, and roughly how long it would take me to walk there, whereas I had no idea at all how long it would have taken an ambulance to get to me. Furthermore, if I'd been waiting around for an ambulance, I'd have had to stay put, and I suspected that that was likely to cause the adrenaline to wear off faster, which would probably leave me in a pretty poor state both mentally and physically.
At the hospital, they X-rayed my arm, established that I had indeed broken my Ulna (I think - didn't get a good look at the X-rays), and that the two halves of the fracture had moved quite a lot relative to each other. So they pumped me and my arm full of painkillers, and pulled the arm straight again before putting it in a plaster cast and sending me on my way with an appointment to go back to the fracture clinic on Tuesday.
In other news, two bruises are coming up on my right wrist at the moment that are a clear match for the handlebar and brake lever on my bike - the fact that they're only coming up now (well, yesterday evening) suggests that they must have been quite deep. In better news, the teeth on the left side of my face seem to be meeting correctly again, suggesting that whatever shifted to stop them meeting after the accident has now shifted back again.
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-13 11:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-13 12:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-13 12:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-13 12:13 pm (UTC)The not-sure-what-happened sounds very familiar. As you may remember, I got hit by a motorbike a couple of months ago (also after dark & raining heavily, although I wasn't well-lit, being on a rented bike in Cambodia at the time...). I have a recollection of suddenly moving *much faster*, and then a recollection of having hit the deck & scrabbling myself out of the road ASAP, and then a recollection of picking myself up, counting limbs, and being quite surprised that everything was still largely intact. (And I certainly recall making a *hell of a racket* throughout the experience.) But I don't remember the impact itself, & I'm still not sure exactly what got hit other than by bruise-reconstruction.
I suspect I'd have walked to the hospital, as well (or possibly got a taxi if I saw one), so I don't think that's v surprising behaviour :)
A note re the bruises: if they're deep enough, you may want to see a massage therapist (remedial/therapeutic massage rather than the nice relaxing sort). I finally got round to seeing one for the scar tissue (i.e. Big Lump) remaining from the bruise I got on my arse (I *think* from motorbike-bars-impact) during my accident. It transpired that as well as scar tissue there was a tear in the muscle, & it was impacting on one of the big nerves down my leg. A couple of sessions has made a *massive* difference (both in the size of the lump, and in the leg pain). So as the bruising clears up you might want to keep an eye on whether everything goes away.
Glad that your face is recovering!
no subject
Date: 2009-02-14 10:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-14 11:17 am (UTC)Doesn't
If you wind up going the Yellow Pages/online route, look for qualifications & membership of appropriate professional bodies.
(And if you find someone good, let me know - I'm seriously thinking of trying to convince the chap I'm seeing in Sydney to emigrate to London as he is *awesome* ;-) )
no subject
Date: 2009-02-14 01:56 pm (UTC)I've not needed any physical therapy, so can't give much advice. If you don't have any joy, I could ask on the triathlon forum I'm a member of - I'd be almost certain of getting a response there, lots of people there with injuries and thus recommendations of pysical & massage therapists.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-15 08:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-13 04:03 pm (UTC)I'm so glad you are OK, but I have ot send some evil vibes at whomever hit you.
They didn't STOP?!
WTF?
I'm outraged on your behalf.
N.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-14 10:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-13 10:15 pm (UTC)At least you are not badly hurt.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-19 10:19 pm (UTC)Glad it wasn't worse, sorry it was as bad as it was, and am sending best wishes for excellent outcome of all treatment.