I too went through the windshield of a negligent driver. Knocked unconscious, fractured scapula, 4ribs, dozens of stitches, overnight hospital stay, and approximately 6months of PTSD.
My recommendation is to get back on a bike as soon as physically possible. I was riding within 10 days, swimming in 30.
At that time, I had never been more angry at the entire world, and riding was the way for me to TAKE control of my life again. Bike and pool were my therapists. That driver had taken something from me, and I was taking it back.
Be extra careful to avoid confrontations with drivers due to anxieties when they again come too close. Overreacting one night, I did not, and wound up in an old fashioned street fight with a guy who outweighed me by 60lbs. during a late night run. I hit him with 4 overhand rights that felt really good. After that, he gave me a bit of trouble. :)

Fight back! Go ride! The roads are not, will not, were not completely safe, and everything you feel during and after a hard ride belongs to you. TAKE those feelings back!

I’d wish you luck, but you won’t need it.

Here's what getting hit by a car is like: you are strolling through town. You come to a crosswalk. Look both ways. There are no cars coming. So you begin to cross and get hit by a low flying airplane.

Not sure what this post achieves. There’s been a fair amount of people on these boards that have been hit recently, far too many.

And yeah some are freak accidents and psychologically it may be best to treat them as such. It does take individual mental fortitude to get back on the road.

Signed someone tagged one month ago today.

it wasn't about the danger of bike riding on a macro scale, e.g., whether bike riding in 2021 is more dangerous than in 2001. It was about the perception of danger before/after. Like, you ride your bike on Friday. It's fine. You ride your bike on Saturday and get hit. On Sunday, your perception of the dangerousness of bike riding is almost certainly different than it was on Friday. That was Dan's point.

If you want to make the assessment that, in general, because of distracted drivers, SUVs, cellphones, etc that bike riding is too risky, that's a fair assessment to make. Dan was more stating that simply being in an accident doesn't actually change the dangerousness (or lack thereof) of riding a bike.

AKA "recency bias" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recency_bias

---

"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

???! Metaphors are too hard?

I was agreeing with the person I replied to. I've been hit too and it was instantaneous and unexpected. Meanwhile the 'close calls' I saw coming were not that close and resulted in no accident.

My main advice is to be very selective of where you ride. Avoid highly trafficked areas. No matter how careful you may be as a cyclist, you have no control over the drivers of cars, and they often don’t see us.

I got run over by a car as a kid 40 years ago and I still have PTSD about the one mitigating factor that could have prevented it. If that thing is present, all street activity is a no-go for me. Otherwise, I have no problems, even riding on country highways with no shoulders, cars going by at 70mph speed limit. You can definitely get over it, but can take some time. Depends on how much you want to get back to it.

On the other hand, I got lucky and narrowly missed being killed by a head on collision while driving. The truck missed me and killed the guy in the car right behind me. Took me maybe a year to drive comfortably without freaking out every time a car passed by me going the other way on a two-lane highway.

---

----------------------------------------------------------
Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

I was hit a few years ago during a Half IM by the USAT official on his motorcycle. I didn't hear him coming up beside me in my lane, and when I reached down for my frame bottle, I zigged a little and he clipped me with his outboard mirror. I woke up on the road with people standing over me and what was diagnosed a few days later as a fractured collar bone plus road rash. Once I stood up, I felt mostly okay, but the cracked helmet DQ'd me from continuing. The bike was okay, but I ended up with expenses because of the shoulder. Ironically, had I been hit by anyone else, I'd have had better insurance support. But the USAT guy was covered by the race waiver. And I found the USAT "insurance" process onerous, unsympathetic, and nearly worthless. It's great umbrella coverage for the race-directors, but for the athletes, not so much.

I had never thought before about the possibility of crashing during a race. Due to anxiety, it takes me a little while after T1 to feel comfortable enough to get into my bike race-pace. I'm hyperaware of all vehicles now, particularly that USAT official whom I've subsequently seen cruising the courses. I can run marathons without having to tithe to USA Track and Field. But I now resent paying that USAT fee every time.

Twice.

First was when county Sheriff driving an unmarked SUV ran me into a ditch. I came out of the ditch taking my helmet off ready to use it on him. Then I saw his badge and just started an argument with him. We were on a very rural road, not another car in sight for 5 miles. He told me that he was in hot pursuit (someone stole a grand piano) and I should have gotten out of way. He asked me if I recognized that he was driving a LEO vehicle. I told him, as I was standing in front of the vehicle that I could not tell it was a police car, no plates, no markings, all black. He told me I was lucky that he did not arrest me, I told him I was lucky that I was still alive! With that he got in his vehicle and drove off in hot pursuit.

Second, going down a one lane two way mountain road very fast, just around the bend met a vehicle coming up the road. I was doing in excess of 30 MPH, speed limit on the road 35 mph. Locked the brakes and went over a cliff. Broken shoulder, cracked ribs and cracked helmet. Ironically no damage to the bike.

The first was a Deputy Sheriff showing me who was boss. The second was just as much my fault as the vehicle driver’s.

After both incidents got right back on the road, but with a greater understanding of the risks. Either someone else was going to kill me, or I was going to kill myself.

Where I live going 20 MPH on the strait road and a deer jumping out of the woods would be catastrophic. My experience with deer is you first see them when you hit them while driving a car.

Add me to the list of being struck by a car. I was riding Wednesday evening and a truck mirror struck me in the back and sent me flying ass over teakettle. Lots of broken ribs and separated shoulder I’m now home from the hospital and consider my self very lucky as 3 inches to the left the accident could have been much worse.

Driver did stop and was cited. Told me he never saw me. He said he wasn’t paying attention not that it helps now.

I’m not sure how I'll feel about riding on the road once I heal. I’m very careful but in this case there was nothing I could do to prevent the accident as I was as far right as I could have been. Might start with gravel and work my way up to road riding.

I have been hit couple of times. I have no car, so it's really not a choice for me. I am much more cautious than ever, don't do hard training rides on road, don't ride in rain or at night. So yea I get PTSD here and there, I just slow down