I’m doing my Friday ride. My tri-season is over, so I’m working on achieving a better, lower position on my tri-geom. I just got a no setback seatpost in and a shorter them. I’ve done a lot of stationary work and finally decided the position was right on the spinner and time for some road mileage. Everything felt great after 10 miles despite a slight cross headwind and some rough pavement. I make a turn with the wind to my back and roll through a flat, straight, well paved back road that has light traffic and decide to push the big gears. I start to get really confident that my position is dialed in and then a lady in a Mercedes slowly pulls out in front of me, looking behind her, rolling towards me, blocking any way around. I scream at her and hit my brakes. She continues to slowly cut off any angle I have to go around and never turning her head to look in the direction she’s moving. I’m squeezing the levers but going too fast to brake to a full stop. I slam into her door, warping my front wheel,wrenching my left aerobar up, jamming my left wrist and elbow. She rolls down her window and says “You scared me!!!” I tell her “There’s a pretty big dent on your door now.” She tells me that it’s OK and drives off.
I’m pissed that I jammed my elbow. I’m pissed that I have to re-true my front wheel. I’m really pissed that a great ride was totally ruined. But I’m glad I’m still alive.
I hope you got her plate. You should report her to the police and make her pay for your bike. If you have a carbon fork never ride it again…ever. Dont let anyone ride it.
Thats funny as hell…she just drives off like its no big deal…what an as*hole…
I would have used every 4 letter word in the book…she would have been shaking so hard, she’d have had a heart attack!! I hate stupid drivers. Thats cuz I was a cop for 22 years. Stupid drivers suck!! : ) Nothing like driving a 3,000 pound weapon around and not paying attention to what the hell you are doing! Now if its a 2 pound gun its all a different story. Cars kill more people then guns. Done with rant…sorry! : )
Glad you are OK…sounds like you were paying enough attention as to not get hurt bad, can’t say the same for her though!
She was old and probably senile. The “You scared me!” was a strange reaction in my opinion. I wasn’t hurt badly and the bike seems fine other than the front wheel. There aren’t any cracks on the fork. Should I really replace it anyway?
Careful with the carbon fork. Depends on how hard you hit her.
I don’t care how “old” she is. She needs to pay attention. She could have killed someone…then all she could say was “sorry” when its too late. I had a guy pull beside me as I was doing about 25mph, he beeped his horn, then proceeded to turn right, right into me…I slide my bike slideways in the direction he was turning to avoid hitting his front right door. I chased him down to yell at him. He was an old man, that stated he “beeped” his horn before he turned into me…and thought that was OK. I taught him a few 4 letter words, a few traffic laws and thankfully he didn’t die of a heart attack when I got done with him. BTW…this was in the driveway to the local police department!! : )
I’m with Zipp (and others) on this one. Old or young, driving away is WRONG! Did she even ask you if you were O.K.? Sure sounded as though she was concerned with herself, since you had scared HER!
This kind of crap happens all to often, and it’s because it nearly always goes unpunished/unpublished (to those who need to hear it!) that it continues.
We’re all invisible even if these dumbass drivers are looking at us! If we don’t look as though we could hurt them, then we don’t even register in their pathetically inattentive cognizance…
If you’d been a Mack truck then she wouldn’t have been scared at all!
Should I really replace it anyway?
Yes - your wheel is stronger than your fork and you may not see cracks…did you get her plate? I for one would not ride that fork. If you taco’ed a wheel in it remove it.
I have her plate # just in case my elbow is injured worse than it feels now, but I’m not suing or calling the cops on a bluehair unless I wake up tomorrow with a serious injury. If I need to replace the fork, so be it. That just means I have an excuse to buy an upgrade.
I understand your sentiment of “letting it go”… weird, isn’t it? Even though in my province (Quebec) we have no-fault insurance, and I kind of feel responsible for my latest accident with a car - I feel a tinge of guilt having the driver’s insurance cover a cost of my bike …
anyway, I’ve heard that in most circumstances, if a driver is in “reverse” during an accident, they’re usually at “fault”.
Great! Next week she’ll hit me and I won’t be so lucky.
The first problem is that she is so inattentive as to casue this accident. The second problem is that she did not even understand that this was a serious problem or that she has an obligation to exchange information with you. At least if the police were involved her family might realize that she needs some talking to.
Her head was in reverse, but her car was moving forward
In Florida, cyclists get hit by cars and no one does anything about it. The law really doesn’t feel like it is on our side here. There are countless recent stories of serious injuries from irresposible motorists that weren’t even cited even though they were obviously at fault. We also have a lot of retirees who don’t drive so well anymore either. I’m just happy to have lived to tell the tale.
I hope you got her plate. You should report her to the police and make her pay for your bike. If you have a carbon fork never ride it again…ever. Dont let anyone ride it.
Glad you are okay.
WHAT I expected you to yell at him for not flipping her off and beatting up her 11yr old granddaughter…
I hat to say this but you need to report it!!! I was hit almost just like this two years ago, the old dude I the catty did not even know he hit me but I came very close to being his hood ornament but I just got out of his way and he clipped my back wheel it was toast and I had to twist really hard to stay up. Lucky for me the person behind him got his plate and called the police for me.
All was ok until the next day and my back goes out bad, like I can’t stand up and the worst pain I have ever felt. So off to the Emg room for a day of lot’s-0-drug and X-rays & an MRI, bulging disk from the twist I had to do to say upright and tendon and soft tissue damage
Do not let her get away with this!!!
Dan…
And the P.S. to this story is, if this happens to you fall down; if you don’t fall down the insurance companies don’t think you can be hurt, and they will do all they can to get out of paying!
but I’m not suing or calling the cops on a bluehair unless I wake up tomorrow with a serious injury
That’s obviously your call, but it seems to me that she needs a talking-to by someone in authority --police officer, son, neighbor – someone. To not modify her behavior is to enable her to do it again, and she’s likely to kill someone.
My grandfather used to do this crap all the time. He’d get into an accident, and pay the other party cash on the spot, so as not to have it reported. He needed to be reported.
