OT: My first car accident...

[Jules]

[Stuart Johnson]

Remember when that part on rear wheel (bendix?) would give way when you were standing up pushing for all your might to go up a hill. Sure made you wish you were riding your sisters bike without the cross bar.

Stuart Johnson Red Oak, Texas

[Charlie Self]

JMartin notes:

Around Albany, NY we used to get the occasional horsebacker on the motorcycle trails. I remember one woman waving me down violently as I came around a curve, wanting me to slow down. I did, but without thinking, I pulled the compression release for engine braking. Damned horse went nearly straight up.

Charlie Self "All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure." Mark Twain

[John McCormick]

Cyclists should assume they are invisible if they want to live a long time. However, logic that says "... more something masses (sic) the more right of way it has... " is like a bully's logic.

Cyclists pay for roads through property taxes, income taxes and sales taxes. These taxes would probably more than suffice to pay for the kinds of roads they would need in a car free world. It's not a car free world and the roads required for the roads needed for such are paid for by all the above and by gas and fuel taxes.

One thing I forget on a daily basis: when I finally get ahead that #$#%$ that's slowing me down, there's an endless supply of people in front of him.

john

[David Hall]

Yeah when someone rides my ass and honks his horn he's damn lucky if I don't just stop for a while. If I'm in a hurry though I will keep going but at about 10 MPH. If he then tries to go around I have been know to move very much towards the middle.

Dave Hall

(Geezer at 46)

[Silvan]

Tell that to the cars... They have no idea the lengths we go to in order to avoid killing them.

Speaking of irritating vehicles going too slow and being in the way, I hate Amish country.

Dude, when you have 15,000 cars backed up behind you for 187 miles, why not pull off the freaking road for a minute and feed your horses or something?

[Mark & Juanita]

OK, you win -- can't top that one.

[Doug Winterburn]

Oh, great! Not knowing who is behind you or their reason for needing to get somewhere, and you slow down and block the road? Could be someone on the way to the hospital or with some other type of emergency or someone with a bad disposition that wouldn't mind giving you an early listing in the obits.

-Doug

[Morris Dovey]

I've had that experience twice. The first time I was driving a fire truck (lights flashing, siren on) on a 50MHP road and some idiot slowed down to 20MPH and switched lanes to drive on the wrong side of the road in order to prevent me from passing. I picked up the mic and called for police help. This bozo turned off before the police appeared; but not too quickly to be greeted by another officer waiting at his home. Just before we arrived at the fire scene, I got a call from the dispatcher letting me know that he'd been arrested.

By the second incident I'd gotten a bunch more training and was (also) a member of the rescue squad. I was responding to a call about a four year old girl who'd fallen through a picture window about a mile and a half away and driving my own car (a very unfiretruck-like P1800E) when it happened again - except that this time I had no two-way radio. I was stuck behind /this/ car for almost a half-mile (a thousand thousand eternities) before I'd had enough, stuffed the shift into first, hit second at seventy, third at ninety-five, and wasn't watching when I hit fourth and O/D. I was still the first to arrive on the accident scene and the kid was lying on the front lawn bleeding from cuts /everywhere/. I moved so fast my joints ached later; but had the worst stopped before the next team member arrived. By the time the ambulance arrived there were five of us working as fast as we could on this one tiny little girl. We were all trembling as the ambulance took off. When the reaction wore off, I thought back over the whole episode and decided that I hadn't handled it very well - and that if I had to do it all over again, I'd do exactly the same thing. That evening I resigned from the rescue squad.

When you next decide to block the road, you might consider the possibility that you might not really know it all.

The little girl in Poughkeepsie survived (just barely); and I'm pretty sure that the guy who was so determined to block traffic will never have a clue. Please don't be like him.

[Mark Jerde]

Thanks for posting.

My Dad was an M.D. and about every 5 years he needed to average 100 mph from our house to the hospital 20 miles away. *Pity* anyone who blocked him... ;-)

-- Mark

[mttt]

That was my situation about 4 years ago. Will skip the details, except to say blood was everywhere and we had to get ourselves to the ER fast, or two would die. I drove like a frickin' maniac.

And I get out of folks way now, when I see the same. And say a prayer that they're not in a similar situation.

[Neil Williams]

That was me and my 9-months pregnant wife when she started bleeding and the doctor said go to the ER NOW! I was blasting down the highway at 100mph with the flashers going. I was actually amazed that the left lane squatters cleared out of the way very smartly for me.

If you're not a cop, please don't take it upon yourself to enforce the traffic laws.

--Neil

[Mike Patterson]

I was riding with my mother a couple of years ago and someone came up behind her flashing their lights. She said "I'm going fast enough for anybody" and ignored them.

I reminded her that the year before I drove kinda sorta fast trying to get to the ER before I bled to death after injuring myself at home alone, and that I was very glad she hadn't been in front of me that night.

She pulled over and let them go by.

Mike Patterson Please remove the spamtrap to email me.

[mttt]

Our situation 'xactly. 7 months pregnant. Praying and driving like a frickin' wildman. Almost four years later, I still get stone cold shivers thinking about it.

[dave in fairfax]

Can't speak for anywhere else, but in VA, it's the law that if someone comes up behind you and flashes their lights, you HAVE to pull over and let them pass. Dave in Fairfax

[Norman D. Crow]

About 12 yr. ago, a stretch of I76 from Nebraska line to Denver, CO had signs about every 2 mi. stating "ALL TRUCKS USE LEFT LANE". Right lane was breaking up and they were trying to even out the wear. I was making that run about once a week for three mo., and about 4 different times some dodo did their best to try and get me out of that left lane. Get in front & put on their turn signals, slow down, you name it, but eventually it would dawn on them what those big yellow signs said! If a bear or other emergency vehicle had come up behind me, I would have moved over, but the only time that happened, thwey came up and blew by in the right lane.

[Tim Douglass]

And in Oregon it's against the law to flash your lights at someone to either get them to move over or to get them to dim their lights.

Tim Douglass

[bob]

:>Can't speak for anywhere else, but in VA, it's the law that if :>someone comes up behind you and flashes their lights, you HAVE to :>pull over and let them pass. :>Dave in Fairfax

: And in Oregon it's against the law to flash your lights at someone to : either get them to move over or to get them to dim their lights.

Now that's a stupid law!

[Tim Douglass]

As I understand it, the law was enacted to prevent people from flashing their lights to warn oncoming motorists of a speed trap - the other things are just side effects of badly written legislation.

I might add that I don't think it is actually enforced, either.

Tim Douglass

[todd]

in the left lane unless you're actually passing someone.

todd