Facebook photos On my way home from Work on the 5th of July, I had a small accident with my bike. I had been only 4 blocks from work and had just waved goodbye to my commander at the precinct when some NUMB SKULL IDIOT yarded out in front of traffic ahead of me and other cars. Suddenly I went from 5 car lengths behind the cars ahead of me to 3, and applied my brakes. All my outs closed up as there was a tow truck to my left, and all the cars shead of me were swerving and skidding throughout their entire lanes all the way to the shoulder. My back tire started a skid and then the bike started to shift out from under me. I tried to correct and then the bike just listed over to the right side. As soon as I realized the bike was down, I tried to get my body up and away, but was so discouraged that my bike was scraping the ground that I smacked the front of my helmet into the road as I tried to curl up and get my jacket armour to protect me. I tried to curl up and roll away from danger, keeping my armour out to protect me, but I actually bounced and came to a stop in about 10 feet or so.
Thankfully the person in the car I avoided hitting was also a nurse and rushed back to help as I was trying to get up. I had the thought "It's a good thing I was wearing my overpants, or this could have been bad, how bad is the bike?" Then I looked down and saw my jeans and my knee torn open and remembered, oh yeah, I was in a hurry and couldn't find them that morning and thought it was going to be a warm day anyway. Seeing my pants and knee torn open kind of made me think I should be concerned about myself a bit more...Ok, so don't put weight on that, it might be hurt pretty bad, how do I lift my bike with one leg? Crazy, I know, but I was worried about my bike.
Now, I am going to hear about this for a while. The chief showed up at the accident, as I was being put in the ambulance and saw me getting upset that they were leaving my bike there, and he authorized one of the officers to take it back to the precinct for me. Then my Captain and Luitenant showed up at the hospital. I had an officer with me the whole time communicating with my husband what was going on and where they were taking me, and waiting for him to get to me. I have alredy heard the jokes are going around that my partner had to work alone the next day since I apparently didn't know how to drive, and hear that there are plenty of lectures waiting for me. My dad's celebration of life was planned for Saturday and they were thinking I was still dealing with grief and shouldn't haave been riding yet.
The pictures on facebook only show the prettier picture of stitches, not the torn open or scrubbed out open wound.
Now I'm waiting to hear from a adjuster about my claim, and trying to figure out what will happen with my bike. So far all I can tell from pictures that were sent to me is that the bike scraped the engine guard, pipes, the trunk, and might have damage to the brake lever. The right signal got damged pretty bad too. Looks like I actually got the worse end of the deal, but we will see which of us gets the higher repair bill. Ambulance rides can't be cheap...I'm voting I beat my bike on that one too.
