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rebeccmeisterSo, my father was in a bicycling accident on July 3. He was on his way to visit my grandfather (his father-in-law) in Enumclaw, riding along the Green River bike path, when he must have hit a tree root, careened out of control, and crashed. He doesn't remember the details because he suffered a concussion. He wound up breaking three ribs as well.
When something like that happens, a whole range of emotions and thoughts wash through.
He could have been killed!
Thank goodness he was wearing a helmet (he says there were large cracks in the styrofoam).
And we were so looking forward to our upcoming bicycling adventures.
It's hard to be reminded that some of the things we do for physical and emotional health can be so dangerous, even while they are so rewarding. I thought about this a lot while I erged yesterday. While it's tedious, erging is pretty darned safe, overall, so long as one doesn't overdo it or die of boredom (totally a possibility!). Meanwhile, as evidenced by the recent, sudden drowning death of a good friend in Arizona, rowing on the water can be incredibly dangerous.
A lot of people don't realize that a large fraction of bicycling accidents and injuries involve only the one bicyclist, not cars or anybody else. Something similar happened to my rowing partner, K, about a year ago. She was riding along a nice, smoothly-paved bike canal in Mesa, when a small gust of wind picked up and lifted up a piece of plastic caution tape attached to a telephone pole. She rode right into it, thinking it would probably break (you know, like the tape at the end of a race). It didn't, and instead caught her front wheel and threw her over the handlebars, giving her some serious shoulder and hip injuries.
Then there's my friend J who, just two weeks ago, narrowly avoided more serious injury. He was riding without his hands on the handlebars, when one of his shoes slipped out of the clipless pedal and he crashed. He was lucky to experience only scrapes and bruising.
Interestingly, injuries sustained while mountain biking tend to be much less severe than injuries suffered while road biking. Lower speeds help, as does the fact that most mountain bike crashes involve landing on dirt, which is softer and less abrasive than pavement.
What can we do, in the face of all of this?![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scrottie pointed out that mountain bikes are more popular in Minneapolis because they're built better for handling varying terrain and conditions (snow, rain, ice, etc). Clearly, good maintenance of bike paths and routes is important, too, as is a healthy level of paranoia about road hazards under different conditions. I have to wonder if it's a good idea for bicyclists to do some occasional mountain biking, just for the sake of practicing good bike handling skills. I definitely think it's a good idea to keep moving, and keep moving in a variety of different ways, to ensure that one can make the most of this life in this world.
When something like that happens, a whole range of emotions and thoughts wash through.
He could have been killed!
Thank goodness he was wearing a helmet (he says there were large cracks in the styrofoam).
And we were so looking forward to our upcoming bicycling adventures.
It's hard to be reminded that some of the things we do for physical and emotional health can be so dangerous, even while they are so rewarding. I thought about this a lot while I erged yesterday. While it's tedious, erging is pretty darned safe, overall, so long as one doesn't overdo it or die of boredom (totally a possibility!). Meanwhile, as evidenced by the recent, sudden drowning death of a good friend in Arizona, rowing on the water can be incredibly dangerous.
A lot of people don't realize that a large fraction of bicycling accidents and injuries involve only the one bicyclist, not cars or anybody else. Something similar happened to my rowing partner, K, about a year ago. She was riding along a nice, smoothly-paved bike canal in Mesa, when a small gust of wind picked up and lifted up a piece of plastic caution tape attached to a telephone pole. She rode right into it, thinking it would probably break (you know, like the tape at the end of a race). It didn't, and instead caught her front wheel and threw her over the handlebars, giving her some serious shoulder and hip injuries.
Then there's my friend J who, just two weeks ago, narrowly avoided more serious injury. He was riding without his hands on the handlebars, when one of his shoes slipped out of the clipless pedal and he crashed. He was lucky to experience only scrapes and bruising.
Interestingly, injuries sustained while mountain biking tend to be much less severe than injuries suffered while road biking. Lower speeds help, as does the fact that most mountain bike crashes involve landing on dirt, which is softer and less abrasive than pavement.
What can we do, in the face of all of this?
scrottie pointed out that mountain bikes are more popular in Minneapolis because they're built better for handling varying terrain and conditions (snow, rain, ice, etc). Clearly, good maintenance of bike paths and routes is important, too, as is a healthy level of paranoia about road hazards under different conditions. I have to wonder if it's a good idea for bicyclists to do some occasional mountain biking, just for the sake of practicing good bike handling skills. I definitely think it's a good idea to keep moving, and keep moving in a variety of different ways, to ensure that one can make the most of this life in this world.
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no subject
Date: 2013-07-07 04:39 pm (UTC)With that said, none of my bike crashes, including several overnight stays in the hospital, has come close to how badly I've been injured in a car crash. Getting in a car is, by a significant amount, the most dangerous thing most people choose to do.
This isn't available everywhere but if you get a chance to play bike polo or the like, it's an enormous help to bike handling skills, since you're colliding with people and doing extremely tight turns the whole time, at very low speed. When friends get clipless pedals for the first time, I try to get them to go out on a lawn somewhere with a friend and play bump-em-off where you try to shoulder your friends off their bikes and they do the same back, so you have a big chunk of practice at low-speed handling and rapidly getting off the bike. A bit more aggro are foot-down competitions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-rEVDRVvec&list=PL762E9987568B956C&index=1 but again they do teach you a lot about handling.
Accidents
Date: 2013-07-07 07:25 pm (UTC)http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/06/13/bicycling-the-safest-form-of-transportation/
Sorry about your dad
Date: 2013-07-09 02:21 pm (UTC)I am sorry to hear about your dad's accident. I hope he heals as quickly and painlessly as possible and still finds joy on his bike when he is better.
DM
Re: Sorry about your dad
Date: 2013-07-09 05:48 pm (UTC)