Well, I've had several barley pops (sodas) now, and I'm starting to relax a bit.

I left work about 5:35, needed to be home before 6 so my wife could go to some woman thing, but it's a normal 10 minute drive, so it's good, she'll have 10-15 minutes to get where she's going. I drove up the street several blocks from work to a stop sign, stopped while looking down the sidewalk to my right, then directed my attention to the traffic coming from my left, (one way street). Had a gap in traffic within seconds, so started to pull out, accelerating moderately hard to avoid pissing off the guy at the back of the gap and THUMP! I see a guy on a bicycle going down at the right corner of my vehicle.

Oh, shit.

I jumped out, and ran around to where he was laying, fortunately not under vehicle or wheel, and whipped the cell out to dial 911, telling him to hold still and stay down while he writhes around holding his left leg. He rolled over and wanted the bike out from underneath him, (can't say I blame him, bikes are not comfortable lounge chairs), so I pulled it out, got the police/fire/ambulance on the way, and several other people were also there, including a lady who identified herself as a nurse-practicioner, as this is at the edge of downtown. The police maintenance barn is only 2 blocks away, and the main station is literally across the street, so they get there first, then fire trucks (2), and then ambulance. All within 3 minutes. They haul him off in the ambulance for x-rays. The bike was amazingly undamaged except for scrapes.

He's OK, I went to the emergency room after I finished talking with the police, he has a sprained knee, maybe some scrapes, but walked out of the hospital. Thank God.

Take it easy, man. Life is good. Everyone is OK. Sounds like you handled the situation well. Have a beer for me.

Will do. I think I'll also have a couple more for myself before hitting the sack.

I told him that when he gets off whatever pain meds they gave him, he should give me a call and I'd bring him some liquid painkillers.

I'm just so freaking glad he walked out of the hospital. I don't think I've had that much adrenaline going since the first time I jumped out of a plane.

I work on a college campus. I come close to hitting pedestrians and cyclists with alarming frequency. Bicyclists need to be sooooooo careful since they rarely come out on top in a match against the piles of gas guzzling steel most people drive around. Really, really glad it came out okay for you AND the cyclist. It just happens sometimes.

I know exactly how you feel. A few years back an older gentleman in a wheel chair accidentally hit the joystick and jumped into traffic right in front of me. I hit the brakes and managed to only hit him hard enough to knock the chair over but not do any bodily harm. When I got to him he couldn't speak and I had no way to know that had everything to do with the stroke he'd had and not the accident. Boy was I a mess emotionally that day.

Our eyes can't be everywhere at once and I think too many cyclists and pedestrians don't take that into consideration when crossing. Also, it sounds like the cyclist wasn't exactly obeying the rules. Was he on the sidewalk or street going against traffice to cross the intersection in front of you or was he going the same way as you and pulling out too? This is why I actually prefer to cross in the middle of streets since moving traffic is considerably more predictable than assuming someone sees me walking/riding into the intersection when they are watching traffic for their opportunity to pull out. But then you can get a ticket for not using the cross walk- what a choice, risk a ticket or risk getting hit. Crossing in the middle I've never even come close to getting hit but I've come way too close at intersections (both as driver and crosser). I've even nearly been hit crossing a one way street on the side of the intersection from which traffic is approaching the RED light and they can't make turns. They just skid up to the red light because they're going too fast or they've misjudged the stop and wind up in the crosswalk. Sucks, but that's life. Everyone is ok and that's the important thing...

Had a bit of trouble getting to sleep last night. Still seeing him drop out of sight behind the hood. Jeez, that was scary.

I ride a bike, too, so it's not that I don't know what it feels like to have a near miss with 3000lbs of steel, but I've never been hit, thankfully. But I also assume that the driver doesn't see me, even if they're looking at me.

He was riding on the sidewalk, in the opposite direction of traffic on a one-way street. So he was crossing from right to left, and I was watching the traffic coming from left to right. I started to turn back to the right as I started out, but I was concentrating on the gap in traffic that I intended to fit into. I'd been stopped for only a couple of seconds, so I knew that there weren't any pedestrians close, as I had looked down the sidewalk when I stopped.

If you ride a bike, remember that you're a vehicle when you're riding, not a pedestrian. I got a ticket initially from the police for negligent driving, but I balked a bit when he was explaining it to me. I told him I was under the impression that bicyclists had to become a pedestrian when using a crosswalk. He called me back in under 5 minutes, said he'd re-read the ordinances, and that I should tear up the ticket.

And please, please wear a helmet. I cracked a $75 helmet wide open on a tree trunk one day out in the park. Better the helmet than your head. All I got from that was a sore spot on my noggin.

I'm looking forward (not) to all the crap I'm going to get from the guys here at work, there are a bunch of rabid bicyclists here. Oh well, my skin is thick.

But I'll still be a lot more cautious, too. Even if it wasn't technically my fault, I still feel like crap about it, but relieved at the same time that it wasn't worse.


Yes.

Those rabid cyclists give drivers shit for not treating them like vehicles and then they completely ignore vehicular laws/rules so I wouldn't let them give you crap. It works both ways. I'm glad you spoke up to the cop. There are too many times when they don't understand such nuances and are prone to "the usual" response based solely on who/what got hit by who/what instead of actually thinking about it.

Always use a seatbelt and always use a helmet. Shouldn't even be a question about it.

What did you type to get that drinking smilie?

Click on "Show All" under your standard smiley/emoticon menu. Use Add Reply and not Fast Reply.

Glad to hear its all-good Tenzip.
I once rear-ended an ambulence while saying hello to a cute chick.
No injuries there either, thank god