Do you run from a collision?

One that you cause? Report from Al J, who earlier in the day was fitting helmets and leading middle school kids on a ride, helping them learn to ride safely on the streets:

Around 4:30 Saturday (5/31) afternoon while riding to the Mariners game I was traveling eastbound on the bike trail along Spokane, as I approached the turn onto E. Marginal Way (to head north) I looked through the chain-link fencing to see a group of cyclists heading towards me and yelled a heads-up to announce my presence. Which I’m guessing they didn’t hear.

Making the left turn (probably a bit too fast in hind-sight) I see they are riding 4 abreast leaving me very little room to get by. My speed and the lack of room forced me into the (approx.) 6’ x 6’ concrete support column for the overhead bridge traffic.

Hitting the concrete with my right forearm and shoulder I immediately bounced off and fell to the ground onto my left forearm, shoulder and knee and then ended in an up-right sitting position to find the force of one of the collisions had knocked the wind out of me. As I sat there grunting and trying to catch my breath I hear a female voice off to my right asking “Are you alright?” and I look to see one the women from the group (2 men and 2 women) had stopped to check on me. As far as I could tell, the 3 other riders had continued as they were not in my field of vision.

Almost immediately I heard a male voice yell “Come on Rachael, G** damn-it, lets go!”, which prompted her to ride off leaving me there alone.

After catching my breath and doing a self and bike assessment I decided that the uber-sore shoulder is probably all muscular pain and continued on to the game. (Die-hard baseball fan here!)

While at the game I did stiffen up considerable however was able to score 4 ibuprofen from a woman sitting behind me which, in combination with the M’s exciting 3-2 win over Detroit I had enough grit to ride back to west Seattle and even climb California Way and make it home.

Rachael, if you’re or anybody in your party is reading this, other than being pretty damn sore and slightly scraped-up, I think I’m okay however tomorrow morning will give a better assessment of that. And I will be contacting the SPD tomorrow and letting them know of this so they have it on record.

Fortunately my injuries are not worse, or even anywhere near those sustained by John Macy, but if they were who knows how long I would have sat there until someone came along to help.

In closing all I have to say is…Come on people, make smart(er) decisions and do the right thing!!!!!