On Nearly Getting Hit By An SUV
In which I worry that I’m letting my guard down while cycling
Back in the spring, I wrote about getting hit by a car while riding my bike. The accident happened back in 1992, when I’d just gotten my first job out of college and was riding to work. I hadn’t paid close enough attention while going through an intersection, and wham: A car t-boned my front tire.
Thankfully, I wasn’t hurt badly. And, rather usefully, the accident scared me straight. I became a much more attentive cyclist.
If you get hit by a car once while riding your bike, the impact sticks with you, psychologically. I’ve been rather more cautious around cars ever since. After seeing that car turn my bike into a pretzel — so easily, so trivially — I have a bone-deep fear of just how much kinetic energy obtains in two tons of moving metal, even when it’s driving along at a seemingly poky pace.
I also have a shuddering sense of just how much worse things could have gone. If I’d have been slightly faster off the mark? My legs would have been where my front wheel was. I can’t fully imagine how badly I’d have been injured.
The upshot is, even to this day I’m a bit more cautious in urban traffic.
