Biker down!!

Last night, the daily ride hit one of those bumps on the road.  I say on the road, because that is where the bump occurred, but not the source of the bump.  That was a Toyota Prius.  On the ride home, I was rear ended by the driver of said Prius.

This is a good example of simple carelessness and probably a habit that more of us have than we would like to admit.  It happened at a three way intersection and I was turning right.  The light was red, and the car ahead of me stopped.  He waited for the traffic to clear and made his right turn.  I moved up and looked to make sure traffic was clear before I made my own turn.  A car was coming doing about fifty, so I waited.  After he cleared, I was about to take off when I felt the impact from behind.  The bike lurched forward and fell down on the right side. 

What happened?  The man behind me did exactly the same thing that I had; he pulled up and checked to see that traffic from the left was clear.  Where our actions differed was that while I looked right again before taking off, he did not.  He assumed that I had already taken off and proceeded into the intersection while still looking left.

In the end, all was well.  The bike sustained damage to the rear fender, lights, and to the pipes, but it was ridable and none of the casings appeared cracked.  I'll be taking the bike into Battley Cycles for a thorough inspection next Tuesday to be certain, but overall the extent of the damage doesn't seem too great.  The Prius had a nice big chunk taken out of the corner.  No injuries, happily, to either myself or the driver.  Two bikers, one trucker, and a lady who witnessed the accident stopped along the way to make sure that everything was alright.

So the lesson?  The driver missed an important step in looking to see if the lane was clear, which was to look back to where he was going before proceeding.  I'd like to say it was unique, but I've seen it done many times over the years.  Take the time and don't hurry through traffic.  Don't rush yourself through intersections.  Take your time, be cautious, and drive or ride safely.  I was okay, but it could have been worse.  A pedestrian would not have fared as well as I did.  School is back in session, so there are more small pedestrians about right now than there were last week.

Ride free and true!  And safely!