Jousting With a Nissan (aka The Bike Accident)

On December 11, I was in my worst bike wreck ever. First of all I AM OK NOW. Now that I've reassured you--I T-boned a car that turned left in front of me and spent the afternoon in the emergency room. Here is what happened, as best I can remember:

I was heading south on my bicycle on 14th Ave NW, approaching Market Street. A white car was turning left onto Market and had stopped for a pedestrian. I made eye contact with the driver to make sure he could see me too, then I stepped on the gas to make it through the intersection so the white car could complete his turn. As soon as I entered the intersection, a red Nissan came from BEHIND the stopped white car to turn left and I plowed into him at full speed, I would estimate about 20 mph. I think I turned away from the car slightly and hit it mostly with my right shoulder and rib cage, and bounced off the right rear passenger door. I think I must have briefly lost consciousness because I remember looking at car tires from street level and thinking "I have to get up and get out of the intersection before the other cars start moving." Somehow I managed to pick up my bike and get to the curb, but I couldn't breathe--I had no wind at all, it felt like my right hand was missing some fingers, and my left thigh was on fire. I crumbled down on the sidewalk and people walked up to me to see if I was OK, I think one of them was the driver of the red Nissan. Someone must have called 911, because I could hear sirens and one of the people helping said "here they come buddy, don't worry." Then it was just a blur of firefighters, EMTs, and police officers. By this point I was hyperventilating, and the paramedics put an oxygen mask over my mouth and a C-collar around my neck. They loaded me up into the ambulance and took me to Swedish hospital in Ballard.

As it turns out, nothing was broken--they took chest X-rays because they thought I might have some broken ribs, but there was nothing obvious. Two of the fingers on my right hand were (and still are) pretty swollen and a good chunk of skin is missing from the top of my index finger, but again, nothing broken. My left thigh just had some major bruising, but nothing serious. Basically, I felt like I did the morning after my first day snowboarding, only worse.

The whole thing was scary as hell, but I feel very lucky my injuries weren't more serious and have renewed my resolve to ride even more defensively in the future. Alas, my bike was not so lukcy--tacoed rear wheel, handle bars bent completely out of shape, carnage on the rear deraileur, front brake pads just simply missing (?!), and according to the guys at Second Ascent, likely hairline cracks throughout the Jake's aluminum frame. Sigh. It was a great bike for four years.

Fortunately, the police completed a detailed report and cited the driver. Safeco Insurance (the driver's insurance) accepted liability and are going to compensate me for everything.

More on the new bike(s) soon.