More accident info

Last week two police constables came round to take my statement. I have a suspicion nothing much is going to come of it since it involved a bicycle. I could be proved wrong however. In any case it's good to get this documented for future reference.

On Friday I went in to have my dressings changed, and have the shoulder checked out to see how I was doing. I had an x-ray done, which showed the bone was healing well. I also took some pictures while still I was there. Unfortunately none of them came out very well with any one of them being of any use. If you want to take a look at it you can click here but be warned it's rather gory.

This morning the insurance adjuster came out to see me. She was somewhat surprised the other driver had not already contacted them. Apparently I was the first person to contact them about this accident, the driver is supposed to contact the insurance. The adjuster said that I was considered to be the same as a pedestrian, ie a vulnerable road user, and it was a driver's responsibility to take care around me. I told her what happened, and she took a witness statement from me. She is going to e-mail it to me so I can check it out and then send it back to her. She said (without prejudice) that it looked like a pretty open and shut case to her. The next step is to talk to a medical adjustors tomorrow. I don't think there's much going to be coming out of this as haven't got any real medical expenses yet. The insurance adjuster also went over the $2500 cap that applied if any injury lasted less than a year.

This week I get to have my dressings changed, and then next week I get the pins taken out. I'll then to get to get into physio and I'll get tested to find out what the range of motion of my arm like after having been in a sling for so long. With any luck I should get full reuse of my arm.

More accident news

Thanks for all the messages of support.

I took some pictures this morning of the damage done to my bike. The damage I've found so far is a nipple ripped out of the rim, brake hoods damaged, handlebar bag broken off, and the bell broken off.

Here are some pictures of the damage done:


Wheel bent out of true


Spoke ripped out of the rim


One of the hoods bent in and torn up


Bell broken off


Handlebar bag broken off

It looks like a lot of energy was sucked up by my bell and by my handlebar bag. I don't know what happened to my bell, it seems to have disappeared. At least it gave its life for a good cause.

I called the police station this morning but the police officer who attended the scene on Monday was off until next Tuesday. The receptionist suggested I come into the office with ID to get a copy of the accident report but I explained I am under medical house arrest and cannot come in. I need to contact the officer next Tuesday when he is next on duty.

I now need to wait until the 10th when I have my next medical appointment.I should find out then if the pins are healing up properly or not.

Ride home for Monday, 30 April + hit by a car

Got hit by a car on the way home, as I was almost home.

I crossed Lacewood on to Parkland (a bike route, no less), and rode behind a black Ford Mustang, and a blue midsized car in front of that. As I rode down past Lancaster drive, I heard a loud engine noise behind me, which turned out to be a rather large brown jeep. I noticed the blue car start to turn up ahead, so I slowed down and the brown jeep came up alongside me. The next thing I knew the jeep was trying to turn into Langbrae while still parallel to me. I then made a sharp right turn into Langbrae myself to try to minimize the effects of the collision. I managed to make a sharp enough turn that I ended up hitting the side of the jeep rather than being run over.

The next thing I knew I was on the floor, with a friend who's a firefighter standing over me. We recognized each other, and my backpack was cut, as was my helmet and I was placed in a neck restraint and lifted into the ambulance. I was then brought down to the hospital and brought straight into emergency. I went in for x-rays which showed I had snapped off the top of the humerus bone. I was sent home and told not to eat and drink anything after midnight, as I was on a shortlist for surgery.

I was called into surgery on Tuesday, and went in around lunchtime. I went into surgery around about three o'clock and it was all done by around 5:30. I was then pumped full of drugs, there seemed to be some surprise in just how much drugs it took - I had a whole syringe which apparently was quite a bit. I then came home late night and slept at home.

I've been told to stay at home now for about a week. I'm playing with some voice recognition software to get stuff done and it's not the best solution. I should find out next week when the pins come out and when I'll be able to start riding again.

Distance logged: 6.754km
Time: 21:34
Average speed: 18.8km/hr
Max speed: 56 km/hr
Temperature: 4C
Cumulative distance: 2732.225km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.3
Monthly distance: 13.587km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride into work for Monday, 30 April

Distance logged: 6.833km
Time: 15:38
Average speed: 26.2km/hr
Max speed: 52.8 km/hr
Temperature: 2C
Cumulative distance: 2725.471km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.3
Monthly distance: 6.833km
Monthly cost per km: $0