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BIKE_DOWN
June 5, 2013
October 20, 2013
On June 4th, 2013, I was riding home at night
From the Caltrain station at 4th & King,
heading north in the bike lane on Townsend.
I don't normally ride on Townsend: I
usually ride along King/Embarcadero, but
there was a baseball game that night,
and I thought I would try staying away
from the stadium chaos this time.
There was another cyclist riding ahead of me
in the bike lane. We caught up to each other
at the light at 3rd, and I let him go ahead of
me. I was following his very bright rear red
flasher, thinking that I should upgrade my own
lights.
I looked down for a moment, then heard a noise up ahead,
I looked up instantly and saw a collision in progress
between a large red SUV and the bike.
The SUV had pulled out of a parking garage and into
the road, without stopping before it was out in the This is sometimes
bike lane. called "getting
tee boned", I think.
I find describing scenes like this clearly,
without needless precision is difficult.
I could see the cyclist being pushed over by the
high, blunt, and famously dangerous nose of the
SUV, but I could also see the cyclist scraping
along the front of the SUV: he still had some
forward motion.
Evidently, the driver had pulled out quickly, and
the cyclist had tried to evade it, but ended up
doing an oblique collison with the nose -- I noted
later that it looked like the front license plate
had been hooked by the cyclist, it was bent up from
the bumper on the right side of the plate.
I pulled up, and found that the SUV was full of people--
presumably, leaving the baseball game-- and the driver
was getting out, a tall, older white guy.
Bystanders immediately started doing the
"Are you okay" routine. ARE_YOU_OKAY
The cyclicst was writhing around in the street,
and various people (including me) start telling
him he shouldn't move.
Later, I could see he was starting to recover,
(beginning to sit up, etc). His legs might've
been twisted around a little funny, and he was Yes, he had a helmet on.
apparently bleeding from the mouth, but I would He also was wearing
guess he was ultimately okay. brightly colored clothes,
I pull out my pocket notebook to scribble the
licence plate number, and shortly, I write a 5BDF878 CA
note with my name and number on it, considering
leaving it with the cyclist. (After the police
arrived, I gave it to them instead, and hung
around long enough to show them my ID, and so on.)
When I was trying to write down the plate number,
the driver kept standing in front of it. Eventually
I went "*Excuse me*" and stepped around him to see
the plate number.
The driver tried out the line
"He was going really *fast*." I tried to switch
And I responded immediately: on my "do not (Not something
engage" attitude. I'm good at
"Bull*shit*! You pulled out really.)
right in front of him!"
He then backed down and admitted it But maybe it's not strictly
was his fault. He admitted this to true that he "pulled in
several other people, and I felt like front of him"? Did the car
I was wasting my time offering myself broadside the bike or pull
as a witness, but I also suspected his in front of it, or was it
tune might change if I left, so I somewhere in between, an
stuck. interaction we don't have a
simple phrase to describe?
I immediately realized that my first
aid knowledge was nowhere near current,
and that I wasn't going to be able to A lawyer would have
help the injured cyclist-- he was fun taking-me apart
clearly hurt, dazed, concused, on cross-examination.
and bleeding a little. It seemed
likely he would be okay, but I and Really, you need to find
everyone else around him convinced him a *simple* story that's
not to move, and to wait for the reasonably close to the
ambulence. truth: describe what happened
fast and stick to it.
Someone sitting in the SUV had
supposedly called for help, but I Maybe most people just do
didn't think it was a good idea that without agonizing over
to rely on that. it.
I'm supposed to be phenomenally weird
for not carrying a cellphone, but it
was suprisingly difficult to find a
bystander with a phone. It could be
this is like a lot of fads... when
"everyone" is doing something, it The driver came up to me a
often turns out that "everyone" is couple of times, and tried
maybe the majority, but only barely. to talk to me. He was saying
stuff like "I feel just
A pair of female cyclists coming the terrible about this", and
opposite way stopped and asked me if later "Would you mind
it had been called in. I said "They telling me what you saw?
say they have, but please do call it I'm not trying to spin it--"
in again."
They were really good: one got down on the ground to
examine the cyclist closely-- she was the one who
noted he was bleeding from the mouth.
So, once again, in an emergency,
I get a C at best:
o I really need some
first aid training.
o I had no camera to
photograph the scene.
o I gave the cops my info,
but why not also give
a copy to the cyclist?
o I could've gotten names and
descriptions of everyone
on the scene.
o If I bent my principles and
carried an emergency phone,
I could've gotten the call
out of the way faster and
stopped worrying about it.
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