Taken out by a car, lessons learned (Read 1670 times)

Cripes!  Glad you're OK.

I am so glad you were ok.  And the helmet, wow.  I have a bit of fear of cycling, even with all the nice bike lanes here.  Cripes, I used to ride motorcycles and I would feel safer doing that than cycling again.

I volunteer as a driver for seniors once a week.  There are many reasons I do this, but thinking about them being unsafe to everyone while behind the wheel was never at the top.  Usually I assumed they stopped driving because they were physically very frail or for financial reasons.   Then I remember my sister telling me how my father, now 86, came to a dead stop on an on ramp, just because it was a bit foggy.  He drives about 25 mph no matter what the road!  He still drives daily and will be the last one to give that up, until he fails the test, as he is too cheap to move into assisted living and depend on others.

Scary stuff, glad you are ok.

My mom is a terrible driver. A few years ago my sister anonymously reported her somewhere (this was in So Cal). My mom got some letter saying she had to go through some driving tests (written & road). She did not pass the road test and her license was taken away. She has no idea that it was my sister who reported her. She just thought she was called in because she had had a few accidents (no injuries to anyone, thank goodness).

Thanks again all. I'm glad I'm ok too. My family is probably even more glad. Paramedics and doctors told me I'm about the luckiest they've seen in this situation. Really, it was a violent hit and it's improbable that I was so fortunate. I'm trending nicely, pain is receding, and it's amazing how quickly some things can heal. The headache hasn't gone away yet and I've got a couple other issues I'm watching but life will go on for me. I've got too many responsibilities to leave this place just now. 

I might give up bike commuting to Boston but I don't think I can give up cycling. It's such a part of who I am it would be a real loss. Now only if I could get this running thing working again...

I was very shocked to read this and so glad you are/will be ok, Chris.  Every time I think I'm going to start road biking again I see one of these stories....

 

My family has been in the position of having to deal with older family members getting to the shouldn't-be-driving point in recent years.  My dad's aunt was easy; she started feeling uneasy about her skills so she sold her car to one grandson and rural house to another, and moved in with her daughter...she knew she shouldn't be driving.  My grandfather was the opposite, got into the early stages of Alzheimer's and rolled his truck off the road during a memory lapse, luckily noone else was on the road.  He refused to give up his keys, so my dad took the rotor out of the distributor so it would not run and he'd never figure it out.  A week later the sheriff brought him home after he rode his farm tractor into town on the state highway for groceries...so that had to be "broken" too.  Then his riding lawnmower as well.  The drama sucked but not as much as if he would have killed someone.

  Yup that is what we did as well.  And we changed the phone number on his phone list so he couldnt get ahold of the garage

Glad you are ok

Wow, scary.  Hope you are back to running and maybe biking soon.

I'd REALLY love to see behind-the-wheel tests be required maybe every 5-10 years for ALL drivers.  Then AARP can't cry ageism and we might actually get a few crappy younger drivers to re-learn how to drive properly, too.  There are far too many folks who think driving is their right, when it's merely a privilege that's often viewed without the level of care it deserves.

My husband and I have had a number of jobs over the years where we drove most of the day and I couldn't agree more.  One of those jobs was transporting people w/mental and/or physical disabilities.  A particular man that we picked up regularly had recently retired.  He was standing behind his parked car, putting something in the trunk, when an impaired driver (diabetic, in this case, w/sight problems) crashed into the back of this man's car, cutting one leg off at the knee and damaging the other enough that it was not sure for some time whether that one would have to be amputated also.  (This accident was the reason we were transporting him--going to therapy appointments, etc., wheelchair bound at first and then learning to use his prosthetic leg.)   Apparently in court, the diabetic driver seemed to feel no real responsibility for the accident, saying "well, you know, I don't see so well, so what could I do?"  Did not seem to get it in any way that if you can't see, just maybe you shouldn't drive.....

So yes, I absolutely think requiring behind-the-wheel tests would be a WONDERFUL thing--and also having some way to enforce the "no driving if no license" thing.  Suspect a lot of folks would still go out there, as you see this already w/those w/drunk driving issues, etc.....

To the OP, thank heavens you're going to be OK!  Holy cow...

Christopher -- thats some good advice - glad you're OK