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I always knew that having an accident on my bike was inevitable, however I didn’t expect it to occur in my first week of riding and I definitely did not expect it to involve a car. In Hamburg, the bike lane is on the footpath keeping bikes completely separate from the cars, so it was a dose of really bad luck that a car hit me whilst I was riding in the bike lane yesterday evening.
The idiot driver that hit me was reversing up on the footpath and didn’t bother looking. Fortunately, I slowed down and had almost come to a complete stop when she hit me, thus ensuring that she only hit my front wheel and not me. However, the impact threw me off my bike and onto the unforgiving pavement.
I’m fine, just a few scrapes and bruises and a sore shoulder that is letting me know that it took the brunt of the impact. Arya (my bike) doesn’t have a scratch on her. She’s one tough bike. The Dutch definitely build their bikes well.
To add insult to injury, the driver waited in her car for almost a minute before getting out to check if I was ok. I honestly think she wouldn’t had apologised if I had gotten up quickly, but as it was it took me time to get Arya off me (she’s heavy) and myself off the pavement. It was only after I had struggled up and gotten my bike upright that she got out of her car to see if I was okay. I think that pissed me off almost as much as her hitting me.
I hope this incident has taught the driver to look when she reverses as it honestly could have been a small kid that was directly behind her car and that kid would not have suffered just a few scrapes and bruises.
For me, I now have a healthy fear of cars reserving. I’m never again going to assume that the driver has seen me and will do the right thing and stop before hitting me.
