groth

So, I'm westbound on Rt. 518, a two lane highway with bike lanes. A small country road, Spring Hill, goes off to the right. A big white SUV, headed westbound, overtakes me and turns right, right in front of me. I managed to avoid a collision with the SUV, but that left me headed straight for the far curb. Seeing I was going to hit the curb, I squared up the bike and hit it straight on hoping that the front wheel would roll over it. No such luck. I went over the handlebars and did a face plant in a dirt area. I never lost consciousness, got up right away and there was all sorts of blood coming from my nose. The SUV continued without stopping, Some people stopped to help and 911 was called. Meanwhile I can sort of see that the front of my nose is hanging down - later learned it's almost been sliced off. Anyway, a cop, two high school volunteers, and an ambulance show up. One of the volunteers bandaged my nose back into place from the cop's medical kit (before the ambulance got there). My wife died almost 5 years ago and I live alone. Didn't think I should call anybody to take the bike, so the cop suggested to lock it up and I could retrieve it later, The fork was bent so that there was a 2 inch or so overlap of the front wheel with the down tube, so nobody was going to ride it away, but there's a lot of tools and spare parts on it, so I wanted to recover it. The most valuable individual item was the GPS unit which I removed and took with me to the hospital. One of the volunteers rode with me in the back of the ambulance. A really nice senior who is applying to colleges and hopes to continue on to medical school. I think he'll do great. The GPS track continued all the way to the hospital (forgot to turn it off) and showed I got there about 4:45pm. Got home about a quarter after midnight. The emergency room does not move quickly! Maybe they keep people around to see if any additional symptoms show up? Anyway, the bandage was replaced, I got a tetanus shot, a CAT scan - which determined my nose was broken, an internal exam of my septum by a nose doc - the septum was deviated (had been deviated in a fight when I was a kid and straightened in high school), the nose was stitched back together, and I was generally cleaned up. Probably will require additional surgeries to fix the nose on the inside and the outside. Here's a photo after the​​stitches (had my phone and took selfies!):



So what almost cut off my nose? Wondered about that off and on while in the ER. When I got home and checked out all my stuff, I noticed that the edge of the snap on helmet visor was rather sharp. When getting ready to board the ambulance I had collected my stuff including picking up the visor and snapping it back in. So what almost surely happened was the visor hit the ground first, was bent back towards my face and probably unsnapped about the same time and then my nose tried to push it along the ground.

FWIW, here's a link to the ridewithgps track of the ride. It shows I was going about 15 mph just before the SUV cut me off.

The next day I recovered my bike and also noticed that my neck was sore and stiff as well as my right hand. There was swelling below each eye. There were also random scratches here and there - it's winter and I was well padded (not the face though), otherwise there would probably would have been more scrapes and scratches. Also noticed that I had to concentrate on what I was doing. Otherwise my mind would wander. Now, two days after the ride, the wandering has gone away.

Finally, I have to say the SUV driver probably did it intentionally. I have a bright orange fleece jacket I wear as my outer layer in winter. Also I have two blinkies on the rear - they don't just blink but also oscillate up and down. I think it was impossible for the SUV driver not to see me.

- Ed

zebreaux

Wow.
The young lady at my bike shop said she had cameras on her bike when I asked about getting a mirror so I could see the cars coming up from behind and I thought that sounded a little overkill. Then I started looking into it. I wish you had had some on your bike. Especially if you think they cut you off on purpose.
The same goes for the visor in the helmet. You never know about things like that but it would be interesting to find out.
Hope you get to feeling better. Thanks for sharing.

OldsCOOL

Ouch. That looks sore. That’ll leave a nice scar to brag about!

John E

I understand your visor saga, having been gouged twice by breaking eyeglass frames.

John E

Like the dueling scar across my left cheekbone, from my one and only collision with a motor vehicle.

Biker395 

Oh man. I’m so sorry to read this!

The head injury is the scariest thing. I sure hope you don’t have any more issues.

I think the brim of my helmet may have been the thing that broke my nose, but I’ll never know. I think I’m replacing mine with a wavecell.

Good luck on your recovery!

JanMM

Dang! Bet you’re sore today. Your post was quite coherent for a man who went through what you did. Hang in there.

rseeker

Sorry to hear about this, I'm pulling for ya.

I hope none of my non-biking friends ever read BF. It's better if they don't know.

woodcraft

Heal up quick!

At least you know what happened...

Iride01 

Glad you are or will be somewhat whole again. FWIW, the pic was a little too explicit for me <GRIN> Well, maybe not, but.......

How big and how sharp was that snap? I've been given gifts of rear-view mirrors to mount on my helmet, but I won't use them as I don't want to chance that rod they mount on gets shoved into my skull as my head slides down the asphalt. I suppose most use them with no harm, but I'm leery of things like that.

Natomashomeboy

Ouch! Hope your better,

jppe

Oh my!! I hope you heal quickly and don’t have much pain. You certainly made the right move to avoid a collision with the vehicle. It sure would have been nice if someone could have gotten information on the vehicle.

ascherer 

Phew, heal well and Godspeed!

ups

Sorry you experienced that. Hope you heal quickly.

groth

Thanks everybody for your kind words and encouragement!

Here's a photo of my recovered bike. The only obvious damage is the badly bent fork and a flat front tire. Looks like the front rim is still round (will make sure later) and even the mirror is not broken. Might be able to get it back on the road if a replacement fork can be found. You say, why not get a new bike? Well, after a while, you get a bike just the way you like it and it's hard to start over with a new one! Just so you know, my two cars are both 19 years old - because I like them!

Thanks again -
Ed

ups

Wow! I am sure the shop that replaces the fork would do it anyway, but have them take a look at the welds between the top tube and head tube and down tube and head tube. To bend the fourth that much those welds probably absorb a lot of energy. I would particularly look at the junction between the top tube and head tube for any cracks or cracked paint.

BlazingPedals

You could almost turn that fork around and have the correct offset! I too am surprised the downtube didn't collapse. Definitely have a shop inspect the frame before ordering the fork.

JanMM

That would seem to be quite a robust frame, judging by the photo. Hope they find the fork is the only problem