rsbob 

Had a couple of memorable wrecks:

1. Mtn biking down a serpentine trail was blasting down a gully with a steep rise on the other side which one had to make or else ge stuck with a very steep climb out. So bombing down (15mph) The is a huge up rooted tree stump right against the single track. Chanting the mantra, Look where you want to go, the edge of my handlebar hit one of its roots and smacked me down on my back so hard it knocked the breath out of me. I knew I had to be injured so started by wiggling my fingers, which worked, then my toes which also moved so I knew I wasn’t paralyzed. Walked 2 miles out in shock. My right shoulder was a wreck which took a year to heal.

2. Riding my road bike in echelon formation with 4 other guys at 23 MPH in the rain, we crossed railroad tracks. I was 2nd in the formation, when I saw the lead riders back tire slip out on the track taking him down and his back tire hitting my front wheel taking me down with the guy behind me hitting me. Since the pavement was so wet and at that speed I slipped on my side down the road about 50 feet. Road rash on my right side from shoulder arm, hip, leg and ankle. Fortunately was able to continue the ride with all my clothes in tatters and bleeding.

Koyote

I'd rather reminisce about the good times.

rsbob 

So why don’t you start your own fond reminiscing thread rather than pooping on this one?

expatbrit

Does it count if you don't remember?

Hit and run. Next thing I know was waking up post first-op in the hospital next morning with my jaw wired shut, a tracheotomy and a feeding tube up my nose. I was conscious in the ambulance enough to get my partner's cell number out (not sure how; I had both side of my jaw broken along with multiple other bones in my face, a depressed skull fracture, and hanging injuries including broken hyoid, broken tracheal cartilage, nerves sheared out of my left vocal cord and so on and so forth). Was on good enough painkillers (fentanyl, propanol, dilaudid, plus recovery from a general) they didn't need any more to drill a hole in my shin, stuff a rod thru' it and hang 20lbs of water off to traction my leg -- the femur had gone out the back of the pelvis, breaking it out and dislocating the hip fairly badly. Few days in the ICU to see if my lungs would recover (they did) and until they could bolt my arse back together (they did).

SVTNate

March 30, 2017.

I rode my 2016 BMW R1200RS to court in Vista, CA for a hearing. Before the noon break, I rode to West Justice Center in Westminster, CA for a hearing. Look at a map and you'll see what a feat this was.

I left the courthouse, a woman in some Toyota sedan turned left, while looking right. T-boned my bike, witnesses told police I flew 50-100 feet in the air before hitting the asphalt. I broke 2 ribs, knocked unconscious, road rash on my right knee that you can still see today (I was wearing suit pants), punctured lung.

I remember thinking "I can't avoid this", swerved hard into the suicide lane, she struck the right rear of the bike. I remember looking at the handlebars as the bike fishtailed violently. I remember thinking "I can't save this, I'm going to crash". The next thing I can recall is waking up on the asphalt, face up, with a woman on a cell phone standing over me, and I heard sirens approaching.

So I spent all morning at triple digit speeds, only to be hit doing 40mph - the speed limit.

I spent 1 night in the hospital. This happened on what... a Thursday? I can't recall exactly without looking at a calendar.

The following Monday I hobbled my butt back into court, because no work, no money. I missed a single day of work, because it had to be done.

I still have the helmet, which saved my life. My face would be permanently disfigured if not for the full face Shoei GT-Air I was wearing.

I never took any painkilers, other than something in an IV they insisted I take. I was written prescriptions for pain killers, which I ripped in half and handed back to the nurse.

I did take muscle relaxers for my back, so I could sleep.

I know this is not a thread about motorcycle accidents, but that's my story.

I have a small scar on my right shoulder - which I never understood, because I was wearing a leather jacket with shoulder armor, and while the leather was scuffed pretty bad, the armor was pristine.

My right knee is scarred.

I cannot sleep more than 7 hours on my back (I can't sleep any other way, never could). I get pain that wakes me up, and the pain goes away the second I sit upright. Zero pain otherwise - but 7 hours, and I can't just stretch and lay back down. As a result, I no longer need an alarm clock. 2 surgeons, MRI, x-rays, and they never found anything to "fix". I was told "lose weight". I've lost 80 pounds, and it didn't help. Whatever is going on in my back, it limits my sleep to 7 hours or so, but that's it. I have no other limitations as a result - and I used to do Crossfit workouts, so I've got a very strong back. Strength training and weight loss has done nothing to help, and neither has nearly 4 years. But, I have no brain damage or any other issues as a result, and I'm not dead, so I'm grateful.

I remember the paramedics in the ambulance taking me to UCI Medical Center laughing and saying "wait until she finds out that she hit a lawyer".

The settlement was a substantial chunk of the down payment on my current home, but I'll say this - if I could give the money back and erase my accident from history, I would. It wasn't worth it.

AlgarveCycling

In the sprint for the finish at my first road race when I was 18, the guy next to me knocked me off swerving too close, I went down, two riders behind me rode into me. Quite a mangle but happily no serious injuries for anyone.

When I was 16, I had my most scary moment, bombing down a steep hill in torrential rain on my way home from school my brakes completely failed...at the bottom of the hill was a busy intersection and a concrete wall behind that. Just before, another school with lots of vehicle and pedestrian traffic. I decided to bail rather than face what might happen further down so jumped off onto a grass verge. Again, happily, all went really well, no injuries.

I've had a few falls, some crashes on my MTB but grazes mainly. The worst in terms of injury was earlier this year when I came off at a traffic circle and fractured my wrist.

jpescatore

On a local back road I do many times per year, I just happened to synch up with a residential trash truck which kept passing me and stopping in front of me to empty trash cans into the truck and I'd pass the truck. On a downhill with no oncoming traffic, it stopped ahead of me to simultaneously get the trash cans from houses on both sides of this country road.

I stupidly decided to pass the truck without yelling out, thought I be quickly by them as in previous stops where they were only dealing with trash cans on the right side of the road. Bad decision.

As I passed, the guy on the left, without turning around, slide a trash can backwards towards the truck, at the exact time that my front wheel was between the can and the truck. I cleverly used my right elbow and knee to protect the bike from the road - a very bad case of road rash, no broken bike parts or body parts.

They were very apologetic, but it was my mistake - I violated my cardinal rule while biking, actually driving, too: never assume the other person is going to do what you think they are going to do.

Lemond1985

Leaned hard into a steep off-camber turn at 35 mph, and my front tire, which had a puncture I didn't know about, rolled right off. Slid for 3 1/2 seconds (gif animation is speeded up). Had the hair on one side of my head ground off by asphalt, but fortunately it grew back. Road rash and swollen bruised hip, but no ambulances, no doctors, no bills, and full recovery.




I will never forget the sick feeling in my stomach the instant I realized I had no traction and was about to go down hard.

Moisture

I always go full speed around this bumpy corner that gets muddy after the rain to test my handling just for fun. Its very satisfying to get a feel for rear tire traction for practice. The rear end of my bike feles very stiff which gives you a very accurate feel of available grip. Recovers skids very fast and reassuringly.

Barry2 

Had two offs, totaled the bike on both occasions and these were in the days of no helmets (or cell phones).

I hit the back of a stationary car in the dark. Me and the bike wound up on the roof with me looking in the windshield.
Without rat traps I’d have gone clean over.
Don’t know how, but luckily got my arm between my head and the car. Arm hurt for days.
Front wheel overlapped the down tube by a couple inches. Walked 5+ miles home.

Sprinting and taco’ed a front wheel. Went over the top but got lucky and hit flat across my shoulder blades. Still hit the back of my head, but hitting shoulders first first took the brunt of the impact.
Came to my senses still in the middle of the road with people looking down and directing cars around me.
Walked home.

Cell phones have made us soft. Recently got a flat. Tried to fix it three times, gave up, called wife for ride home.
Two people and Cervelo R3 will go in a Fiat 500e ....... Just.

Barry

livedarklions

The time I was killed. I'm sketchy on the details.
Yup, I'm a posting ghost.

indyfabz

Someone in front of me kicked up a stick with her rear wheel as we were powering up to get up a short, steep hill. The stick got spun up by front, bladed spoke and lodged parallel to the ground between the inside of my brake caliper and my rim. The wheel, of course, came to a dead stop. I, on the other hand, did not. I was in the air long enough to say "Aw man!" before driving my right shoulder into the road and splitting the very end clavicle. Fortunately, I was able to mostly keep my head up, so the helmet only grazed the road surface.

This happened the first time I led a group ride using this route, which I had designed and scouted and was really excited about. The group had to go on without me as I was hauled off to the hospital in an ambulance.

CAT7RDR

Upon my 98th mile of a planned 108 mile century, I was being careless and did not intersect a RxR crossing at a right angle. I was stopped in my tracks from about 15 mph (punny) and flew over my bike landing on my right side and scraping my helmet. Just scrapes and bruising but my bike sustained extensive drivetrain damage that necessitated the "Call of Shame" and an upgrade to Ultegra from a 105 mix.

What troubles me more is I was passed by a couple of riders that were behind me that did not even slow to check on me while I was sprawled out along side the curb.

Juan Foote

My username "Juan Foote" is from the result of my moto accident. I won't go into that here.

Worst bicycle wreck was off the start gate at a BMX race. I was attempting to time the christmas tree for a better jump on the start during practice before the race. Myself and one other rider bumped the gate too hard and it locked in position. When we bounced backwards from the impact the gate then opened and I lurched forward over the handlebars and came down directly on my right elbow. Broke it into three pieces directly in the joint. They operated on it and put pins in, along with a wire to hold it all together. I was in various cast and sling for over a year. I was only supposed to have a small ROM with that arm, but as soon as I was released to use it I would pull it up and down on the edges of the range of motion until I regained almost full use of it.

The most recent serious bike wreck I had actually did much more mental damage to me than physical, in that it placed "the fear" in my head and I haven't been as free spirited about riding since.
We were up in Atl on one of the Dragon Con nights. Super fun just to ride back and forth at the hotels and convention area seeing all the people and costumes. Buddy and I were riding side by side up a short section of trolley tracks, actually talking about not riding over them correctly. Front tire fell into the rut and down I went. Leg went flying off, hurt my back and hip pretty badly. Ended up being bedridden for several weeks and still have trouble with my lower back from it. Worst of it is that I actually worry more about being hurt while I ride than I can focus on the ride aspect.

DangerousDanR

Year, 1982: Riding the bike path from Newport Beach CA up to Long Beach CA. Up to LB fighting the wind all the way, then back to my apartment. After work with a colleague. Strong wind, 15 miles up. Turn around. The beach is almost empty. Who wants to be at the beach when it is in the fifties and blowing? Colleague in front, me about a foot back, 30 MPH easy cruise with the wind.

Then the pavement narrowed about 6 inches for no reason. Colleague went down half on the path, half in the sand. I hit him hard. I sailed over him on impact and landed on my head and then wound up in the sand.

I had just bought a hard shell riding helmet at the insistence of my GF, so the helmet probably prevented a major injury. It certainly had a nasty scrape mark.

My bike was a Motobecane back when they were made in France and light and lovely. My front wheel looked like a taco and was no longer connected to the bike. Every tube on my bike was bent. The crank set was destroyed. My brakes had colleague's blood on them and they left a pair of gashes on his back. Somehow, the handlebars and the rear wheel were not damaged. If my memory is correct, he rode home, got his car, picked up me and my demolished bike, and we went out for Pizza.

I bought a Peugeot CFX-10 frame set and brought over any components that would fit (French thread BB VS Swiss on the MB).

rsbob 

Bad scare: in an urban area, was heading down hill in the center of the lane about 25-30 approaching a car that just pulled into a two-way left turn lane wanting to cross in front of me. Am always wary of being seen, so was looking for eye contact with the driver. In this case she looked toward me so I felt that was good enough, then she started pulling right in front of me. As the nose of her car was half way into my lane she sees me as I attempt an evasive maneuver. Still at full speed I manage to swerve around the nose of her car about 1 ‘ away. Managed to keep control and kept going down the hill shaking inside. Almost had to change my shorts. So close to disaster. Now I never take for granted being seen, and also have bright LED strobes front and rear to be sure I’m seen.

Lemond1985

Similar thing when I crashed, and was riding home on a busted bike covered with blood. The complete lack of concern among strangers was palpable. Even my neighbor turned his head the other way, as I passed him climbing the stairs carrying my bike.

I don't really care whether anyone around me is sincerely concerned about my well-being, or whether I live or die, but geez, at least PRETEND like you do.

Erzulis Boat 

I have crashed pretty hard many times on my MTB, and have been hit by cars a few times on my roadbike.

Here is one incident- I had a very bad habit of blowing red lights on my bike, and also did the old "hang a right at the red, and pop a U turn a little up the way" basically a glorified running of a red. I hang the right turn at the red, go up the street about 50 yards, then cross, do a 180 and hook back around. I didn't see the car coming, popped the U turn, and BAM! I was hit very hard. 100% my fault. The guy stops and is very shaken, he is apologizing profusely, but I tell him it was not his fault. My ribs were messed up for weeks.

Milton Keynes

I've only had one bad bike crash that I remember. I was probably around 10 years old so this would have been 1980 or 1981.. Doing a bike-a-thon for charity, 6 miles out on a paved road and then 6 miles back, people pledged so much money per mile. I was at around mile 9 going down a big hill with the wind at my back, suddenly I notice the handlebars shaking right before my bike went out from under me and I slid on the pavement on my face & knees, mainly. Luckily there were people providing a SAG of sorts, and one of the pickups turned around so I didn't have to wait too long bleeding on the side of the road. Had to get stitches in my upper lip & chin, and skinned up my knees but luckily didn't need stitches on them. Luckily I didn't get a concussion because this was the early 80's when no kids ever wore cycling helmets. When I got my bike I noticed the back tire was flat, so I think that's what caused the crash. Luckily there wasn't any further damage to my Western Flyer banana seat bike, and after patching the tire and healing up I was back on the bike. That happened around 40 years ago but I still have the scars to this day. I'm just glad I never let that accident keep me off the bike.

tsmith41094

Train tracks. Not a fan.

Geno929

I was feeling bold and took my Rad Rover 5 to Castlewood State Park in St.Louis, MO. Felt like doing a tough uphill trail called Lone Wolf Trial. Well, the uphill portion was doable! Steep and rocky, but we handled it fine. Downhill portion was, shall I say, a bit more of a challenge! Steep, narrow and washed out from late summer rains! When I found myself at the bottom of a rocky, moss covered washed out stream with 90 lbs of electric bike on top of me, well, let me tell you, it ain't nice! After I extricated myself from the narrow boulder strewn wash and got the Rover off me and upright, I had to deal with the scraps, bruises and bumps that had just formed. And now the additional challenge of getting the Rover the rest of the way down and, trying to not look too much like the Rube I am, I walked it down a few hundred yards, remounted and finished the Lone Wolf Trail looking a bit disheveled but able to wipe off the blood and crud with my headscarf. As I limped back to my car, actually used throttle to ease my knee pain, I was never so happy to see my, now obligatory bottle of hand sanitizer on the front seat and was able to "sanitize" my numerous bloody limbs and digits, I can't help but think: "This bike is just too big for my grandiose aspirations of being the first over 60 Mountain bike Challenge Winner!"
Keep rockin on, but not on that bike! Woo Hoo!

subgrade

My worst crash was 2 years ago on a railway overpass; it's an old one, built in 1800s, with a cobbled carriageway, no bike lanes, so I usually take the paved sidewalk. It was early morning, the sidewalk was empty, so I got out of the saddle and powered up the incline, and was doing around 17-18 mph at the top where the sidewalk narrows down for whatever reason. I clipped the railing on the right side with my (flat) handlebars, which caused it to turn and the front wheel crashed hard into the railing. I went over the bars and crashed facefirst on the sidewalk. Lost consciousness for a second or two, came to senses bleeding profusely from my nose and face. A passer-by asked if I needed an ambulance; I was going to tell that probably not, but felt that my teeth are not quite where they used to be and the palate is moving around, so I just nodded, and was rushed to hospital. Aftermath: concussion, Le Forte type 2 fracture (broken nose, both eye sockets, upper jaw on both sides, effectively disconnecting the central part of the face from the rest of the skull), broken cheekbone, and a couple of wounds on my face. Had facial surgery and have now 3 titanium implants to hold it all in place.
The bike had a severely bent fork and pinch flats along destroyed tires - on BOTH wheels, which I still can't wrap my head around how I managed to pinch flat the rear tire as well.

washed up

don't forget to add...while crossing rail road tracks. Thats one I wold like to have seen so I could just stand there and shake my head.

Alphonsus

How are you now? Do you still ride? Reading what you just wrote, is making me second guess the next time I ride on my hardtail without my helmet going 30mph on the highways as I go on my 50 mile trips

bruce19

Had a front brake lock up on a state road. Did an endo..hit face first and broke my neck. Now living with C1 & C2 fused.