Your Worst Crash

Fendercrazy

My worst was in the spring of 1991. I went on a mtb ride with some friends and lost it on a single track. I launched in to a ravine and cracked six vertebras and busted my skull (I sure wish I had a helmet on ). I spent my last quarter of high school in a hospital bed. A tutor came to my house on the weekdays for a couple hours to get me graduated. I was riding again by the time summer arrived.

juf2m

Holy shit!!! That poor poor guy! How terrifying! I wonder what happened to him. Talk about traumatic!

Wow, you must really have 9 lives. If just one of those things happened to me I'd take it as a definite message to quit cycling!!!!

As for me, I am too new at this to have had a major crash. There was one group ride where a kid came out of nowhere when we were on the path and crashed straight into us, and we had a big pileup..I was thrown mercifully into the bushes. I have also had about three falls as a result of clipless pedals, one of them was yesterday (I am the author of the clipless pedals thread). Turns out I broke one of the spokes on my wheel yesterday on top of wrecking my knee. A ridiculous amount of damage for just toppling over!

I shudder to think what will happen to me if I get into a REAL crash!!!

In fact, reading the rest of these stories, I'm wondering if it wouldn't be best just to go for nice scenic walks instead.

Owen Meany

September 1, 2004. The day that change my lifer forever! (too dramatic?)

I am still recovering. After 15 surgeries, I have 2 more scheduled at this point, maybe more?. Smashed my pevlis, right tibia, left forarm.I have completely lost the use of my lower right leg I was in the hospital for 73 days (30 of which were in ICU)...

I was coming downhill when a truck coming uphill thought I was too wide around a corner. As such he pulled into my lane thinking I would go wide around him. I did not and I had no where to go.

Here is a link to my site: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~brazierfund/index.html

I think only death beats me!

cydewaze

Please tell me he at least stopped to assist.

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Owen Meany

He stopped. He was an uninsured day worker at a near by construction site. I don't really remember anything from after the acutal accident until about 10 days later. I had uncontrollable bleeding and was at a very high risk for infection. So the first 10 days they kept me heavly HEAVLY sedated because I remained intibated and I was going in and out of surgery every day if not more.

PS: My hoispital bill thus far is 1.25 million !!! Yes, I has insurance.

cydewaze

I'll never complain about my road rash again.

Good luck man!

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mattt

Was cruising down Columbus Ave in Manhattan when a box truck hit me on 82nd street. I was in the right most lane minding my own business, abiding the laws of traffic and generally in complete control of my bike and my situation, so I thought. There was a lull in traffic so I applied my brakes slightly so as to keep distance from the cars in front of me, but unfortunately the truck driver behind me did not. My rear wheel was struck and my bike and body were both taken to the ground instantly. No glorious launch into the air or anything like you might expect being hit by a truck from behind would result in. I got up as fast as humanly possible to make sure I wasn't going to be hit by more oncoming traffic, and there wasn't, and hobbled my way to take a seat on a snowy curb. It was a quiet afternoon so many people around that area heard the resulting noise from my bike being chewed up and spit out, and an ambulence and police were called right away and were there within 5 minutes or so. Three nice folks stayed with me until I was taken off in an ambulence, as well as the offending truck driver, who was apologizing and saying it was an accident. My bike was run over by the truck's right rear wheel, and I, thankfully, was not. If my right foot had not torn the heal of my Genius 5 Lorica's, or had my left cleat not been plied off of the sole of my shoe, by sheer force I would have suffered terrible injuries, or possibly accompany my bicycle under the rear wheel of the truck. None of that came to be, so the final result was bruises along my right shin, contusions and some tearing in my right knee, a sprained ankle, a bruised lower back, and a bruise near the top of the calf of my left leg which made it immobile, until physical therapy straightened it out. I've been going to physical therapy since early March and am almost out and ready to race again. I got a new bike a few weeks ago and am very happy to be back on the road. Turns out my physical therapist, who is now in his late 20's, used to do Tri's in his early 20's, so we're planning on doing some riding together to get back in shape. In the end, I feel refreshed to have a new lease on life, I got a hot new bike (TCR Comp 1), and made a few new friends at PT, and quite possibly a volunteer/internship/job opportunity with them, who knows. It's a unnecessary and unwanted hurdle in one's life, but one must stay positive during the period of recovery or it will be much worse than it shouldn't have already been. Though it's a terrible thing to happen to anybody, there are positive sides any situation that you must find for yourself.
Stay upright,
Mattt

Yojimbo_

Holy Crap Owen......I sure hope you are recovering nice now.

TrevorN

My worst one was while going down a hill I didn't notice that they had just repaved a 10 by 10 foot strip in the road at the bottum of the hill. While passing over the strip my front tire sunk down and i fliped over the handle bars... this resulted in burning of my hands stomach and legs because it was still VERY hot. as soon as i fell and slid a small ways i jumped up and ran to the creek and jumped in to cool down the hot tar and pavement(30 or 40 feet away). for about 3 or 4 days i had tar stuck on my hands and stomach. haha

ahinalu

blasphemy!!

ahinalu

My wife thinks I should stop MTB'ing and take up road biking. Your story makes my two broken colar bones and one leg bone trivial. Good luck, and get better.

Aloha

Catabolic Jones

Best wishes Owen Meany!

As for me, 10 years old, on my supercharged BMX beast, headed downhill, pitch black, no streetlamps, no hands, doing Steve Martin's "King Tut" to impress my buddy behind me, didn't see the parked car, wham, break tibia and fibula, exposed bone through skin. Not happy.

It's always sobering to read this stuff. Makes me want to be extra careful. Good luck to everyone, and heads up!

wineandkeyz

Geez, compared to some of these, mine is pretty tame.

In a 75-mile charity ride last summer, I was in a pack of riders -- some experienced, some not. The guy in front of me was trying to get everyone formed up into a double paceline, but only about half of us knew what he meant. The guy in front of him was all over the map speedwise -- he'd be up over 20 mph, then would fall off to 17 or so. Then we hit some rough pavement and the idiot slams on the brakes. The rider in front of me ran into his pedal and fell (the guy who'd slammed on the brakes didn't go down).

I had folks on either side of me, although I doubt I could have gotten around him if I'd had the room. I remember thinking, "This isn't going to be good..." as I ran into him and did a classic endo. I landed on my shoulder and rolled, and was extremely lucky not to break anything -- except for the gel packs in my back pockets.

No sooner had I hit the pavement than a cute young thing fell onto me. Usually, I'd enjoy rolling around, bare legs all tangled, with a cute young thing, but not this time. We got ourselves untangled, collected our wits, then got our bikes untangled. Her bike and mine were rideable, so we collected our water bottles, etc., which had scattered from hell to breakfast and got ready to continue.

The first guy who went down wasn't as lucky. His front wheel was all out of true, so he had to SAG to the next stop, where a bike mechanic trued his wheel for him.

I came out of it with some road rash, a ripped jersey, and bruises. My bike was in pretty good shape, except my seat was ripped up pretty badly.

The worst part was that the idiot that caused the whole thing rode on as if nothing had happened.

rolfdevinci

Two crashes.....

1 - Commuting one winter I braked on wet pavement that turned out to be black ice. Down I went, bouncing my head of the curb(thank God for helmets) and barely missed sliding into rush hour traffic.

Helmet was crushed and my pride was damaged.

2 - Group ride on a wet Saturday morning and a set of train tracks got another victim. Me!
I usually take them at speed but slowed down this particular morning to be safe and the front wheel just slid out like it was on ice. Over the bar, shoulder rolling, with bike landing on me.

Finished the ride but developed back pain(more than usual) along with some road rash. A couple trips to the chiropractor made things better.

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