A runner who didn't look back when she turned around and a cyclist without a helmet.
Usually the runner would be toast but today it was the cyclist who turfed, or rather asphalted. He didn't appear to have lost conscienceness but he was bleeding from the back of his head. He did nothing wrong. The path was not crowded. Should he have kept a further distance from the runner? I think I give everybody as wide a berth possible when I pass them. Just the same, he was a victim. The thing he could have done was wear a helmet. Or cycle in the road.
As for the runner. I have come inches from being nailed by a passing bike 3 times in the last year when I have turned around on this path. I thought I had learned my lesson by looking back after 2 close calls. But I still almost got creamed again. So I look back twice before turning now. Just because you look doesn't mean you have seen.
Not so nice start to a beautiful weekend for these 2 athletic individuals.
Another Cautionary Tale
Just over two years ago, on the bike path, passing a runner I called 'on your left'. She did not hear me because she had ear phones connect to a CD player. She turned to her left just as I was passing, we clipped right shoulders. I went over - pelvis broken in two places, three broken ribs, broken clavicle, lots of skin left on the asphalt. The helmet saved my life. By the way, at that point there was an additional path for pedestrians that she should have been on.
So now, I give runners as wide a berth as possible, slow down when near runners, walkers and skaters, shout even louder and sometimes proselytize about wearing a helmet.
... that it is amateur hour out there, you begin to show a great deal of respect for your safety and that of others. You just have to assume that everyone you pass is incompetent.
Ride as though you're invisible - assume nobody can see you, anticipate everything, be responsible for whatever happens to you.
Corollary: anything made of metal can kill you.
... I was riding just a short distance from the site of the above accident. And I rode silently, passing another cyclist, giving him wide berth. But, not knowing I was passing him and he being out of touch with the concept of keeping one's line and looking before turning off, cut me off and down I went.
I posted this situation on this message board and was given the advise to signal before passing. Which I now do, with a bell.
yah, invisibility theory and amateur WORLD (not just hour) seem about right.
never think that just because a vehicle is not signalling that they won't turn right in front of or into you...
look both ways (as a pedestrian or cyclist or motorist) on any street, never mind if it is one way....
just because nothing is there the first time you look before turning onto a street, don't assume something won't suddenly be there, ready to mow you down, if you don't look again...
and never, ever, ever make a turn over metal that is wet. going down unexpectedly at five miles per hour can mess you up almost as good as going down at twenty.
not to mention the nasty feeling of having joined the amateurs.
Same story, same location, the only difference was that instead of a runner I was cut off by a guy on a motorized scooter. (Think of a Razor scooter with a motor.) I obviously did not have a bad accident - though I will have a permanent scar on my achilles tendon from where my big chain ring took out a chunk of skin when I hit the breaks and hopped off my pedals to avoid hitting the guy. I still see this guy on the bike path every so often. Did I mention he wears an iPod?! You've been warned...
