First thing I’m gonna say is that I’m relatively okay.
So last Thursday on the usual Thursday 36er ride downtown with two fellow riders [AJ (Team Texacali!) and Duane (who won the person-who-visited-me-the-most-in-the-hospital award)], I was crossing a busy main street full of people who just got out of work. I maneuvered around a smaller car that didn’t see me…and in that time another car (bigger than a compact car…smaller than a SUV) didn’t see me and we collided.
I dunno what exactly happened but what we’re guessing is when I hit the side (right in front of the drivers side side mirror), my left foot got caught by the wheel and I was thrown to the ground and the car went “clean” over my ankle. As soon as I felt pressure on my foot from the tire, I was trying to yank it out. You guys should see my shoe!
Anyways, the guy driving the car stopped and called 911. My friends got me off the street and onto the sidewalk where the EMTs picked me up and took me to the hospital. X-Rays showed that I chipped my tibia and fibula right at my ankle. It could have been a lot worse (like a crush fracture…).
The orthopedic doctors decided it was an open fracture as I had some sort of wound that went to the joint and they wanted to be safe than sorry with it so I went to the OR for them to clean it out and what not. They wanted to put me on IV antibiotics so I was in the hospital from Thursday to Sunday.
So yeah. I’m fine. Not in a lot of pain. I am, however, not allowed to put any weight on my left ankle for three weeks so I’m stuck to my bed, crutches and my wheelchair. I’m also a little bummed that I can’t ride my wheel for 6 to 8 weeks but don’t worry you guys! I pushed my coker out of the way before any harm could come to it.
First picture is how high the tire caught me and the second one is fairly obvious.
Glad to hear you are ok. Sheesh, some drivers just shouldn’t be on the road. I’ve had a run in with someone turning in front of me…actually passed me then turned in front of me, almost hitting the side of the car. These are the people I wish I could pull out of their car and shoot them on sight, making sure they never kill anyone…same goes for DUIs but that’s another rant.
Of course, the fact its an SUV really doesn’t surprise me. Those asshats think they own the road regardless. Hope you mend fast and riding again in 6 weeks. God speed for the recovery!!
Wow, glad you were not injured worse! That must have been scary. Sounds like Rubix did not have a full understanding of what happened, but you also didn’t give much detail on the traffic situation when it occurred. Maybe there’s something we can learn from this so it doesn’t happen to others? From your description you’re crossing a busy major street. Is this at a light where you have the green? What’s with all these cars you have to dodge around? Sounds very scary.
If you were not at an intersection and/or did not have a green light you were even luckier. I’d love to hear more about it so we can add it to our database of “known” unicycle-car accidents…
yeah, I already told you on MSN but owch… that sucks, at least when I got hit by a car last week the car wasn’t going very fast and didn’t run me over…
Good that your doing fine. Kind of sucks about being out for most of the summer. Get well soon. Having fun with those crutches? I took mine and turned them upside down and walked around one of my class rooms, their nice stilts!
i’m glad to hear that you came out of such an event with a curable injury.
i wish you the best and hope you get better soon… i may be up there sometime in september visiting some friends for a few days.
Bummer, you got run over by a car while unicycling. That’s way more hardcore than that one guy’s attempt to do a 12 set. Sorry if that came off rude but that’s just an awesome story to tell people. I’m glad to see that your injury wasn’t worse, that and the fact that your still alive after being run over by a car.
Anyways I hope your doing fine, the worst part is the waiting period until you can ride again. Stay strong and remember don’t take too many of those pain pills or you’ll say and do some goofy stuff:)
Leah, glad to hear you are “mostly okay”. I am surprised that AJ did not take pictures at the scene. We always thought he would be the one to get run over, at least it was not an SUV. Hope the new shoes fit! You are a real trooper.
Hope you heal fast,
Cyndy (AJ’s mom)
The one time AJ didn’t bring his camera along on the ride…I get into an accident. He was pretty disappointed. Anyways, thanks for your concern and thanks for that phone call on the last day of RTL for AJ’s team Texacali’s rank that day.
Yes, unfortunately it sounds like they were crossing against traffic; in effect creating a hazard for cars that had the right of way. If that’s the case, that raises the “lucky” score waaaay up there! Quite a scary experience from any angle, and definitely something other unicyclists could learn from if you care to tell more about the story.
Anyways, thanks for your concern and thanks for that phone call on the last day of RTL for AJ’s team Texacali’s rank that day.