Two serious rear ends in three months and it's not me

[wyadvd]

I just cannot believe what has happened to me. Back in December I was about to turn right into a junction and some old lady in a Peugeot 106 just drove though me like I wasn't there ( I run a dinotte 300r rear light which was angled down and on medium setting). That nearly killed me . I hit her windscreen and smashed it with my helmet and was then thrown forward and skuffed my right side when I landed (v painfull). Her insurance paid out 4000 which repaired the bike and got me a valentines day trip to Rome with the wife.

Just got the bike back and tuned up for the. Man of kent audax , commuting home on an open street lit 30mph road in the secondary position minding my own biz, and another young lady clips my back wheel as she tries in vain to overtake me. (Without another car in sight) She completes her 'overtaking' manoeuvre and ends up in front of me but I land on my bum and break my coxyx (v painful).police and ambulance called and end up in ae.

I've been cycling almost every day of my working life for the last 5 years and I get knocked off through no fault of my own twice in three months. Both rear ender....thought that was the rarest accident! I strongly suspect mobile phones in both cases.......

Anyone with any advice (without prejudice) on how to cope psychologically with such an assault in terms of carrying on as a confident cyclist. I feel a loss of confidence makes you a less safe cyclist and that is becoming my problem

Now I am scared to get back on a bike.

My sanity to an extent depends on my daily cycle ride. Some how I must fund a way. And I must make my SR again this year. But every car that comes up behind makes me flinch a little now. Maybe I need counselling..?

Plus the police were on site and didn't think it appropriTe to push any charges at all. I expect if she'd run straight into a stationary car or even run over a dog it would be driving without due care. But I'm a cyclist so have a lower status than an inanimate object or an animal on the road.
Any advice?

[wyadvd]

In fact I know that to be the case: my own car was run into at night by someone outside my house no witnessed but he was convicted of driving without due care and attention. I get hit : nothing

[irc]

Do you use a mirror? I try to watch every overtaking car. More than 99% of the time nothing else is required. A few times I have moved towards the kerb to avoid close overtakes including deliberate "punishment overtakes." Once I have had to ride off the road to avoid being rear ended by a 60mph camper van.

We wouldn't drive without rear view mirrors so why do some cyclists feel safe riding without them? Obviously any rear endings are completely the overtakers fault but being in the right isn't always enough.

[Vorpal]

Are there any off-road facilities near you? Can you ride on them? or bridleways?
Go for a ride with other cyclists? Even join a club and do the Sunday club run? I can only imagine how hard it might be to get back on the bike after an experience like that.

[wyadvd]

I have a bike eye and use it it's great I use it all the time.

[jezer]

I've been a regular cyclist since 1958, and I've never been hit by a motor vehicle. Is this a record? Of course I've come off a few times, usually due to other riders or my own errors. That said, I do get nervous when I hear a motorist gunning his engine behind our group. If I'm at the back, which is not uncommon these days I normally pull out into primary. There is often a different attitude amongst drivers to a group, as apposed to a single rider.

[wyadvd]

Yes I was talking to someone the other day actually just after my accident to the actual nurse who was looking after me in a and e. I was just saying that both the people who ran into me were regular people not swivel eyed cyclist haters. To which she asked "do many people really hate cyclists?" And I said very few indeed actually hate cyclists. She then went on a rant about how cyclists can be more that's a little annoying sometimes ( meanwhile there's me in agony on the bed next to her ). " and those ones who ride Ina group in Lycra ....they may as we'll be riding along with their fingers up at everyone else the whole time". I gently tried to explain, in a big group it's a case of being short and compact to make the overtake manoeuvre as quick and easy as possible sometimes for the car. However , I am a single daily commuter and very rarely ride Ina group except during audaxs

By the way I was effectively in the primary for my first accident , as I was in the act of turning right, but I still wasn't seen even with the dinotte back light on. The impact point of my helmet on her windscreen was directly in front of her steering wheel. She did not brake until after the point of impact! No other explanation in my opinion other than not actually looking at the road ahead.

Having a mirror didn't help me it just meant I could watch her ramming into me in real time!

[thirdcrank]

I've been a regular cyclist since 1958, ..

Snap! But I've been brought down by a motor vehicle twice.

In the context of this thread, the first was a large HGV overtaking me on NorthStreet, Wetherby, when its road classification was A1 (Not A1 quality - it was the A1.) For a long time afterwards, I had real confidence problems about being overtaken by lorries. I've memories of being on some quiet road or other and hearing a lorry in the distance and jumping off untill it had overtaken. Looking back now, it's not easy to remember how long that lasted before it gradually faded but I suspect it would be measured in years. It's the type of crash where you feel most vulnerable because it's the hardest to anticipate. My second incident was a SMIDSY when the driver of a car emerged onto a roundabout and brought me down with the slightest of contacts. As well as the physical injuries, that had me worried for a while and I changed my commute route to avoid a couple of roundabouts including that one, but I got over the confidence thing much more quickly. Perhaps it's because if you can see what's happening, you feel more in control, even if you aren't.

I'd say good luck with getting over this. BTW, you seem to have been lucky with a prompt payout. Perhaps the other party's insurers were keen to reach a quick settlement.

PS You've posted since I began to write this. Your rear view mirror experience seems to contradict my explanation. Anyway, good luck getting back to normal.

[Postboxer]

£4000 seems fairly cheap, but not sure how badly injured you were, sounds like it could have been far worse. I can't believe the police are taking no action.

[wyadvd]

Thanks for the responses.

[wyadvd]

£4000 seems fairly cheap, but not sure how badly injured you were, sounds like it could have been far worse. I can't believe the police are taking no action.

I accepted the pre med offer which was 1000 for personal injury. I will go post med this time.

[Richard D]

Then make sure that you raise the issue of your long-term cycling being affected. You might get flashbacks, sleep disturbance etc - perhaps get checked out for PTSD, and mention counselling to overcome your now natural fear of cycling.

[wyadvd]

Yes I will be seeing a counsellor this time. My sanity really does depend on cycling. My whole life has been changed by it. So yes.

This may seem a little fatalistic especially since I have a wife and children whom I love very much. But I may well rationalise by saying to myself that if I die it would rather be on my bike than on a geriatric orthopaedic ward like all the poor sods I deal with at work.

[661-Pete]

Sympathies and best of luck wyadvd! Hope the counsellor thing goes all right.

I don't know whether rear-ending is the rarest form of cycling collision, but it's certainly one of the scariest! Because there's often nothing you can do about it. There you are, cycling as you normally would in secondary or primary position according to circumstances, and WHAM! No warning.

I've never had that, though I've had the odd near miss. The scariest was when I was on the centre line about to turn right, there was wet slush on the road and the car behind me braked but skidded out of control. I simply froze (not literally!) and by sheer luck he managed to swerve around me to my right. It took me a while for my teeth to stop chattering.

So I can understand the trauma you're suffering. The best I can offer is, it won't last forever. If you feel more at ease that way, take a break from cycling - at least until your injuries heal up, and then perhaps for a while longer. I've been there, though not for injury-related stuff: there are other psychological factors that may 'put one off cycling'. I kept it up but I was hating it, for a while I had to force myself to get in the saddle.

And the post-traumatic stress will pass. It's not a lifelong thing. Best of luck!

[wyadvd]

Many thanks that really helped . You are dead right it's an instant wham! And then it's like you are frodo baggins and you've just put the ring on everything goes slow mo as you fly through the air thinking "oh sh@t not again " it's impossible to describe . Anyway I'm not a very good advert for cycle to work in my workplace!

Incidentally at 6.3 million euros isn't the hovenring cheap at the price . I want one at every junction now !

Actually Pete reading what you said again, your near miss was very much like my first accident except that mine was dry roads and the motorist simply dent resister that I was there until she hit me. I was literally about to turn right when I heard her approach. I could hear she wasn't slowing so I froze because if she was a boy racer she was about to overtake on the right. But not she just plowed on through me. I was lucky she wasn't driving anything bigger than a 106 cos I would have been stawberry juice.