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Chuga-Chuga-Chuga-Chuga Wipeout!
Had my first accident on Little Nellie this morning -- hit by a Fed Ex truck trying to take a "free left turn" through the crosswalk at 4th Ave N & Mercer, across the street from Channel 9 -- unfortunately, I happened to be occupying the crosswalk at the time.
It's a dangerous spot; even on foot I've been brushed or actually bumped by cars at several adjoining intersections along the same stretch of road. The vehicle traffic is coming from one direction, so drivers put all their focus on the cars, and hardly ever pay attention to the fact that there might be pedestrians coming from the opposite direction.
Still, this is precisely why I stopped riding mopeds a number of years ago -- that invisibility force-field that seems to appear around vehicles smaller than a Chevy Suburban can be so hazardous to one's health. But this time around I figured, Hey, I'm going to be on the sidewalk almost all the time! What could possibly happen to me on the sidewalk? Well, I've tried to be extra cautious -- I am sharing the walkways with pedestrians, and there are always blind-spots where cars pull out of driveways and what-not -- but this was a friggin' crosswalk -- and I had the right-of-way!
GRRR!
Anyway, no significant damage -- scrapped my knee and broke my headlight, and aside from the general achiness one usually feels after a large surge of adrenaline begins to wear off, I'm okay. Probaby be very sore tomorrow however. The paramedics (yes, 911 sent an aid truck) gave me some gauze pads to cover up my bloody patella, and even though my pulse & BP were a little high, more-or-less gave me the A-OK.
The driver was of course mortified, as well she should have been. Frankly, everybody was very lucky, including the walking pedestrian whom I essentially saved from injury by taking the hit myself. The wierd part was, he seemed almost completely oblivious, just kept right on walking as if nothing had happened. I guess some people get into their own headspace so deeply that they sort of filter out the rest of the world.
Which might be a mistake, because absorbing the kinetic energy produced by a three-ton delivery truck impacting a 190 pound body first thing in the morning can literally put a big dent in your day...
Posted byCOMTE
on 9:34 AM
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