Photos of Mark's bike crash on May 8, 2003

Details: Heading southbound on Hardy in bike lane, passing traffic backed up from light at Southern stopped in southbound auto lane.  A Ford F350 (BIG) pickup truck turned through this stopped traffic in the middle of a block to turn into an apartment complex.  At the time he entered the bike lane, I was approximately two car lengths from the truck moving about 20mph (32km/h).  Things got pretty exciting for a while.  I checked my (theoretical) options.

Left - no good - no room between the stopped car and the truck.  Right - no good - truck's already entirely across the bike lane and I wouldn't miss him jumping the curb.  Guess I gotta hit him.

I ducked my head just at the point of impact (good thing - see below), hitting his heavy-duty mirror mount with my poor helmet (see below).  The mirror mount on this truck consists of a V-shaped bar of heavy steel approximately 1/2" thick by 2" wide (1.2cm x 5cm).  I pushed this mount into the door with my head (you can clearly see the impact on the helmet photos).

The outcome: An ambulance ride to the hospital taped to a back board.  Lots of X-rays.  Some world-class sore muscles and some other head trauma-related things (it took me over a day to remember the name of the road I got hit on, even though I've ridden on it 5-10 times a week for over two years).

The physical outcome:

      

I think I've represented the skin color of every race on earth on that arm (and a couple new ones as well).  The funny thing was I didn't know I had hit my arm until the paramedic mentioned it.  Only slight evidence of where the helmet was pushed forcefully into my forehead.

The helmet - may it rest in pieces:

   

    

Here's a link to an interesting, easy to read website discussing the efficacy of bike helmets.

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