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A Monthly Publication of the Cascade Bicycle Club

August 2004

From the Road Rash Files

Accident and Safety Report

WHO: Susan Hiles

WHEN: June 20, 2002

WHERE: Bike Trail between Lake Washington Blvd. and Factoria Blvd. (Bellevue) parallels I-90.

BACKGROUND: Laid off December 1, 2001 and receiving Unemployment Insurance (also paying COBRA).

WHAT HAPPENED: It was a beautiful summer day, and I decided to bike to the Cascade office for the final Bike to Work Day lunch meeting. On my ride home I stopped at Starbucks at Leichi and had a latté. I was having a great day and really looking forward to riding Flying Wheels that Saturday. I was almost home when I had the accident.

A detour had been constructed for a brick area under a freeway pass, and the bike path was reduced by fencing ,so that only one bike could travel thru the fence area at a time. This work had been going on for a few weeks, and I had ridden through this area several times with no problems.

Someone had written a warning in chalk on both sides of the path, which I saw. The workers had also made a smooth area at each end of the detour to enter easily. On this day, I noticed two workers standing inside the trail with their backs to me. I was looking at them trying to decide how I was going to get around them when my front wheel unexpectedly went into a rut (which should not have been there). When I fell to the left, my left arm hit the cement bottom of the freeway fencing. For some reason the smooth area wasn’t there as expected! I believe part of the fencing had been moved, possibly getting ready to remove the detour as they were finishing the work that week.

After I fell, I had my eyes closed and was screaming in pain. It felt like my arm was in a deep hole, but when I opened my eyes, my left arm was pointing up on the wall yet it didn’t feel like it was attached to my body. The two workers rushed over and called the ambulance. One of them stayed with me until the ambulance arrived, which took a long time as they had to figure out the best way to reach me. The EMTs also had trouble figuring out which way to get me up without too much pain to my arm. That part is now a blur! I was taken to Overlake Hospital and after an X-ray, the doctor put a plastic brace on my arm from my underarm to my wrist, with a bend at the elbow. I had broken my humerus, but it wasn’t very funny, and luckily it wasn’t a clean break. The doctor did a great job setting my arm as it healed perfectly without any further work.

AFTER THE FACT: While I was riding to the hospital, my son, Chris picked up my bike from the accident site as we live only 1/2 a mile from the area. When Chris arrived, a policeman was there already. When he learned Chris was my son, he asked for my name and address.

A few weeks later I received a ticket stating I didn’t obey the signs, claiming there was a small sign saying “walk your bike”. As I was laying there during the accident, however, I could hear the workers calling to the bikers to walk their bikes so if the sign was there, it wasn’t very visible. I went to the court date, and the judge laughed it out of court. The judge said the workers called the police and had them send me a ticket so I wouldn’t sue them, which I didn’t.

My word of caution: always walk through a construction site. Watch for my June 22, 2003 bike accident in a future issue.

Bicycling is fun, and generally a very safe form of transportation. But on occasion accidents happen. We hope that by publishing a safety and accident report, our readership can learn from the direct experiences of fellow riders. Our intent is not to frighten people, but rather to share straight-forward, accurate incident reports for the purpose of learning. If you would like to share a safety message by writing about a riding incident of your own, please email M.J. Kelly, Courier Editor.

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