Diary of a Road Accident

Friday 23 March
On Friday I was pottering along to work on my bicycle as usual. After the wintery conditions of the previous week, it was pleasantly warm and I was thinking spring wasn’t far away. A white taxi was coming the other way, and I remember thinking it looked really pristine in the clear air, when there was a sudden screech of tyres from it. A moment later I was aware of something large and dark immediately to my side. My instinct was that a cloud had covered the sun briefly, but seconds later I found myself lying in a puddle on the edge of the road. I lay still for a moment rather confused about how I had gone from a bicycle saddle to the road surface. I could feel various pains, mainly a twisted ankle, but nothing intense. I sat up to find 3 people running towards me, then some arms round me telling not to move. I think that was the moment I realised I had been run over. 

Apart from the ankle I felt fine, and tried to stand up, but a woman’s voice (presumably belonging to the arms) told me that I had to stay where I was. Although I wasn’t sitting in the puddle by this stage, it certainly wasn’t a good place to make myself comfortable, and the impatient horns of queuing motorists persuaded the people around me that perhaps I should at least unblock the road. I stood up, and oddly the pain passed from my left ankle to the opposite elbow and knee. I looked down at them and my otherwise immaculate suit was heavily scuffed and torn down one side. My white shirt cuffs were a curious mixture of the crisp white that l’d left the house with, some sort of oily deposit from the puddle, and a bit of blood. It occurred to me that this was not a good look for a client meeting, so I figured I’d better go home and change. 

The people around me identified themselves, there was the taxi driver and his passenger, he’d done an emergency stop to avoid a collision with the car overtaking me. There was the car driving behind who had seen the impact with a clear view, and there was the lady who explained that having committed to the overtake, she had needed to drive into me to complete it. She kindly offered to drive me home, but I felt I would be safer on my bike, and after straightening the handlebars, I pedalled slowly home.

Once home, I postponed my earliest meetings, got changed, washed my grazes, then as an afterthought photographed the damage. I then reported the incident to the police via their website, and headed back off to work. The whole thing could have been a lot worse, the only impact was discomfort, and the cost of new clothes.  A very busy day's work following, then a jolly pleasant social evening distracted me from the whole business. 

To be continued......