Posted on 02/07/2020 12:18:48 AM PST by nickcarraway
A 72-year-cyclist seriously injured when he was involved in a collision with a car climbed back on his bike and rode nine miles home before going to hospital.
Doug Gale, from Cheltenham, suffered four broken ribs, a fractured hip and a head injury after coming off his bike on Gupshill roundabout on the edge of Tewkesbury.
But rather than call an ambulance the bloody and battered veteran cyclist headed home so his wife could take him to Cheltenham General Hospital.
He is currently on a ward at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital after a CT scan at Cheltenham detected a small brain bleed from a head wound which medics want to monitor.
I was left in the road feeling pretty dazed and bewildered but they just drove off, said the father-of-two who has one grandchild.
Eventually I got up and a woman who had stopped suggested I got off the road. I made to the side of the road and collected myself a bit.
She wanted me to stay because I had a hole in my head which was bleeding but I said no because I just wanted to get away from there."
He added: I suppose it was shock but the adrenaline kicked in and I got back on the bike and did nine miles home.
The trick is not to to stop because once you do, then thats it. Everything shuts down. Once I got home I really knew about it.
It was very painful and I knew my hip was fractured His wife Jan took him to Cheltenham General and he was then transferred to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital to be monitored.
Doctors say the keen cyclist, who was wearing bright yellow at the time, will not be able to get back in the saddle for around six weeks and he will be in pain for some time to come.
From his hospital bed he has backed a police appeal to find the driver of the car involved in the collision which happened on or around 11 am on Wednesday, February 5.
His conscience must be troubling him because he just shot off, said Mr Gale, a retired builder from Battledown.
I cant see how he couldnt have known.
"I dont know why he didnt stop but he needs to contact police now. Hes already missed the deadline for the 24 hour period you get to report an accident to police.
Im hoping somebody comes forward to shed more light on it.
Experienced cyclist Mr Gale was returning home from a 60 mile ride when he says the car shot out the junction and blocked him in on the roundabout, stopping him taking the exit road to Gloucester. He says it knocked him off his bike.
TV cycling commentator Laura Winter tweeted the GloucestershireLive story and said she was shocked and disgusted to hear about the incident: "This is a friend who I ride with most weeks."
She added "If you know or saw anything, please tell the police. He has four broken ribs, a fractured pelvis and a bleed on the brain."
Gloucestershire police are keen to identify the offending vehicle, possibly a black car and a woman in a grey pick-up type vehicle who stopped to assist.
A spokesman said: "Officers would like this woman, and anyone else who stopped at the scene, to contact police as they may have information which could help the investigation.
"The woman who helped, or any witnesses who have information about the collision or who have dashcam footage, are asked to call police on 101 and quote incident 379 of February 5."
Information can also be submitted to Gloucestershire police online through the 'update a crime report' form .
Alternatively contact Crimestoppers anonymously by calling 0800 555 111.
Now this is good, old-fashioned British stiff-upper-lippedness.
Remember when Chevy Chase ran over John Cleese on his bicycle?
What a dumb ass.
Such a device could be called, oh, I don't know, maybe a mobile phone?
#okdumbassboomer
I suppose the broken hip was, like the ribs, probably just a hairline fracture with nothing displaced. If the bike was rideable, he couldn't have been hit very hard. He was bumped and knocked down. My guess is that the ground, not the car, caused most of the injuries, and if he's a veteran cyclist, he's taken falls before. But still
FYI
Sorry, not much sympathy here. If I build a house next to a gun club, I can't whine when the occasional bullet hole shows up.
Many a super-human deed was accomplished under the influence of adrenaline. Many valor awards come and many rescues done as well. HOWEVER, there is also a loss of clarity and reasoned thinking outside of the focused task at hand. As a fellow aged bicyclist who has been in a similar problem, I know that I had an absolute fear of what would happen to my bike if I had to take an ambulance. Irrational in hindsight but very real at that time.
An aside for my fellow US bicyclists here, my local AAA Auto Club now gives roadside assistance for bicyclists at no extra charge. That would be a good thing for something like this situation, IF YOU CAN THINK IT THROUGH!
Probably got confused after the trauma. Probably didnt feel much pain when extra adrenalin and endorphins kicked in. One “lucky” (?) guy.
You might find this a bit odd, but not every bicyclist is a liberal. Ask me how I know.
Right, and if he were an American he would have been carrying one and then used it.
Then he and his doctors together would have patched up that continuing pain with some nice opioids that would make him an addict by the time he was ready to climb back on the bicycle.
“not every bicyclist is a liberal.”
You’re so right.
Liberal or conservative. Play stupid games. Win stupid "prizes."
“Was he on a road for cars? Was he dressed like these spandex laden attention whores here in Tulsa?
Sorry, not much sympathy here.”
I’m with you - it almost seems like a power-play by them. Kind of like the Left getting people fired because they won’t agree to use 57 different pronouns or something.
As far as I’m concerned, if people need to tie up traffic lanes to get their leg exercise, they might as well stick a rowing machine in the right lane of I-80 Westbound and do it that way - at least they won’t also be moving.
+1
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