Posted on 09/24/2010 2:05:27 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA
A Berks County man paralyzed in a bicycling accident several years ago was killed Thursday when he collided with an ambulance near his home while riding an adaptive cycle recently donated to him.
Stephen B. Johnson, 49, of Exeter Township, was riding the three-wheel cycle modified for people with leg paralysis west on Rugby Road in Exeter Township when he veered into the path of the ambulance, according to police.
The ambulance was returning to its station from a call and was not carrying any patients, police said.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcall.com ...
True.....but I have no qualms about getting off the bike if I get a bad feel about something which may be too big or too steep.
Make sure you clean your windshield as you pass.
Back in the 70’s I used to do that sort of thing with four Cibie lights on the front of my Opel GT. Two were halogen pencil beams. You really didn’t want to come up on me with your brights on.
It is a cool “power thing”. On my bike I’ve had guys blast really loud horns a couple of times. One time it almost made me go down. :)
Sometimes God has a nasty sense of humor. Back in the '50s I read about a guy who was badly burned over most of his body in the Cocoanut Grove fire of '42 and the ensuing superhuman efforts the docs took to save him. A few years after his recovery he became a forest ranger. One day while out on patrol, his jeep overturned, pinned him underneath - and caught fire. He burned to death.
These things are trikes, usually with a fairly narrow rear track. They handle completely different than a bike. I’d say unfamiliarity may have contributed.
I had some ‘nice’ lights on my ‘96 Jetta.
(Until January this year when some jerk took the nose off my car when he ran a red turn arrow.)
People would turn their brights on, then immediately dim down because they had speckles in their eyes.
Then they’d wonder what my lights were.
Well, they were the stock ‘96 brights, just aimed where they were supposed to be.
I used to drive in “public road” ralleys. Most were what was called a “friday nighter”. I remember coming up on one of the cars in the drive and eventually turning off the brights as I got close. When we met at the pizza place afterwards he said that when I first showed up in his rear view mirror he thought it was a commercial airliner landing behind him.
I never really abused it, but it was really fun to be able to see so far down the road.
Ran a red turn arrow? I do that all the time, but “usually” when there are no cars coming.
Recumbents are tough to spot.
When I was in the bike business we called them “Chariots of the Clods.”
Those things are like Big Wheels — you can’t see them.
Ditto...
When i was a teenager I cycled a lot on the streets. Hit by three cars all of them their fault totally. I was never seriously hurt.
The third time was the charm...
Mountain biking is the only way to go. it is so much nicer in the hills anyway.
now I call street riders suicidal. It is like playing Russian roulette. Nothing happens most of the time but it only takes one time.
What part of the country?
Seat-of-pants, calculator, or computer?
RIP.
I would rather hit a 5 ton bolder then a fast moving 5 ton bolder hit me.
There’s something very “Final Destination” about this.
Every now and then I’m tempted to give road biking and commuting and stick to off-roading as it’s my real love. But every time I’m tempted, I realize that would just be giving in to fear, and I’m not put together like that.
You may promise but we had an instance not so long ago where the park ranger had taken down the posts on our local bike trail for a tree cutting crew. Where the trail crossed the street at a light, a "little old man" got confused and turned down the trail in his sedan. Runners and cyclists were forced off of the trail while he rode his horn. Good question as to whom was scared more!
That kid with his 2001 Ford decided that it didn’t matter that I had a green and that there was traffic.
Speaking of commercial air, had one make an attempt to land on my job.
It wasn’t until he saw the lightpoles on either side of him that he figured it out.
I can attest to that. I’ve toasted 5, count’em 5 Giro Xen’s in 18 months. That’s a new helmet every few months. That’s not even counting a front Crossmax SLR wheel that looked like a potato chip. That’s $500 wheel that was gone in the blink of an eye. It’s a rough sport, but mostly on my wallet.
As soon as they build a trail from my house to my office 11 miles away, I promise I'll use it. Until then, there is nothing between my house and work except road, so that's the route I take.
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