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Friday 2nd February 2007
It's been a day of accidents. This morning, I received a panicked phone call from M****, for A******
had had an altercation with an ironing board, resulting in two cut fingers and blood, blood,
blood. I hurried home and we involved our neighbour, Tony, he having far more first-aid
experience than either of us two. The bleeding was ceased with elevation and compression and four
carefully applied plasters then finished the job off. Later on (about a quarter to nine), I'm on
my way to my parents, to drop off some birthday presents. I'm zooming down Bowerham Road,
probably around about 23/24 mph (I would usually be going much faster but, thank god, problems with my
rear dereilleur cable meant trouble engaging those higher gears), rapidly approaching the
junction where Bowerham Road becomes Barton Road (pretty much at the centre of this).
I have right of way, naturally, and a car emerging to turn right from the junction I'm
approaching would have to cross my path. I see a car get to the top of Bowerham Road, waiting to
turn right, giving way, as you would, and I assume they've stopped, having seen me. But no. The
car pulls out, perhaps with the driver having underestimated my speed. Things happen rather
quickly at this point. I think my thoughts were to brake and try to bear left. I thought of
inertia and regardless of my actions, I was gonna hit the drivers side of this car, so best just
to go along with it, minimise damage. Looking at my front wheel and the damage to my bike (and
the car), I reckon my bike forks were the first to come into contact with the car, via the panel above the
driver's side wheel arch. I'm not too sure what happened next, but I remember rolling to the
ground, getting up and thinking, "Blimey, that hurt." To cut a long and frankly dull story short,
we (it was a young lady driver with a similar aged male passenger) exchanged details and she gave
me a lift back, the ruined bike having been dismanted slightly. So yeah . . . Bike's a write-off,
leg's are bruised but still function and the police are popping round tomorrow. I didn't know
until tonight, but any kind of road traffic accident on the Queen's highways involving injury
must be reported to the police, and this report must be taken by an officer face-to-face with the
injured. So there you go.
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