NYC - i am a lucky, lucky girl...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/buckette/2130676479/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/buckette/sets/72157606245892980/with/213065...

A commercial truck decided to run the red light. i was turning left from the bike lane in the main way i know possible--wait for the red light and then join crossing traffic. with the timing of the light and the very low-volume traffic of sunday morning, i kept my speed up as i banked left and kept my eye on the cars whose direction i wanted to merge towards.

Luckily i didn't see it coming. any notice on my part would likely have caused me to react, either by braking or trying to change direction or something. instead i managed to get just enough past the truck that the only item struck was my back wheel. there was no direct impact to me, and the whole thing happened without much recollection on my part until i realized i was on my ass in the intersection and my bike was going head over heels, having been sucked underneath and run over by three or four sets of wheels from the truck's left side. had i not been banking at speed, the bike would not have been so aptly angled to slide out effortless from beneath me while I basically spun to my butt. i can only find analogy in a table cloth being whipped out from beneath dishes and wine glasses to where one drop of wine hit the table as an afterthought but the glass still stood clueless.

The only damage to me is a bruised left ass from the ground, everything else is fine. head, hands, back, face, no body part would reveal that anything even happened. my bike, however, is a different story. no part is salvageable, as this set of photos reveals. the front wheel and my little chain tensioner seem to be normal, but we decided to leave the bike, er, whole, and completely start over with a new one...

I am pretty sure i used up all my karma that day. the next day i flew to the midwest to visit family for christmas.

Edit: has kind of a salvador dali thing going on, don't you think?

Laura Buckholz
December 2007