• View
• Edit
• History
• Print

20050319

Tumble!

Today was my fastest ride from work to home. There was a downside though and it was literally "down." I had what could have been a pretty bad crash about a kilometer (about 60% of a mile for the metrically challenged) from my home. Once you become airborne, it is not in your hands anymore. Fall one way and you are Christopher Reeves, fall another way and you get the wind knocked out of you. I landed somewhere between those two extremes but fortunately not too close to Mr. Reeves.

I was passing through the slowest moving section of road in Minoo. There are two grocery stores, both on the left side as you head uphill from Toyonaka to Minoo station. (For you readers outside of Japan and U.K. you need to be reminded that in Japan car traffic travels on the left side). I too was riding down the left side, between the very slow moving or not moving at all motor vehicles and the edge of the road. The road is pretty level here finally after the hard ride up through Toyonaka so I can push a bit. I passed Kohyo, the first of two grocery stores and was focusing on the exit from Ikari, the next grocery store. There was a silver car that was trying to enter traffic, but stopped and was blocking off the inside "bike lane". I was still dozens of meters away thinking whether I would be able to squeeze behind or in front of this guy. I never got to find out how I would negotiate this. My right handlebar hooked the mirror of small shiny black and silver car. It hooked but then released. Thinking I had gotten by unscathed, I looked forward. Unfortunately , "unscathed" was not going to happen. My wheel must have turned sharply to the right and therefore wasn't going to let me roll very far forward. Nope, I was going to become a human projectile.

What I remember then was a total loss of control, an uplifting feeling and then the relentless pull of gravity. After a brief silence came the cracking sound of my helmet, and then the whomp as my torso hit, somewhat on my right side with most of the force going into my ribcage through my elbow which I had reflexively retracted to protect my body. Not able to breathe, I got up, either on my knees or standing I can't remember. An elderly lady on the curb asked me if I was alright, trying out her rusty English and I gasped with several gutteral roars as I slowly got my wind back. The first times you get the wind knocked out it is very scary. You think that you will stop breathing for good. But after a few chances to experience this death-tease, you know that eventually breathing will be restored to normal. So although I wanted to answer this lady and tell her I was o.k. only the terrifying sounds of a human unable to breathe were available to me.

Just as I got my breath back, the woman came out of the shiny little black car and asked me if I was o.k. She was much shorter than me of course as are most Japanese women, cute but not overly so, too much makeup, narrowly curled locks. She looked like a 30 year old Japanese version of Annie. Now, I'm thinking she should be really angry at me for hooking her mirror. I can't imagine that there wasn't some damage but she seemed really concerned about me. I said I was o.k. and asked about her car, she said "don't worry about us, we're fine" So I let it drop, and she seemed satisfied that I didn't need any help and went back to her car.

Next, a woman in a van that was in front of the mini car, looked out the passenger window at me and asked whether I was o.k. or not. Are there no men in this town? I think I have fallen in just the right place. I had landed next to her car and perhaps even hit it while I was up the air. She seemed a little more upset than concerned but still offered to take me to a hospital or home. Now this is one interesting thing. She reached out and pushed her mirror back to it's normal position. The passenger mirror (which was on my side of the car) had two big gouges on it and was laying flat against the car in its retracted position. I can't for the life of me figure out how I could have knocked the mirror to this position. The van was in front of me and I was moving forward. Now, I don't think I put the gouges on the back of the mirror, they were straight streaks that would have happened if moving forward on a narrow street and you catch a wall or signpost and knock the mirror back and scrape off the paint. So although the scratches were not mine the fact that the mirror was retracted was mostly likely due to my crash. Why else would she have chosen that moment to put the mirror back? How I could have possibly knocked this mirror I can't imagine. But later as I rethink the whole accident there was one fact I couldn't explain very well and led me to believe that I must have hit the van too before I came down. The first and most distinct feeling after I got my breath back was a numbness on the hip bone area on my back right side. Maybe this is where I hit the mirror. I was thinking if I fell on my head and on the right front of my ribcage, how did I get this numbness on my rear right side? The definitive answer will have to remain a mystery, but I suspect it has something to do with hitting this van.

Now, in Japan, the person driving the car is always at fault in a bicycle/car accident. That explains to a certain extent why two of the women exhibited concern. A couple of my friends commented though that if it were men, they might have been a bit more teed off. The upside is that my bicycle is o.k. and the cars were not damaged, although I really didn't want to look at that mirror that I had hooked. However if I had ripped it off, I probably would have been o.k. The fact that it didn't move was my downfall as in "fall down."

Keeping Superman (a.k.a. Christopher Reeves) in mind, my injuries were not that bad. After a week, there is still some pain and a sneeze can make it feel like a knife is being inserted between my ribs. Though, generally there is only a little of soreness. So whether I broke my rib or just bruised the ribs and surrounding muscles I don't know, but I'm glad to know I'll be back riding again soon, just a little more careful this time.

(Postlog: though I was riding my bicycle the next day for very short distances, I finally did my first ride to work on March 31, twelve days after this accident. It's feeling much better, thanks.)