Well, that does seem high, but I suspect "objects" excludes road features like potholes, speed bumps and curbs. Another bad hazard I've found in rural areas is non-paved roads graveled with deep, coarse gravel. No problem for cars (or more often pickup trucks) and maybe tolerable for mountain bikes, but if a narrow tire road bike hits this unexpectedly or at high speed, it's pretty hard to stay upright. One experience I once had was descending a mountain road at about 60 kph and rounding a curve to suddenly see dead ahead the pavement dug up for work on a water line and filled in with deep coarse gravel. I managed to avoid crashing by being very sure not to allow the front wheel to pull to either side when it hit the gravel, but I had visions of a trip to the emergency room. If I had made that trip I probably would have been classified in that 59%.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Big Spring, TX
"Cheung, Doland" <CheungD@bv.com> wrote: Forget the wrong way in traffic stat. I can't believe 59% of accidents involve no object or other person. Are people retarded?!?!?!?
Doland Cheung SoCal
-----Original Message----- Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 1:49 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
A friend (Larry English) here in Atlanta just sent this to me.
John Redman Hapeville, Ga
Reasons for Wrecks
Bob Mionske is a two-time U.S. Olympic cycling team member (4th in the 1988 road race) who now specializes in bicycle law in Portland, Oregon. He writes the "Legally Speaking" column for velonews.com, has a book called "Bicycling and the Law," and runs a website at http://www.bicyclelaw.com. In short, he 's an expert on cyclists' rights and how laws affect them.
His legal work also makes Mionske, 45, savvy about crashes. According to his research, there are about 500,000 cycling accidents each year that result in an emergency room visit. Here's how they happen (numbers are rounded):
---59% involve no object or other person
---14% involve a fixed object
---11% involve a moving motor vehicle
---9% involve another bicycle
---3% involve an animal
---3% involve a pedestrian
---1% involve a stationary motor vehicle
---1% other
Considering only accidents involving a moving motor vehicle (11%), here's where they happen:
---45% in an intersection
---25% entering a roadway
---14% riding with flow of traffic
---8% riding against traffic
---9% other
The lessons are obvious: Never stop working on your bike-handling skills, and be extra cautious where there can be cross traffic -- in intersections or w hen riding onto busier roads.
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