What’s the worst cycling accident you ever had? Was it your fault or someone else’s?

Flit clicker

Mine is nothing to write home about. During the end of beast from the east I slipped on some remnants of black ice. I was doing about 30 kph.

Grazed right arm. The worst hurt was my pride when skangers were laughing and calling me a spa outside SuperValu skerries.

Beasty

Flit clicker wrote: »

beast from the east I slipped on some remnants of black ice. I was doing about 30 kph.

Someone mention me?


:pac:

Beasty

Actually broke my wrist falling on ice on the way up to Ardgillan back in 2010.

That's my 4th worst....

3rd worst was back in 1965, when someone run into me/over me on a bike - compound fracture of the leg. Definitely her fault even if I did run into the road in front of her...

2nd worst was in 2009, when I ended up in the Beaumont. Had a bad concussion and cannot remember the accident but I know what happened after someone on here who witnessed it from down the road said I was like a bag blowing in the wind as I flew over the handlebars. Skin graft round the eye with that one. FingalCoCo settled out of court for a very dodgy hard shoulder that had been made that way by one of their sub-contractors

The worst - I'm keeping that to myself - don't want to appear a drama queen around here...


:pac::pac:

Flit clicker

Beasty wrote: »

The worst - I'm keeping that to myself - don't want to appear a drama queen around here...


:pac::pac:

Oh you tease

Biker79

A head-on collision with another cyclist who strayed into the wrong side of a cycle path, at 35 KMPH.
Had mild concussion and fairly bad facial bruising and bleeding.
Would have been much worse without a helmet.
Completely affirmed my instincts to always wear a helmet.

sidcon

Cycling along past a school, car pass my by and decided to pull in and brake hard to drop of kids.
Not giving me enough time to brake as no indication.
Slammed into back of the car and my mouth took the brunt of the damage lost 4 front row bottom teeth.
Was about 17 at the time and by coincidence my parents happened to drive past also as it happened. Teeth where found brought to dental hospital and the worked on getting them back in for the full day. Steal bar at back of teeth holding them together.
Teeth are still good now 20 years later and are obviously dead so just need to get them done with whitening every two years or so.

Beasty

Flit clicker wrote: »

Oh you tease

Oh, go on then

magicbastarder

my fault, cycled into the back of a taxi. no major damage to me - just six stitches and embarrassment, but i folded the frame of the bike up.

knucklehead6

Broken collar bone and wrist. Knocked off a Viking colt by a car way back

dubbrin

OTB going downhill. Brushed past a signpost and landed onto a footpath. Caught both my knees on the kerb, still have no feeling just above the right knee. Broke my wrist into pieces and now full of metal. Worst mishap I've ever had. Took years to get back to some level of confidence on two wheels

07Lapierre

My worst was when I was a teenager. Cycling home from college, I had a bag hanging off the handlebars. The bag swung into the front wheel sending me over the bars. I wasn’t wearing a helmet, hit my head off the road and had to cycle home with blood pouring into my right eye. Bike was fine though.

RobertFoster

Took a header off my friend's bike when I was 8 cycling with no hands. Broke 3 front teeth and scarred my chin.

retalivity

Back in November, slid when turning right going downhill at the Mount Venus road junction in Dublin. Bike slid from under me and landed on my face. Concussion, 13 stitches above my right eye, 3 bones broken around my right eye socket and cuts and bruises on my nose, chin and whole right side. No-one else involved, slippy roads with leaves, water and my own speed/lack of carelessness the cause. Was told i'd need surgery on the bones to fix them but as there was no impact to my vision or jaw/teeth, after a week the docs said id be ok to let them heal on their own.

Only just getting back on the bike now, face is still a bit sensitive and contact sports (I played 5-a-side) are off the table indefinitely. Here's me the morning after smiling at my killer headache - I won't inline it!

https://i.gyazo.com/1901785185f01cbfb0d2d481b0137499.png

Wishbone Ash

Flit clicker wrote: »

.... skangers were laughing and calling me a spa outside SuperValu skerries.

Ah here - we don't have skangers in Skerries!

Beasty

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Ah here - we don't have skangers in Skerries!

I know, I know....

...I'm living in Wexford now

monkeyslayer

T boned an impatient driver. Broke my neck, shoulder, breast bone, little finger and absolutely trashed the helmet I was wearing,. Which saved my life. Settled in high court. I tell everyone now they might only ever need to have that helmet on just once in your life, but that one time, if you're not wearing it...

Peterx

100% self inflicted broken collar bone. I was doing night classes and missing training so decided to go fixed wheel on my singlespeed commuter. Cycling home from the aforementioned night classes I took my hands off the bars and then on a downhill section stopped pedalling, to freewheel. Instantly thrown to the ground. Broken collarbone. Pure stupidity. Missed even more training

Daroxtar

50/50 blame but I prefer to think it was someone elses fault. Descending Wicklow gap on the Orwell Randonee, doing about 50kmh.
A couple of lads passed me and then cut back in quickly as a car came around the corner. The chap in front of me braked hard and I didn't react quickly enough and clipped his rear wheel.
Separated AC joint, fractured elbow, 3 broken ribs and a punctured lung. 5 days in hospital with an oxygen mask and chest drain. 2 months off work.
Never felt the head hit the ground but my helmet was in bits inside. Could have been a lot worse.

CramCycle

Not sure as I have had a few, the funniest was completely my fault. Used to cycle round my mates small quarry (long abandoned), and there was a drop at one end. He stood there analysing it and decided he was going down it and I told him he was an idiot, would really mess himself up. After arguing for a few minutes, he told me the last thing I said was "I'll prove it to you". Wheel exploded at the bottom and frame bent. Had to be carried home by two of them, bike was hidden in his house (it was my mothers) and never spoke of again.

micar

A few years ago, I was cycling from clontarf to howth.

Back then you had to go from the cycle lane over to the road in between the bridges over to Bull Island

On the road, there had been pipes laid. They had dug about 1 foot trench all the way along.

When this was filled in, there was a very narrow gap (few mm) between the old and new road surface, the front wheel went into the gap as I was approaching a slight bend.

I panicked and had to hop the bike out of the space. Is I did this I went into the kerb and went over the handlebar into the footpath landing on my left shoulder and probably my head. My left arm was tucked in against my ribs.

Suffered nasty wound to left elbow and bruised ribs.

Still have keloid scar on the elbow.

Considering some of the other stories, I feel quite lucky

WOT

I was going straight through a junction in a cycle lane. The Mercedes Vito van parallel to me, without any indication, was turning left. The traffic light was amber.

Bish bosh boom

I broke the wing mirror clean off the van with my forearm and hit the deck. Thankfully the driver stopped the van immediately rather than continue to turn across me. Couple of bad bruises and a sore foot for a few weeks. Bike was fine. My helmet made contact with the van and the ground.

I thanked the driver for not killing me and we went about our days. Driver didn’t see me and I didn’t know he was turning left but assumed he was going straight too. Both at fault.

I do ride more defensively since then and try to avoid this vulnerable road position. Also pull up on amber more often.

Worst was when I went over the bars of my BMX 25 years before that. Completely my own fault.

Stay safe out there.

Seth Brundle

Knocked down about 25 years ago at the airport roundabout by a driver rushing to drop people off for a flight.
Drifted in and out of conscious for a few hours and was left with brain and back injuries (which thankfully cleared up after a few months).
I'm assuming that a helmet, had I been wearing one, would have reduced the impact my head took against the ground and lessened the brain swelling.

neris

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Ah here - we don't have skangers in Skerries!

Probably from balbriggan on a day out

neris

monkeyslayer wrote: »

T boned an impatient driver. Broke my neck, shoulder, breast bone, little finger and absolutely trashed the helmet I was wearing,. Which saved my life. Settled in high court. I tell everyone now they might only ever need to have that helmet on just once in your life, but that one time, if you're not wearing it...

Just out of curiosity anything happen to the driver? Ban? Points?

AndrewJRenko

I slid off on ice one January morning, in front of Dundrum Library, after coming down the hill from Sweetmount at a fair clip. Good few cuts and abrasions around my chin, and I thought I had broken my wrist. Got back on the bike and cycled on into work. I scared the pants off one of the ladies when I came in with blood dripping around my face. An xray confirmed there was no serious damage to the wrist.

Captain Havoc

The blood makes it look far worse than it is.

D13exile

2nd worst was about five years ago when I skidded on some loose gravel as I was going round and down a fast sweeping left turn that had been recently resurfaced (unknown to me up to that point!!) and the bike went out from under me causing me to shred my left leg on the surface chippings as I was still clipped in. Skin was gone from my shin up to my thigh and bleeding profusely. Had to cycle home about 15kms with blood spilling down my leg and getting some shocked stares from pedestrians as I passed them by. Naturally some "funny kid" asked me if I forgot my tampon when I stopped at lights.

Worst crash was in 1985 when I was a kid who had just gotten his new racing bike and being from the Dublin 13 area, I went to the one place where I could see how fast I could go, ie the top of the Hill of Howth and down through the village. All was going well until some woman decided to pull out of a side road across my path where I immediately slammed into the side of her car near the front wing and I sailed over the bonnet and flew through the air for what seemed like some time before hitting the ground and rolling for some distance. No clip in pedals in those days but no helmet either. A few passersby helped me up and apart from some cuts and later bruises, and ripped clothes, I was shaken but undamaged. The driver of the car I'd hit was screaming about the damage to her car (some things never change!) until one old man told her to shut up as she was in the wrong and she could have killed me. I had to limp home the 7kms to my house with a banged up bike (front wheel mangled and forks bent) to find my father cutting the grass. Naturally he wasn't impressed with what I'd done to the new bike nor with the fact that I hadn't had the presence of mind to get the woman's car reg so he could report her for dangerous driving and get her to pay for the bike repair.

Bambaata

Car side swiped me and broke thumb, wrote off a 6 week old Cannondale Supersix HM minor compared to most here

Brian?

I’ve been incredibly lucky or insanely skilled on the bike, more likely the former. I’ve be cycling seriously for almost 30 years without a major crash. That includes a few years racing.

My worst destroyed a rather pricey Castelli jacket

I can make a play for the most comical crash, is that a thing.

Rolling up to the start of the biggest sportive in Phoenix, Az. Mass start arranged by pens for each predicted time. I was looking around for my pen and barely moving. Hit the lid off bottle and went flying arse over tit. Didn’t even get time to clip out. I was like a turtle on the back with a bike still attached to my feet.

About 5000 people staring at me. I don’t embarrass easily. But I was mortified.

numbnutz

Cycling between east wall road and Alfie Byrne about thirty years ago road when six lads ran across the road.Hit two of them,over the handlebars and head into the kerb. I will never forget it. The sound of a helmet slapping concrete.
Luckily I was wearing a helmet my mother had bought for me a couple of weeks previous. A few cuts and bruises but no other injuries. Absolutely blessed. This was before helmets were a necessity for longevity if you were a cyclist.
As everyone else has said only for I was wearing my helmet I have no doubt it could have been really serious.
I would also say wear proper gloves. When your fingers get ****ed from road rash its a complete pain.

I then progressed on to motorcycles and that's when the ultimate non injury what an absolute gob****e accident happened....

Alanbt

monkeyslayer wrote: »

T boned an impatient driver. Broke my neck, shoulder, breast bone, little finger and absolutely trashed the helmet I was wearing,. Which saved my life. Settled in high court. I tell everyone now they might only ever need to have that helmet on just once in your life, but that one time, if you're not wearing it...

Mine was similar accident, someone pulling out in front of me, but nowhere near as serious though. Couple of cracked ribs and ‘slight’ puncture to lung. No longer assume drivers see me at these junctions (even thought I had 2 front lights on at time of accident)

loyatemu

broke a couple of ribs in September, went over on some gravel while mountain biking and came down hard on my side. It was stupid, I wasn't even on a track, it was in the carpark, I looked back to check on my son who was behind me and down I went. Never look back!

monkeyslayer

neris wrote: »

Just out of curiosity anything happen to the driver? Ban? Points?

No nothing, no laws were broken, just reckless impatience.

Tombo2001

Was swinging left in East Point business park
(i) corner has poor visibility due to large bush on the corner.
(ii) I go around the corner to find Car A overtaking Car B, driving on RHS of road at speed, and heading directly towards me.

I jump of the bike, break my wrist in the fall.

Didnt get reg, Business Park couldnt offer any CCTV footage. Driver saw that I had fallen but kept going.

Bear in mind that the business park has a speed limit of 30km/h and yet one car was overtaking another moving car.

The thing that stayed with me was that because there hadnt been a collision, therefore there was a question mark over liability. I jumped off the bike, therefore it was a single 'vehicle' accident.

Tombo2001

Most comical one for me without doubt was falling into the canal at Cross Guns Bridge - tried to cycle between the gate and a post beside the canal, hit off the gate and wobbled down the bank. Because I was clipped in, wasnt able to break the fall.

I was standing up to my waist in water, trying to climb out. The bank there is about 8 feet high and fairly steep. Couldnt get out.

Good few people walked past, asking helpful questions like "are you alright?".

Then a chap that on any other day I'd have described as an absolute scobe came along walking his pitbull, seen me in the water, skipped down the bank and says "give us your hand", pulled me out and then pulled my bike out. I was grateful to say the least.

buffalo

Driver pulled out from a parking space in front of me. I instinctively swerved (where in hindsight I would've loved to have braked) and I rear-ended another car. Split open my face while shattering their rear windscreen.

First aid from some very capable passers-by, fire brigade were excellent, St James staff were fantastic. Garda who arrived on scene asked me in my concussed state how fast I was going and then didn't take anyone's details (so no witnesses) despite me asking him specifically to take the details of the driver who pulled out. :rolleyes:

magicbastarder

Tombo2001 wrote: »

The thing that stayed with me was that because there hadnt been a collision, therefore there was a question mark over liability.

an ex-colleague got €13k from a motorist who never made contact with him. he was passing a car park entrance, and she (coming from the oncoming direction) swung into it - he swerved, collided with another car, and was briefly knocked unconscious. she kept going, and it was a motorist behind who followed her into the car park and took her details (and made her stay at the scene, IIRC). that motorist, and the motorist of the car he hit, gave statements supporting his version of events.

smacl

Worst for me was coming around a bend on a narrow boreen in Kerry at speed to meet a car with trailer taking the full width of the road coming the other way. Both shoulders dislocated with some permanent damage to one, dislocated elbow and lump taken out of one knee. Bike was ok but the impact caved in your man's bonnet. I took the blame for it at the time, though in retrospect it was 50/50 as I was on my side of the road and reckon he should have beeped coming up to blind corners given he was taking up the full width of the road, such as it was. Could have been worse but I take blind corners way slower now. No harm with the numbers of walkers on the roads in the first lockdown and cars overtaking them with little thought for oncoming traffic.

Macy0161

Broken ribs, punctured lung and 7 stitches in my back from the (folded) key fob - 3 days in hospital, about 6 weeks off work iirc. It was racing, but race wasn't "on" at the time which was probably part of the problem, everyone had eased off was eating and drinking and someone went down ahead and no time to react. He admitted pulling away from a touch of wheels, so I guess that makes it someone else's fault?

I don't know whether it would've made difference, but I was let get up off the road which could have caused the punctured lungs, but only for needing the stitches and the doctor doing the stitching sending me for an x-ray, I would've just gone home and suffered it out assuming just cracking ribs.

That was the end of me racing, as I couldn't have another period out of the job in relatively short succession. However, I've got a racing licence for 2021, for what it's going to be worth the way things are looking.

byrnem31

Broke my ribs few weeks back using too much force taking a pedal off my defy.
Old kickboxing injury and the worse break I've ever had. Very painful and I wasn't even cycling the bike.

beans

Was in a cycle lane, in heavy London traffic. Went up the inside of a bus, at a junction, and was hit on the right by a milk van on the junction.

Broke my shoulder-blade, but made a full recovery after a good bit of physio. Always consider myself very lucky that it wasn't worse.

07Lapierre

Geez some serious injuries lads! From memory i reckon i've come off my bike about 10 times over the years. The worst injury was a cut over my right eye. I came off during a race a few years ago and cut my knee. The last time was last year when I decided to pull over into a driveway to put a rain jacket on. The front wheel slid away and i went down on my left side. a bit of road rash and i tore a hole in my good Castelli top!

I'm beginning to think i'm not a real cyclist as i've never broken a bone!

MarkY91

Cycling down a quiet enough street and suddenly a parked cars door swings open and my neck/chest area hit the upper corner of the door dead on. Ended up with some stiches just under my neck and unable to move my shoulder properly for months.

monkeyslayer

Used to think when i was a mountain biker that a crash every now again was good, so as to not get too over confident and remind me to think twice in certain situations... it actually kinda worries me at the moment I haven't had a crash in maybe 50,000 odd kms...

kirving

1. Concussion from over the bars and hitting a rock. Don't remember much of it. (See, a lump of foam and plastic doesn't help :pac:)

2. 8 stitches on my shin from a pedal. I saw bone.

3. OTB and only saw later that day where the helmet just about caught the rear dropout bolt above my temple. Lucky with that one.

4. Broke my collarbone during the summer in Ticknock on a terribly designed drop in to a trail. Someone had hollowed out the middle of a 45° ramp and put the soil on top to give the ramp a little kick, instead of taking it from elsewhere.

I should have checked it out of course, but the same short trail took another collarbone and someones leg that same weekend. Shared blame on that one IMO, but no recourse since it wasn't an official trail.

The surgeon described the two halves the bone as being in different parishes. :eek: Two surgeries and 8 months later it's getting back to normal.

cletus

Wow, some serious injuries here. I've had anumber of breaks and cocussions myself, but not due to cycling accidents.

Ive properly come off my bike three times, all as a teenager. The first one I think I mentioned on here before. An old Raleigh front wheel had been put on "the wrong way", and the bearings seized, causing the axle to concertina into itself. I was crossing the road at the time, and came out over the handlebars. Breakfalls and rolling saved me from hurting myself beyond some scrapes and nicks.

The second one was on the way home in winter time from supervised study in school. I think i was probably in 6th year. I was cycling along by the canal, no street lighting, and too late I saw a guy walking ahead of me. He was walking on the wrong side of the road, so he didn't see my light, and had headphones on, so he didnt hear me. I went straight into him, and knocked him down. My one clear thought was that I had a flask of soup in my bag and if I fell it would break and everythin would be ruined. I landed, running, on my feet. To this day I don't know how I managed it .

The third one was the only time I was actually hurt. The likelihood is that I was concussed. Cycling to school on an icy morning, coming up to a hump back bridge, I got out of the saddle at the bottom to get up and over it, and on the first pedal strok, the bike came out from under me onblack ice. I rattled myself pretty badly, and the lady in the car behind me stopped because she was concerned about how hard I'd fallen. The reason I believe I was concussed is that she offered to drive me home, and I told her no, I needed to get to school

dinneenp

Got back into cycling by accident really ; Covid lockdown meant no football and needed some outlet. Will end up costing me thousands.....

Thelonious Monk

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Ah here - we don't have skangers in Skerries!

Yeah I was wondering, it's affluent af.
Anyway I'm lucky in that I've never really had any bad ones, I remember once in about 2005 my wheel went into the luas track at the Jervis St stop and I went flying off. It was wet out and mud went all over me that was in the track. Right in front of a rush hour crowd too, scarleh. Wasn't really hurt though.
A couple of times about 10 years ago I fell off while hammered coming back from pub, but the details weren't clear when I woke up the next day.

CramCycle

I did go over arse over tit at my first CX race and ripped the arse out of my skinsuit so went round flashing a bit of skin at the very few people who were behind me. I also went arse over tit at the exact same place on the next lap :rolleyes:

fatbhoy

Worst crash: broken neck (3 vertebra, bits of scull tore off by ligaments too), dissected vertebral artery that included nice blood clot that could have resulted in stroke, stretched arm nerves. Four months ago. Then hit by
some nice depression/physiological-stuff/PTSD afterwards.

Away With The Fairies

Reading all these stories, makes me want to wear knee and elbow pads while cycling.