Comment by hkmurakami | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hkmurakami | Hacker News Reader

3 weeks ago, I was hit by a car. I was cycling. The car was going 50mph. When I was hit from behind, it felt like a wall had come out of nowhere and had slammed into me. On the ground, I was in so much pain I couldn't move, yet as I lay on the ground screaming, I was strangely calm enough inside to be thankful that I wasn't dead.

I was in the hills (I had been training to prepare for a multi-month bike tour), so I was helicoptered to the hospital. If just a few things had gone worse, I could have been paralyzed or even dead. The driver had his eyes off the road to adjust his sun visor, so literally anything could have happened. I was aware of this myself but the paramedics and doctors all made sure to make me aware of my said luck. I've somehow gotten out with just a few broken ribs and abrasions throughout the left side of my body (probably will be permanent).

It's definitely brought a renewed sense of appreciation for the time I have left here on this little blue ball.

I wasn't going to write about this until all the insurance claims had been settled, but I felt compelled to spill the beans here on this occasion here. I guess it's a sign that I've grown pretty close to this community.

About five weeks ago I fell of my motorcycle into the path of an oncoming car on my way to Skyline/Woodside. The motorcycle went in front of it and lifted the car into the air. Then I slid underneath it. One of the rear wheels landed next to my head and I came out of the rear part of it.

The outcome was a broken left wrist. That's it. Literally nothing else happened to me.

There are things that happen to you that make it clear how close we all are to death at all times. I am glad to hear your injuries weren't too bad and hope you recover from them well.

Edit: I have to add, it's also times like these that you will oftentimes show you the best of people. The girl who was driving the car was very nice about everything and even offered me a ride into the city (more than 45 minutes) even though she lived in the opposite direction. The tow truck driver charged me only half the normal rate because "we gotta stick together" and he rode bikes too. Lots of people who were around near the accident helped immobilize my arm after the injury. The friendly folks down at Motoshop unloaded the bike and removed some of the ugly bits sticking out. Friend came to pick me up and take me to hospital. It was pretty inspiring. People are amazing.

Coincidentally, I was hit on Skyline just north of Page Mill Road (I had climbed Page Mill from the bottom then had turned north on Skyline). But my gosh, talk about a close call for you... were you heading up highway 9 or 84 and slipped out?

I remember looking up towards the direction the car that hit me went and thinking, "please, please stop so you can call 911 for me," and the driver did stop and come back to me. He must have been in a state of panic, since he asked me, "Oh my god are you alright, can I do anything for you?" and I replied, gasping, "C-a-l-l 9-1-1".

In the ensuing minutes, a person with EMT training and a biker who was an off duty fireman stopped to check me out, make sure my hands and toes moved, made sure I didn't have pain in my neck, etc.

When a friend of mine crashed his bike descending Page Mill last summer (and fractured 3 spinal fins), a random car stopped for him and took him to Stanford hospital. Complete strangers!

You're absolutely right; give them an opportunity and people will show their wonderful side.

I was on highway 84. Amazingly, we can do things like this:

http://goo.gl/maps/vC1Cu

The car stopped roughly where the men are standing.

I am always very thankful for people with EMT training. When I climbed Mt. St. Helens last year a man had a medical complication and passed away on the mountain. There were about 20 of us who spent about 45 minutes helping him out until the helicopter arrived.

That experience really solidified for me the importance that we all get some basic medical training. Even something as simple as CPR certification can really save someone's life.

I get a little bit nervous for you cyclists. On the motorbike at least you have thick leather protecting you from road rash. I can imagine that that part can't have been fun.

You spelled the word "call"?

It's good to know you're OK after this; a friend was cut off by an SUV while riding his motorcycle and recounts a similar experience, though he still has a steel rod through one femur and 17 screws plus a plate in one wrist (which will eventually stop him from programming).

It's important to appreciate and enjoy the time we have. If we don't... what's the point?

wow your friend has it so much worse than me, and it's harrowing to hear what basically could have easily happened to me. It really is miraculous that I'm most likely going to have no serious physical repercussions post-recovery. sucks to hear that his wrist injury is going to hamper him in such a grave way.

a friend of mine told me about a famous emacs contributor who has a keyboard that is only the "left half" but has a toggle key which switches it to the right half keys with one button, and that he is lightning fast with it. do you think that's something he'd be interested in using? he could also probably hand make something like that, like the custom keyboards that keyboard.io is making.

Fortunately, the direction we're heading in doesn't require him in a development role (we're both programmers, but that's more my specialty, and he's better with clients). Hopefully, by the time it gets to that point, programming won't be a concern of his: Either our business will have gone far enough that he's entirely done with development or the business will be done and he'll be looking for consultation-only or team management roles.

That'd fit his tastes far better anyway. :)

It is hard to hear about that... it's worse to see it. I sold my motorcycle after he got in his second accident. I'm not excessively risk-averse, but some things just put too much on the line.

I've found that I have this flinch/flashback reaction every time I see cyclists on the road now (and since I live in Silicon Valley where there are many avid cyclists, this is many times a day). I wonder what kind of mental hurdles I'll have to overcome when getting on the bike again :(

Yep, it gets worse every time you hit or are hit by something. He's twitchy because of his accidents, and I've hit a deer in my VW and a very large turkey in my Subaru (the latter was recent, and resulted in a very amusing but very long day), so we have kind of a habit/history of unintentional hunting.

Perhaps it's a midwestern thing; we're in Minnesota and he's from Michigan. :)

I'm not seeing direct contact info for you from your profile or blog, but if you could drop me a line, my email address is in my profile. If not, no worries. :)

I find this really interesting. I have had 2 pretty serious motorbike accidents (a bus and a tractor. Poor choice of targets I admit). I was lucky to get away with nothing more than broken bones - albeit a fair few of those.

I remember getting back on the bike after the first one, and having worked myself up about it for a little while, the only thing I really remember was how amazing it felt to be 'free' again.

I guess what I am trying to say is that the anticipation of the thing was much much worse than the thing itself. Keep to a relatively safe environment, and let yourself remember why you loved biking in the first place.

NB. Purely anecdotal, I have no doubt that my experience of "getting back on the bike" is different to many others. Just don't convince yourself it's an impossibility.

PS. (I don't have a motorbike anymore, though I plan to buy one again at some point. I have had a little ride since the second - just no money to purchase a bike of my own)

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