Despite all the fun you can have on a bike, I’m afraid to say that we all know it’s an inherently unsafe activity.  We all know that there are accidents, and riders of bikes normally come off the worst.  I didn’t have the faintest idea that I was about to become another rider who was to be “scraped off the road” when I was riding home one bright and warm Thursday evening in June.  There I was, minding my own business, bike freshly serviced, new brake pads all round, just spent a couple of hours preening and polishing my little stinger only the day before …  It was on one of the back-streets of London, near Harley Street.  A good, wide road, excellent visibility not another car about.  In the distance, coming towards me, there was one of those “trainee cabbies” riding a Honda C90.  He was out “doing the knowledge” – they attach a clipboard to the front of their bike, and drive around London following lists of street names, looking at landmarks, and, it seems, doing everything except keeping their eyes on the road.  I had already formed a pretty low opinion of them, they are normally on L-plates and some of them are just downright careless, inconsiderate and incompetent.  Not a good advertisement for biking.

As I got closer, he’d stopped at some lights (they were green) closer still, and I was about to ride by, as I was almost on top of him, he suddenly decided to pull into my path!  There was nothing I could do, nowhere to go, no time to brake.  The next instant, I had hit his front wheel with a glancing blow, I’d lost control of the bike and was flying over the bars there was already burning pain in both shins, my left shoe was pulled off and my left leg broke free, then my right leg was released and I was rolling down the road.  Now separated from the bike, all I tried to do was avoid any parked cars, luckily (and I remember thinking how lucky I was) there was no oncoming traffic.  I eventually came to a halt in the road.  The bike was on its side in the road, some distance behind me.  I tried to sit up, but my neck hurt, my right leg felt “a little loose” my left leg hurt like hell.  I was worried that I may have damaged my neck, so I decided to have a lie down and wait for help.  Help came quickly, I was 50 metres from Harley Street and a very nice doctor who had been passing by stayed with me.  As I lay there, I thanked my lucky stars that my injuries were not too extensive.  Blood was not pumping from any arteries, I had a few bangs and scrapes and my right leg was probably broken but repairable.

I was anxious that the other rider should be apprehended and I was issuing orders to everyone to make sure he hadn’t gone anywhere.  The Police arrived first, “What’s your name and address please, sir?”.  Very helpful.  By then, I was in and out of shock, shaking violently, trying to control my breathing and the pain.  The pain was bad.

The ambulance seemed to take forever to arrive.  The London Ambulance now has modern central control room.  This means that the joker who’s controlling the ambulances can pick any ambulance depot at random, rather than the one closest to the accident (about 1 mile away).  My ambulance apparently came from Waterloo (the other side of the Thames and about 3 miles away, and through some of the most congested central London roads).  Thanks.

The boys in green gave me a large dose of some kind of narcotic and suddenly things didn’t seem all that bad.  They whisked me off to Hospital (less than a mile away).

to be continued ....