Last August I bought myself a cheap, little bike. It was a used '08 Honda CBR 125. These starter bikes are perfect to learn on and from what I heard have great resale value. The price tag was what sealed the deal.
Before buying the bike I got my M1, did my Safety/M2 Exit at Humber and made sure I had all the appropriate gear: boots, padded jacket, gloves and a good helmet.
Apart from a minor fight with the streetcar tracks in the rain (which I lost) in October, I rode with little incident through the end of summer, into fall and next spring.
This spring, on a Friday in late April, I was riding home WB on Danforth Ave. I was around the Danforth/Woodbine area. To those of you familiar with Danforth, the street has a wide right lane full of parked cars. For larger vehicles, it is essentially a one-lane road. For motorycles, scooters and bicycles on the other hand it's riding paradise. We can squeeze by (quite safely) in the right lane, passing the slow-moving cars on the left.
That's where I was that fateful Friday, in the right lane riding along the parked cars, doing the speed limit. There were two cars to my left, both slightly ahead of me. The front vehicle slowed down to make a left turn and the vehicle tailing him decided that instead of stopping it would be a good idea to merge into the right lane, my lane, to avoid having to stop for all of five seconds.
He turned on his signal and started moving to the right, into my lane. I hit the brakes and my horn. "Surely this guy's not blind" I thought. He kept merging, his turning signal blinking away. I applied the brakes as hard as I could without locking them up. I was still approaching his rear end at a fairly high rate of speed as he kept merging and braking simultaneously. I tried to swerve to the right, hoping to squeeze by between him and the parked vehicles on the right but there was not enough room. I hit the rear bumper of a vehicle parallel-parked on the right-hand side. My head impacted the rear windshield and shattered it. I proceeded to flip in the air and landed on the roof of the vehicle's car.
My first instinct was to get up, but I couldn't. The police and ambulance were on site within minutes, I was taken to the hospital where the trauma room doctors cut off the gear that saved my life. An x-ray revealed I had a broken wrist, a CT scan showed a fractured pelvis. I spent four days in the hospital. At first, I couldn't move my legs an inch without excruciating pain. On the third day, hooked up to a morphine drip, I managed to walk to the door on crutches. On the fourth day, I went in for surgery on my wrist. It had to be re-set or it would not have healed properly.
A few hours after being admitted a Sgt from the Toronto Police dropped by. He informed me that they got the guy who merged into me. He never even slowed down. He's being charged with careless driving, failure to remain and failure to render assistance.
The bike was a write-off and my insurance company paid out its blue book value.
I'm not sure why I wrote this post, I guess I needed to write it out to get over the whole event. Maybe it will serve as a warning to people to ride more carefully. As the paramedics, doctors and police told me: it could've been worse. I know one thing: the helmet literally saved my neck.
Has anyone been in an accident where they successfully sued the at-fault driver for negligence or emotional distress or pain & suffering? Anyone know a lawyer in the GTA who specializes in this stuff, or should I just give it up?
Stay safe out there.
Before buying the bike I got my M1, did my Safety/M2 Exit at Humber and made sure I had all the appropriate gear: boots, padded jacket, gloves and a good helmet.
Apart from a minor fight with the streetcar tracks in the rain (which I lost) in October, I rode with little incident through the end of summer, into fall and next spring.
This spring, on a Friday in late April, I was riding home WB on Danforth Ave. I was around the Danforth/Woodbine area. To those of you familiar with Danforth, the street has a wide right lane full of parked cars. For larger vehicles, it is essentially a one-lane road. For motorycles, scooters and bicycles on the other hand it's riding paradise. We can squeeze by (quite safely) in the right lane, passing the slow-moving cars on the left.
That's where I was that fateful Friday, in the right lane riding along the parked cars, doing the speed limit. There were two cars to my left, both slightly ahead of me. The front vehicle slowed down to make a left turn and the vehicle tailing him decided that instead of stopping it would be a good idea to merge into the right lane, my lane, to avoid having to stop for all of five seconds.
He turned on his signal and started moving to the right, into my lane. I hit the brakes and my horn. "Surely this guy's not blind" I thought. He kept merging, his turning signal blinking away. I applied the brakes as hard as I could without locking them up. I was still approaching his rear end at a fairly high rate of speed as he kept merging and braking simultaneously. I tried to swerve to the right, hoping to squeeze by between him and the parked vehicles on the right but there was not enough room. I hit the rear bumper of a vehicle parallel-parked on the right-hand side. My head impacted the rear windshield and shattered it. I proceeded to flip in the air and landed on the roof of the vehicle's car.
My first instinct was to get up, but I couldn't. The police and ambulance were on site within minutes, I was taken to the hospital where the trauma room doctors cut off the gear that saved my life. An x-ray revealed I had a broken wrist, a CT scan showed a fractured pelvis. I spent four days in the hospital. At first, I couldn't move my legs an inch without excruciating pain. On the third day, hooked up to a morphine drip, I managed to walk to the door on crutches. On the fourth day, I went in for surgery on my wrist. It had to be re-set or it would not have healed properly.
A few hours after being admitted a Sgt from the Toronto Police dropped by. He informed me that they got the guy who merged into me. He never even slowed down. He's being charged with careless driving, failure to remain and failure to render assistance.
The bike was a write-off and my insurance company paid out its blue book value.
I'm not sure why I wrote this post, I guess I needed to write it out to get over the whole event. Maybe it will serve as a warning to people to ride more carefully. As the paramedics, doctors and police told me: it could've been worse. I know one thing: the helmet literally saved my neck.
Has anyone been in an accident where they successfully sued the at-fault driver for negligence or emotional distress or pain & suffering? Anyone know a lawyer in the GTA who specializes in this stuff, or should I just give it up?
Stay safe out there.
