RE: [ST] Still shaking

["Harries, Mort" <mort.harries@xxxxxx>]

Mark,

Glad you're ok, and didn't go down.  That adrenaline takes a while to simmer
down, I know.  I didn't post about my "incident" a couple of months ago,
because I was too shaken up to write about it at the time.  I got hit by a
bus, and though I didn't go down, and neither me nor the bike suffered any
damage, it was damn scary.

I was turning right at an intersection where the road I was turning onto
changes from one lane in each direction to two.  The layout of the
intersection is that traffic on that one lane road gets the left lane at the
intersection, and traffic joining that road by turning right onto it (like
me), gets the right lane.  I had a green right turn arrow, and made my turn.
At the same time a bus coming along that road I was turning onto decides to
move from its left lane into the right lane, right over the solid white
line.   So here I am, leaned over into the turn, when I realize my lane is
rapidly disappearing under the wheels of a bus moving into my lane.  I
tighten up the turn, brake, get upright and brake some more. By now my left
shoulder is brushing the side of the bus, and I am heading for the curb at a
very shallow angle, as the front wheel of the bus is already only a foot or
so from the curb.  Somehow, and I still don't know how this happened, I
manage to get the bike over that 4 - 6" high curbstone onto the grass, and
stop there.  I must have been almost parallel to the curb when I hit it, so
how the bike managed to climb it is beyond me.  Maybe the bus sort of lifted
me over it, because I was still in contact with it on my left side.  Or
maybe someone was watching out for me that day.  (I'm not the type to
believe in that kinda stuff, but after an experience like that, it kinda
makes you wonder; how the hell am I still in one piece??)

Anyway, I come to stop on the grass, still upright.  Adrenaline pumping.
The bus doesn't even stop.  I don't think the driver ever saw me.   My left
mirror is folded over, but not broken, though with some marks on the
housing.  I have black rubber stripes from the bus down the side of the
fairing (but they wash off easily later),  and I have some deep scratches on
the left side of my left boot, and scuff marks on the left should of my
leather jacket.  My first reaction was to get back on the road and tear
after the bus, block his path, and yell and scream at the driver.  Instead I
took a few minutes to make sure I was ok, and the bike was ok, and then
started off again, badly shaken, but thankfully in one piece.  And glad I
took that few minutes to calm down a bit.  I think I might have killed
myself if I'd gone tearing off after that bus with the ol' adrenaline at
max.

Lessons:  Obviously I'm a lot more careful at that intersection now.  But in
general I think the lesson is never count on other drivers to act logically.


Anyway, glad to hear you're ok.  

Mort H.
'00 ST

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