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@samueldavidkeyes
Last week on a busy shopping street. I was late for a meeting and powering along at a really healthy speed with a bus behind me. Ahead of me I see a youngish couple step out from behind a parked car without looking, consider shouting, but it's not a close call as I can see they'll be almost over by the time I reach them so leave it. As I get nearer, their child runs out after them, causing me to pretty much fill my pants, but in that split second I am able to swerve left and see that I will miss him. At this point (time has seriously slowed down) yet ANOTHER child runs out, and this one is right under my wheels. I'm already fully locked up and swerving like mad from the first child, and I see my front wheel come literally a couple of centimetres from running over the kid's leg. At the speed I was doing I'm quite sure I could have killed the kid, he was only about 5. When I stopped (managed to stay on), I made sure everything was OK with the kid. Parents seemed pretty pissed, but what parent in their right mind walks out from behind parked cars into traffic and allows their tiny kids to just run after them. Absolutely incredible.
The last ever time I didn't wear a helmet - Coming down a large hill in Southampton, at the bottom I'm doing at least 30, nothing on either side of the road and, stupidly I know, I took my hands off the bars for that "I'm flying" feeling. Not more than 5 seconds later, my front wheel decides to buckle spectacularly, immediately throwing me over the bars. Two things for which I am immensely grateful, firstly that I had only that morning taken off the clips and straps from my pedals as they were getting really tatty, and second I was wearing a very, very heavy coat that saved me any road rash or injury other than bruising. Knowing a couple of guys who have been paralysed in similar incidents, I am so, so thankful I was OK. Rolled an impressive distance along the road, but nothing there to run me over and no head injuries.