"Oh Shit" moments...

Perhaps, there's a new "Lasting injuries lists" thread to evolve from here...........

I have spent a lot of the day feeling quite shocked and questioning what I did.

20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing. You did nothing to deserve almost being crushed to death.

Glad you're ok.

I had to go out this evening, and spent about 15 minutes fretting and fussing, very anxious about leaving the house. This was despite me having talked through the event with a few people, and being clear that there was nothing I did wrong.

What has made me most anxious, is that actually if I had followed best practice in my filtering into the ASL and placed myself directly in the traffic stream in front of the cab I would have been hit when it was shunted forwards. I have to remind myself it was a freak accident, I did nothing wrong and I am still alive.

Riding this evening was a relief, just to remind myself that it is in principle a safe activity. The danger I encountered was the kind of thing that would have been equally dangerous had I been on foot and crossing the road on foot.

it was a freak accident, I did nothing wrong and I am still alive.

This.

Well done for getting out so soon, despite the anxiety.

It's completely understandable that you're 'living down' the shock of the incident, James, and rationalising it in various ways, but, as you say, it was a freak occurrence. You can't assume that the same thing would have happened had you positioned yourself behind the cab. She might have stopped, or you might have noticed her car approaching and taken evasive action. However, no-one can know. Had you been in front of the cab, you would have got shunted and most probably injured had the same thing happened, but again there's no point in dwelling on it and no-one could possibly know.

You can never eliminate risk for anyone, and even were you to recommend the techniques you describe (NB never, ever use the term 'best practice'--it's one of the most stupid concepts in existence), it wouldn't be your fault were such a crash to occur to those to whom you had recommended this. Remember that you effectively only help people in their risk assessments, and once they're out there, they make their own risk assessments and don't act on yours. 99,999 times out of 100,000 the information you give them would help them assess risk, and they would most probably also understand that risk is never eliminated completely.

As I said, I completely understand your concern and worry, and it's easy for me to comment along the lines of the above, so it may not be that helpful. It sounds as if you're nearly there, anyway.

Glad it wasn't worse, sounds scary as hell.

would have been equally dangerous had I been on foot and crossing the road on foot.

this is important to remember. it was a near miss but had little to do with you being on a bike at the time.

Just got a call from the cabbies insurance

The drunk cunt was not insured!

Hoping the police utterly fuck her over now.

Shit DJ - just read your account. So glad you are OK.

I'm really angry that the perpetrator looks as though she'll get off 'scott free' for all intents and purposes. I just hope she, and those who have 'perverted the course of justice' in hiding her, do not suffer the loss of a loved one as a result of drunk driving. They are absolute fuckign twats!

Hope the after effects don't stay too long with you.

Just got a call from the cabbies insurance

Hoping the police utterly fuck her over now.

very likely now.

Just got a call from the cabbies insurance

The drunk cunt was not insured!

Hoping the police utterly fuck her over now.

Fuck's sake! Why are people such utter, utter cunts?

Could this lead to a claim against her personally in the small claims (or otherwise) court?

I'd jolly well hope so!

Hopefully his insurance will take a claim out against her directly and she will have the book thrown at her.

One concern is she sounded American, so she may just fuck off out of the country.

DJ, have you considered cycle training? I know a guy...

She probably works at the embassy so will claim diplomatic immunity from requiring insurance, or being sober, and the rest.

In similar circumstances I may well have stopped directly behind the taxi, which sounds like it may not have had a very positive outcome. I might have to reconsider the pros and cons of moving to the front of queues.

Just got a call from the cabbies insurance

The drunk cunt was not insured!

Hoping the police utterly fuck her over now.

Unbelievable. Been sitting here trying to find the words to express my contempt for her but can't think of any strong enough.

So she was drunk, driving without insurance, leaving the scene of an accident AND AMERICAN?

They should bring back the stocks. Or the gallows. Actually, fuck it, bring back both. Been ages since I've been to a good hanging

PS DJ - on a serious note, glad you are ok

Can't we raise their taxes or something?

Today's first "oh shit" moment was realising I'd left my gloves at home, the second was riding down from Highgate towards Muswell Hill (just passing through, I'm not Xander) when crack and the seat shifts backwards.

I've only gone and snapped the seatpost where the bit that holds the saddle rails fits into the seatpost tube :(

5 more miles standing up wasn't fun.

Had my freshly repaired frame on my back, came rolling slowly up to some lights and couldn't unclip and fell sideways in slowmo into the stationary traffic....

Thankfully the cars weren't moving and my shoulder took the hit not the frame on my back.

Hopefully his insurance will take a claim out against her directly and she will have the book thrown at her.

One concern is she sounded American, so she may just fuck off out of the country.
Err .... drunk driver .. range rover .... foreign driver .... South Ken ... A4 .... ?
reminds me of the killing of Tom Sippel-Dau
Natela's lawyers got her passport back from the court, she skipped bail and was last seen in Moscow pretending to be too ill to return to justice

http://www.lfgss.com/thread22225.html

There was also a Russian sounding woman in the car. Are there any images of Natela around?

not a huge deal, but riding around a newly paved (very smooth) rounderbout in the rain with a 650c gator, i felt it slipping out a few times, sure got the heart pumping faster!