This morning's hit and run incident encourages me to write about a recent experience I had myself with getting hit by a car. It wasn't a serious incident, but it could have been. I think that it was accidental, but it seemed like the driver wasn't going to stop until I yelled at the top of my lungs to pull over and that I had the license number of the offending vehicle. However, the driver did pull over and she was very apologetic and concerned that I might have been injured, which I wasn't.

Basically how it happened was that I was going up Olympic Way NW (between 4th Ave Bridge and Harrison Ave). As I approached the roundabout I merged into the middle lane (from the bike only express lane). Prior to merging I checked to see that the lane was clear, which it was; the car that ended up hitting me was a safe distance behind me. The driver had plenty of room and visibility to observe my merge and compensate for my presence in the lane. I was highly visible with multiple reflectors and a blinking tail light.

As the car passed me it came so close that the side view mirror clipped my handlebar; it hit the butt-end tube of my drop handlebars. The mirror was break away, so it snapped closed. When the car pulled over it was apparent that the the mirror had snapped closed, but it snapped back in place.

My handle bar tape was cut a little bit, but the tube doesn't seem to be bent at all. Most fortunate was that the car wasn't six inches to the right of where it was, and/or I wasn't further to the left, because in that scenario the car might have made contact with the left side of my body, in which case I am sure that I would have been thrown from my bicycle. As it was I had a tight enough grip on the bars (I was climbing) so that I stayed on safely. Also fortunate was that my hand wasn't on the drop part of my bar, because it would have hurt very badly (maybe even been broken) if my hand had made contact with the side view mirror, rather than my handle bar.

No one was injured in this accident. The driver pulled over, although perhaps only (and seemingly so) at my behest. She apologized. I asked her to be more considerate of bicycles and to share the road. Bicyclists have a right to be on the road. She said that she thought I was on the side walk.

It got my heart beating pretty hard, but I soon recovered after getting to talk with the driver and hear her apology.

All of us who drive owe it to each other to be aware of each other on the road. Please share the road and be considerate of bicycles and other non-automotive traffic...

I am curious about whether other OlyBloggers have had incidents like mine. Have you ever been hit by a car? What was the experience like for you?