Weird Morning
So, this morning, I got run over on the streets of London. AGAIN. This time by a moped which had allegedly just been stolen by two lads who were spooked by a police motorbike and decided to careen into the back of this poor cyclist.
Just as I started to get myself together in the ambulance I started tweeting about what happened, and I’ve just consolidated all of those tweets into a nice little timeline on Storify.
Sat here in bed at the other end of the day I feel very positive despite all that’s happened. Strangers and friends alike were kind, the emergency services looked after me well, without any rush, and work were pretty understanding. Haven’t gone back to see what state the bike’s in yet, but apparently it wasn’t too bad, most of the damage basically happened to me as I flew over the handlebars having been undertaken by a moped which landed on me with it’s two occupants.
If I do have a bit of anger, it’s this. I know I was run over by someone breaking the law, who the police are trying to track down. But I also know that there are people driving today with well over 12 points on their license, and there is a lot of talk of smoothing the traffic flow in London. What smooths the traffic flow when a mindless accident like this in a major junction blocks off two lanes and doubtless caused tailbacks for quite some distance? We can’t get away from sharing the roads with each other, if you really worry about congestion, lobby for safer streets for everyone, a few more people on a few more bikes having a lot fewer accidents and I think we all get to win.
I can’t wait to head out for a ride again myself.
I think it was my scooter that was stolen and involved in your incident, was it a black piaggio or were you too concussed to notice?
I am glad you are not too damaged unlike my bike which has been removed to Perivale police pound where it is undergoing forensics and the people there informed me with a certain amount of relish that it would be scrapped within 7 days unless I paid a £150 release fee + a £10 daily residence charge. Not easy as I am going on holiday friday and they will not tell me when the forensics are finished. helpful. not.
I hope you recover quickly.
Hello Jonny, I do recall looking up in disbelief after the accident and seeing the black piaggio piled on top of my bike, so many commiserations to you as well.
I’m still off work today, and don’t think I’ll be back to A1 for some weeks yet, but it is one of the benefits of the human body that I can hope to heal perhaps even without any scars at all in that time just by looking after myself a bit. Those police figures sound remarkably high, I’d hope your insurer would cover them, not sure about you but I am informed that having been run over by an essentially uninsured driver I should essentially wind up claiming from the central scheme for uninsured drivers.
Like you I’m off on holiday pretty soon, so I hope I can get some new glasses sorted before all that happens. There’s never a good time for these things to happen, but it is bloody irritating timing all the same, apart from the Tour de France being on telly. Let’s hope they catch whoever did this to both of us, from stealing, to driving dangerously to running me over and running away they’ve been cowards all the way along.