I Crashed on My Bicycle and the Dented Grey Van Kept Going

Caption: Maria Conzemius resting at a bar during a bicycle ride.

Naturally, I avoided accidents all summer until the week before RAGBRAI when I crashed on my bicycle Sunday, July 15. It happened at the three-way intersection of an entrance/exit to ACT, Scott Boulevard, and First Avenue in Iowa City. A van driver going east on Scott Boulevard didn't bother to use his or her turn signal and unpredictably turned into me. (I was going straight on Scott Boulevard.) Without a right turn signal, I assumed that the driver was going straight until he literally turned right into me as he turned south on First Avenue. I tried to stop to avoid getting hit while trying to get off my bike, but my toe clips didn't let me go soon enough. I went over in a heap on the cement. I scraped my right knee, bruised my bad (right) hip, scraped my right elbow, and bruised my left elbow.

I was so irritated. If only the driver had signaled that he was turning right! However, other people in the area were as solicitous as the driver of the old, dented grey van was clueless. A woman stopped her car on First Avenue and asked me if I needed anything. I thanked her and said no, I'd be all right. I was still a little shocked and walked my bike up the hill until the nausea passed. Then I got on my bike at the top of the hill to ride the Scott Boulevard hills back to Blackstone's.

Terry, a regular at Blackstone's, asked Jake the bartender for a bag of ice to put on my knee. The ice helped a lot. My husband, who used to be an orderly at University Hospitals in his youth before I met him, had a medical kit with him and used alcohol pads to clean my wounds, neosporin to put on them, and a big bandaid for my scraped knee.

Later on I came home, looked straight at Jim to say hi instead of down at my feet, and tripped over the cat who came up to greet me. I felt terrible and so did my left ankle because I did all sorts of gymnastics to avoid stepping on the cat. I apologized to Chloe, our kitty, whose soft fur I felt against my leg in the nick of time. My ankle hurt but shook itself out and recovered within the day.

I'm staying off of my bicycle until RAGBRAI starts and hope all my owies are healed enough that I can ride in relative comfort.

Please, if you aren't already using your turn signals, consider using them in the future. You know where you're going, but the point of turn signals is to let others know where you're going. It's a simple concept but one that too many drivers and bicyclists don't seem to grasp or don't care enough to use.

I don't think it's a surprise that most accidents occur within a mile of your own home. Once people get close to their own turf, they tend to lose their good manners altogether.

Another safety concern: Walkers and bicyclists who insist on walking and biking two abreast and won't move over so that others may safely pass single file on a wide sidewalk/trail.