Thursday, September 3, 2009

Back Of The Bus


There's something quite surreal about having a relatively long period of time to think about an accident that's about to happen. In most cases, cycling crashes happen very quickly. You touch wheels with someone or you slide out...then you're on the ground in an instant.

Yesterday, Mongo took the afternoon off and went for a ride...It was about three thirty. With the music cranking(I have a Panasonic "Thudbuster"(12 D batteries) duct-taped to my handlebars), I descended a double switchback section of road at over 40 mph. I've ridden this road hundreds of times, and even though it has blind corners, I'm always hauling ass.

I came out of the last corner only to see two cars stopped behind a school bus...which was also stopped...and unloading children. I was going too fast to stop behind the last car, and I knew it, but I had about three full seconds to come up with another plan.

I wish I could say that I plowed over five kids and kept going unapologetically, but...that didn't happen. I swerved into the opposite lane and, under some impressive F1-style braking, came to a halt next to the bus driver's window. Luckily he didn't see me, so I took a quick lewie into an adjoining neighborhood.

No comments: