There I was minding my own business yesterday in Dan King street Kraaifontein opposite the canal turn off @17h50, cycling with my dog (on the Springer Bicycle Dog exerciser) and taking up NOT EVEN a metre of space in the road with him running in the gutter when suddenly from behind, I hear a loud bang and simultaneously feel a hard thump on my hip/glute. Before I realised what was happening, the bottom half of my body was flung in the same direction as my seat which was now pointing 90degrees to the left, my upper half was leaning on the car which I had then realised had hit me, and all I could think of was my dog and if he was ok! The driver drove on for the length of three lamp posts to the stop street and I initially thought she was not going to stop. So ending up in the middle of the road leaning over my bike I could think of nothing else but to memorise the number plate, still not knowing how on earth I managed to land on my feet - clip-on’s and all. At the Stop street this elder gentleman gets out of the front passenger side of the car and what does he do? YES. He checks the car for damage, he looks at the mirror - the (at that time) OBVIOUS point of impact and puts that back in its place as it was distorted and folded in, he then continues to check the side of the car for further damage (Bugger the cyclist who is cringing with quite some pain and discomfort in the middle of the road)! He later comes over and asks if I am ok, and by that time an elder lady gets out of the right back passenger seat and comes over to me and this is the dialogue that follows: Lady: What are you doing? Me: What do you mean what am I doing – you guys hit me! Lady: You were doing this in the road (~making some kind of swerving motion with her hands~)! Me: Don’t talk nonsense, I was just cycling here in as little space as I have to do so and you guys hit me from behind! Lady: NO! You were doing this (~making that SAME kind of swerving motion with her hands~) I was watching you all the time! (Take note, this lady, sitting in the back right hand seat of the car, was watching me all the time! She must have had x-ray vision to be able to see through the child in the child seat at the left back seat as well as through her presumed husband sitting in the front left seat approaching me from behind, to have been able to be watching me all the time.) Me: Lady I was just cycling here and you guys hit me from behind! (Getting a bit frustrated now with this nosy woman who is not even the driver and who is giving me quite some lip! But, the words that came of her mouth next sums it all up!) Lady: But what are you doing in the road??? Me: What do you mean, what am I doing in the road– I am cycling in the road! Where do expect me to cycle on the pavement? You guys are driving in a car; do I expect you to drive on the pavements? I have as much right as you to be on the road! Lady: Why don’t you walk your dog on a leash? Me: (~Pointing over to the short rope attached to the Springer Dog Exerciser I say~) He is on a leash look here, do you see this? This is a tested device and he may walk/run with me on this we do not take up that much space. Lady: You should not be on the road! Me: Listen lady what do you mean? I may be on the road, how can you tell me that, are you mad or something? (~And that must have hit a nerve as she went off on me about me not knowing her and how could I call her mad, I don’t know her etc. etc. She repeated that three times if not more? I recall asking if she was mad, not saying she is but in any case … she totally flipped.) I just told her that I do not want to speak to her I want to speak to the driver who still had NOT gotten out of the car, and told her that I had taken their number plate and was going to report this to the police. She turned around and went to sit in the car, and with this the driver FINALLY got out with her cell phone. By this time I was on the pavement already and she was taking photo’s, what of, I don’t know. So I said to her that this all would have been acceptable if she had gotten out in the first place and come to chat to me being the driver and all, I said I understand that it was an accident and it happens but instead that woman came out shouting and screaming at me and talking nonsense! Well, she said she wanted to get out but had a child in the car, she apologised for her mother’s behaviour and said she (her mother) got a fright, to which I answered oh so she got a fright but she was not the one who was hit by the car. She apologised again so I said that that was all fine and well but that I will have to report this to the police in any case. So we all left, they drove off and I limped the 400m to my house with my dog next to me quite oblivious to what had just happened. MY THOUGHTS on WHY I consider myself one of the lucky ones: - in 7 years of cycling, this was the first physical contact with a moving car a lot of close calls previously but nothing more than that till now. - they were only driving at about 35-40km/h when they hit me. - I was hit with a part of the car which gives way under force – the mirror, - I limped away, with a numb bum (glute / hip and, - my dog was ok, so … it could have been worse. I shudder to think what could have been if any of the above were different! LESSONS LEARNT: - Although I was cycling with my dog in a road wide enough for two cars to pass each other with enough space for a bicycle and a dog <1m in width (cars park at the blue bulls shop half in the road / half on the pavement and two cars pass each other simultaneously, not with that much ease but they can do so so the road is wide enough for a bicycle) I will not take my dogs for a run on the Springer Bicycle Dog exerciser again in “peak” traffic. - Never EVER ask an elder lady, who had just gotten a huge fright when someone else was knocked down by a car, if she is MAD. Unfortunately though I have NO CHOICE but to use Dan King to enter / exit my complex when going anywhere. I do however always make a point of it to take my dogs up the road leading to the Sport fields and back for their 4km (there and back) run on the exerciser. The Springer Bicycle Dog exerciser is a new arrival in SA and seen at the Argus expo I bought one to help me exercise my extremely fit and energetic dogs (take a look at the website for pictures, my dogs run right next to the spring device as my rope is shorter than those in the pictures on the web: http://www.springeramerica.com). I do not feel that just because it is new and people do not know it they have the right to tell me I should walk my dogs on the pavement. That being said as stated I will however chose my times of exercising them more cautiously in future, but avoiding roads all together is just not possible! Your thoughts on this are most welcome!
