Thursday, September 11, 2008

And I thought I've had some rough commutes

Most people who bike commute have to deal with a simple and similar set of problems:
  • drivers who ignore you (or are actively antagonistic)
  • pedestrians who wander out into the road without looking
  • buses and other large vehicles that drift into the bike area
  • getting doored
And then there's this:
Teacher OK after crashing into bear on a bicycle
A middle school teacher suffered some bruising and a big scratch on his back after he struck a bear while riding his bicycle to school.
Jim Litz said he was traveling about 25 mph Monday morning when he came upon a rise and spotted a black bear about 10 feet in front of him. He didn't have time to stop and T-boned the bruin.
He tumbled over the handlebars, his helmet hit the bear's back and the two went cartwheeling down the road.
The bear rolled over Litz's head, cracking his helmet, and scratched his back before scampering up a hill above the road.
Litz's wife drove by shortly after the crash and took her husband to the hospital. He hoped to be able to return to teaching science at Target Range Middle School on Friday.
OK, that trumps anything I've had to deal with.

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2 comments:

  1. Yeah, that one's a little over my every day experience.

    I'm chatting with somebody right now who had a front tire blowout at 30 mph and broke his hip.

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  2. A local rider here in NH encountered a bear early this summer. It ran down the embankment in front of him, but he was able to jam on the brakes.

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