anatomy of a crash

yesterday ended terribly. not as terribly as it could have ended, but terrible nevertheless.

on my ride home from work, there was this really irritating pizza delivery guy (who somehow had this really dim expression on his face), who was riding stupidly, for i don't know what joy. we were stuck in a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam, and he took it rather literally by bumping every other vehicle from behind.

i stayed out of his way, cos i'd rather take a minute more to get home than get bumped (or worse).

turns out he wasn't the only stupid guy i'd encounter that night.

when i had almost reached home, i had to take one right turn off link road.

it's a somewhat busy intersection, so i waited as usual for a clear way across. when i finally did get it, i slowly crossed the road towards home.

only to be surprised by a bright headlight that appeared out of nowhere, bearing down straight at me.

this dumb rider was behind two rickshaws who had almost halted to take a turn from the other side, and waited for the last moment to overtake them from the left. so neither of us could see each other until it was too late.

i didn't get a look at his face. all i could see was his headlight bearing down at me at what must be around 80 or so.

the next thing i knew, i was flat on the road, atleast 10 feet from my bike.

checked my arms and legs for movement, everything seemed okay.

a passerby helped me up to my feet, and i almost stood up but the pain was too intense so i wanted to sit down again. he finally convinced me to sit on the sidewalk.

limped there, took off my helmet, thankfully accepted the bottle of water someone handed me, shook off my daze and looked around to see where the other guy was.

turns out he flew clear over my bike and landed some 30 feet away. head and chest injuries. needless to say, he wasn't wearing a helmet.

i hope he learned his lesson. i wonder what is my lesson to learn from this incident.

ps: damage incurred: scrapes, aching left leg (the bike hit me on my thigh), completely bent bike, trashed phone. too scared to check what's the state of my ipod as it flew a good many feet from the collision.