On 2017-07-10 18:48, John B. wrote:
On Mon, 10 Jul 2017 10:31:17 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2017-07-09 18:22, John B. wrote:
On Sun, 09 Jul 2017 09:18:12 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2017-07-09 07:44, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-08 15:59, jbeattie wrote:
On Saturday, July 8, 2017 at 3:06:59 PM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-07-08 14:39, Frank Krygowski wrote:

[...]

" lights cause a
reduction in simply toppling off a bike? Unless, that is, the people
who applied to get the lights and vouch for... oops, "study" their
effectiveness were simply being a lot more careful than normal riders?


Falling off a bike is not the main cause of injury or death. Colliding
with motor vehicles is.

Car collisions account for about a third of all bicycle related injury
accidents nationally -- meaning two-thirds are not car-related.
http://www.pedbikeinfo.org/data/factsheet_crash.cfm

When was the last time you were hurt on a bike? Were you hit by a car?


No but that is because I am primarily using a mountain bike, the way it
was meant to be used. The reason I got hurt a lot as a kid was that I
used a regular bicycle on motocross tracks without wearing any
protective gear.

Other people's accidents did not always involved a direct collision but
many were caused by evasive action because of car drivers (often truck
drivers).


In case by "hurt" you meant any sort of injury and not just very serious
ones, I had several vehicle collisions with a manageable degree of
injury. For example:

Driver pulled out into main road, said he grossly underestimated my
speed ... *BAM* ... my body dented the side of his Volkswagen Polo (used
to be called Fox in the US) so badly that I had to help the old guy
getting out. The driver side door would no longer open from the inside.
Lots of bruises, a pretzeled bike, and I vowed never to buy such a car.

Another: I had a green light, stepped on it, the obviously impatient
driver of a Mercedes 280S decided he can still do a left turn before I
get there, floored it, didn't work ... *BAM* ... I hit the right rear
fender. He fled the scene.

Plus a few other incidents.

Two of my university buddies were not so lucky. Both hit from behind, in
the lane, in the city (Aachen, Germany). Serious with a hospital trip
each. One had a ruptured spleen, the other lost a kidney. In one of the
cases the offending motorist helped my half conscious friend to a phone
booth close by to call an ambulance and then he quietly high-tailed it.

You mean that you ran into two cars and it was their fault?


Yes. The driver's fault.


Amazing!


What is amazing about it? One driver made a mistake. It happens. The
other driver was reckless and probably in some hurry.

There were numerous other such events but I was able to avoid a crash.
One of them only because I was on my MTB which has powerful hydraulic
disc brakes that work the same regardless of weather. Else I'd have
scraped up the side of a nice Porsche.

I had one accident with a motor vehicle not caused by the driver. Me in
the lane, light turned yellow, driver before me slammed on the brakes. I
had sufficient safety distance but at that moment the cable for my front
brake snapped. I dinged the rear bumper of the guy's BMW. No damage
though because the rear slowed me down enough.

I can only assume that either you have a vivid imagination or that you
are some sort of idiot that rides much faster then the conditions
allow.


Huh? I am one of the few cyclists in the area (and probably on this NG)
who does not draft or tailgate. If you read again you see that it was
simply equipment failure. Happens. It even happened to me in cars,
twice. Stepped on the pedal, no brakes.


I am reasonably sure that my two wheel experience exceeds your by
quite a number of years and I have never, with any two wheel vehicle,
hit another vehicle hard enough to cause any visible damage to the
other vehicle. Never.


No brake failures? Then you were lucky. I also had a few other events
such as side wall blow-outs which can make for an interesting few
seconds before you get the ride stopped.


(I would also add that I have never had a brake cable snap which
probably says something about comparative levels of maintenance)


It was a fairly new cable. The bike shop owner said it happens, and if
it does usually early on.


But this is not to say that I have never seen a two wheeler hit a car.
A bloke that was in my class in collage hit a car. He was riding a
Harley down a sidewalk at what he said was "about 35 mph" and a car
"pulled out in front of him". Actually the car was on a side street
and stopped at an intersection. He hit the rear door. The results was
a dented door and a broken collar bone.

I suppose that today this would be described as "an accident" although
when it happened the fellow on the motorcycle described it as "a
damned fool stunt, that I'd not have done if I hadn't had all that
beer".


That's stupid behavior.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/