Read Dave's story
#StayKindSlowDown
I left work at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital at around 4pm one evening and was riding along the Worcester & Birmingham Canal
I wasn't going very fast at all, but I needed to over-take a woman running in the same direction that I was going. So, I moved out to the canal side of the towpath to ride past without disturbing her.
Two runners were in the distance heading towards us. As I was about to overtake, the woman I was passing moved out into my path to make way for the oncoming runners. I didn't expect her to do this at that moment because the runners approaching us were still some distance away.
Not enough time to stop
I tried to stop to avoid hitting her, but there just wasn't enough time. We collided and I was thrown over both my handlebars and the woman, and I landed hitting my head quite badly.
Luckily, I was wearing a helmet, so I didn't suffer any serious head injuries. However, when the woman and the other two runners helped me up and I tried to walk, the excruciating pain I felt was my first indication that I'd broken my hip.
Serious accident
I remember making the call to my wife to tell her I'd had a serious accident and was being taken to the hospital by ambulance. It definitely wasn't the evening that we had planned. But everyone was helpful so I feel fortunate that there were good, kind people around to help me out.
The handlebars on my bike were completely twisted and my bike couldn't be taken in the ambulance, so one of the runners took my bike home with them, and then to my workplace the next day.
The accident put me out of action for a while. I couldn't put any weight at all onto my hip for six weeks and I was away from work for three months. The accident wasn't anyone's fault. In fact, we were just trying to make room for each other. But perhaps if we were both travelling more slowly, or the woman had checked her blind spot before moving out, or I'd have found a way to let her know I was passing by, maybe the evening could have had a happier ending.
