I did this with my head. And I walked out of the hospital the next day. No concussion, just a total of four stitches on my face. And the proud owner of a very cracked $25 helmet.
How scary! And imagine being in the car... La, la, la, HEY! There's a face in my rear window!! Glad you're ok.
Actually there was no one in the car. The driver was nearby, looking at ducks with his two year old. He said he though it was another car that hit his, judging by the sound.
That looks like it would have hurt! Did you work out the car damages with the car owner? It does look like you just hit the side of the car by the paint that your bike left behind.
I know I left some DNA on the road. The pool you see under the bike is, I think, water from my water bottle. But it could be blood. I don't know if the blood on the car got there as I fell to the ground or from touching the car as I tried to get up. Nobody really knows how I ended up where I did (atop my bike, alongside the car). I did not see the car coming. I think I was looking down or checking at my helmet mirror. My best guess is that I hit it square just inside the right tail light (which I broke) and the bike swung sideways and I kept moving forward into the window. Damage to my bike supports that theory. Amazingly, the front wheel is still perfectly round and true and the tire didn't even flat. But the frame was seriously bent. It's amazing how much a few deep cuts in the face and nose will bleed. Nothing was broken but my legs got pretty banged up and I was limping for over a week. It happened on a Tuesday afternoon (right in front of the school) and I was back at work on Monday.
My friend was hit BY a car recently, and the car was totaled from damages with his body. He is in much worse shape than you are, but he is lucky to be alive. If he wasn't wearing a helmet, he would have broken his neck more severely than he did, and would be paralyzed or dead. So yes, yay bike helmets!
Oh, Sarge! How terrifying for you and all those who love you! (And, yes, any head wounds BLEED!!!! Even the ones that aren't as serious as yours were. It's one of those lessons new moms learn the hard way.) I'm so glad you're OK!
My face was bleeding, not my head. I thought I had a really bad nosebleed, but it turn out to be a rather deep scratch on the outside of my nose.
My son went over the handlebars of his bike going down a hill and the bike ended up flipping over him. The kids he was with came screaming for us to get him and scared us to death. My husband rushed to the scene and found him conscious but covered in road rash and blood from facial cuts. When we got home he dropped the helmet on the ground and it split in two!!! That could have been his head! This was before bike helmets were required or even popular and my kids hated me for making them wear them, but I am convinced his helmet saved his life that day, or at least saved his brain. The extensive road rash was bad enough.
I hope you are beginning to feel better. Last spring we were out riding our bikes and I remember telling my husband "don't do that!" since he was steering side to side as he was going forward and all of a sudden the front turned too quickly and up and over he went on the ground. Thankfully he was wearing his helmet and I was with him to help him up and walk home. He had very sore ribs for a few weeks. I cringe when I see people riding without a helmet.
MrsC, I already showed the picutures to my boys. I'm not sure how much it affected them, but maybe they won't argue so much in the future.
I caught her once pulling into the driveway without a helmet. I told her that if I ever caught her without a helmet again, she would find out just how much a mother can embarass a 15-year old.
A child in my town was killed by a car while riding his bike last year...they say he would have lived if he had a helmet.
My youngest son was saved by his helmet. He was mountain bike riding and hit a rock. He took a bad spill and his head hit the rock. The helmet was ruined but my son's life was spared.
They wear their helmets, but not without a significant amount of arguing and whining. That might change when they get to be teens, but for now, I would still like to reduce the whining.
A helmet is ruined anytime it crashes into anything with a head inside of it. Even if there is no visible damage, it should be replaced. The Styrofoam is designed to crack in the event of an impact. Also, a helmet should be replaced every 1-2 years, depending on how much abuse it gets outside of actually crashing. The good news is that a cheap helmet protects the head as well as an expensive one. The main difference between a $20 helmet and a $200 helmet is weight and the number of air vents.
