Mercy Mercy Me

I walked out the door this morning with the intent to ride 50 miles to Galveston from Market Square with a group of cyclists I had never met (with the exception of the guy who invited me).

Ten miles away from our destination, a car went into the shoulder lane of Highway 3 and hit the cyclist that fell behind in my pace group.  I didn’t know his name. I didn’t know if he had a family. I didn’t know anything about this guy, except that he was training for the MS 150 and that his bottom was also hurting after the first 15 miles.

I learned that about him an hour before the accident, when he caught up to the group I was in. We rode side-by-side for a few miles and tried to catch a break from the 10 mph headwind beating down on us.

When I turned around to see how he was catching up after an uphill bout we had, it happened in slow motion, as cliché as it may sound.

I have cycled for almost seven years now, and you hear all sorts of stories. You hear about crashes at the beginning of rides, where the cyclists pile up on one another, and there are broken collarbones and bent wheels from left to right. You hear about cyclists getting clipped by the side mirrors of cars and open doors. You see the bikes painted white at the side of the road with “Ride In Peace” signs.

These sad stories linger in the back of your mind, but you don’t think much of it.

Then you see it happen, less than 100 feet away from you. You run past the car with the cracked windshield, blood and tissue on the headlights, and you see the pools of red. You hold their hand and keep their head still, and you wait an eternity for the ambulance to get there. Then you have to call their loved ones to tell them something awful happened, which is easily one of the hardest things anybody could ever have to do in their lifetime.

He’s going to be okay. His helmet saved his life. There is no doubt about that.

I promise, from this day forward, that I will NEVER ride a bike without a helmet, no matter how short the distance. I promise to ALWAYS double check for cyclists and pedestrians when I am driving. This wasn’t a cause for the accident today, but I also promise NEVER to text while driving.

These are all things I know I'm not supposed to do, but I'll admit that I slip up every now and then. I'll check my phone at a long stoplight. If I'm in a huge rush, I'll half ass looking both ways before making a right turn at a red light. I don't wear my helmet when I ride in Critical Mass at the end of the month because a lot of other people don't. As I said, though, I promise that I will be a much more alert and responsible cyclist and motorist. 

I hope you will do the same, and keep someone from having to deliver the worst news imaginable to a victim’s parents.