Hi everyone! I'm feeling a lot better today, I really needed some sleep! I think I can explains things a little better now as I'm out of shock. I didn't mention that the kid had actually skidded clean off his bike (Hit the brakes too hard when he realised there was a car and came flying off.) and went flying into me. I was braking (No skidding, so that shows how slow I was actually moving at the time) and trying to get the hell out of his way. But he hit the front of my car, I don't know if the tyre actually went over his leg, but it certainly wasn't on it when I got out of the car. Basically, I didn't hit him, he hit me. Even if I'd managed to bring the car to a complete stop the result would have been the same owing to the speed he was cycling at. In a way, he is very lucky the car behind us wasn't in front (It could have been easily as we pulled out of the train station at the same time.) as it was a huge Volkswagen and would have done him more damage than my Ka could have. I was in hysterics, but the kids friend kept telling me it wasn't my fault and that he'd been screaming at him to slow down and pull in. I felt so sorry for him because he hadn't done anything wrong either.
Like I say, we were very lucky there was a nurse in the car behind us and a prison warden pulled up on her way out shortly after. They handled everything brilliantly. While I was being interviewed by the police, the other officer came over just to tell me that everyone had said the exact same thing, that the kid was obviously to blame and that I didn't stand a chance. Robert says he'd been talking to him saying kids shouldn't be allowed to cycle on the roads with no cycling proficiency tests, and that the kid was absolutely ridiculously stupid to be behaving like that on a road.
My Mums friend rang later in the evening to check I was okay, and she was saying that she was amazed. Apparantly, he cycles like that all the time, even down the main roads! She was saying thats its a wonder he's not been involved in an accident before now.... I just hope he's learned something from it. I mean, once his leg is sorted (I don't know what happened, I think either a fracture or a not too severe break) he can forget about it. I, on the other hand, can't close my eyes without seeing his bike hurtling straight for me...
Thank you so much for all your
's, messages of support, etc. They really mean a lot and show just how fab the DIS is as a community.
I understand exactly how you feel because a similar thing happened to me in my own road, completely not my fault as well. One of the estate's lads came out from behind a parked van up the wrong side of the road, not wearing a helmet as I was coming down the road. He went on my bonnet and rolled off. Fortunately, he was okay and he walked home, quickly pursued by me to make sure he was actually ok. Spoke to his Mam and got her to take him to hospital for a check up and I got the police and witnesses. However, even though it wasn't my fault at all because my insurance company could not claim from the child for their costs for fixing my car my insurance premium did go up the following year. I was just relieved the lad was okay but it was very shocking.
It sounds like yours was worse than mine if he went on the bonnet!
Mostly because he hit my tyre, theres no damage to my car at all, there was a little blood on my hub-cab, but that was from where he'd scraped his arms off the ground when he came off the bike and hit me.
Its such a horrible thing to go through, you deserve a lot of praise for being able to follow him and make sure he was okay. I panicked at first, then talked to him for a bit (He knows my kid brother, so that took his mind off things for a bit.), then I can remember going to one side and nearly fainting. Sounds like you kept your head a lot better than me!
Bob xoxoxox
