Promoting Helmet Safety

I fell off my bike. It happened in slow motion. One minute I was pedaling, minding my own business, the next I’m careening out of control trying to balance myself, but failing miserably. I’m trying to remember exactly how it happened. I was behind Best Friend Ever, with Dhrit on my left hand side. I noticed that my front tire was getting incredibly close to BFE’s back tire. I’m not sure if she was slowing down, but I realize that in a moment our tires are going to clip, which would send both of us down the path of disaster. Instead of taking us both down, I attempt to slow myself. For some reason I thought it would be smart to put my feet on the ground to stop myself. I was probably pedaling at a speed of 15-20 mph. It didn’t occur to me at the time to just grasp the brake handle to slow down. Well clearly putting my feet on the ground was not the right answer. As soon as I did it I knew I shouldn’t have. I could feel myself losing control of the bike and was trying desperately to regain control. But alas, I did not. I started to yell, and slowly I felt myself tumbling to the ground. I landed on my shoulder, smacked my head, and my bike toppled on top of me. Luckily I was wearing my helmet or I might have had a minor concussion. I actually felt my head hit the ground and smack back up, but the helmet absorbed all the impact. Surprisingly I wasn’t badly injured. I had a few cuts and scrapes on my knee and my shoulder will most likely have a nice bruise. The best part was that there were these two kids behind us, and earlier the little girl had stopped in the middle of the trail and her Mom was behind us screaming, “Don’t stop.” I guess the Mom didn’t want her to cause an accident by abruptly stopping and causing the people behind her to collide into them. So as I was falling over, I hear the little boy yell, “Don’t stop! Keep moving!” That was awesome. So boys and girls, the lesson of the day is to always wear your helmet when you are biking.