accident

Was riding onto Pearl Harbor early this afternoon when I noticed a car behind me moving slowly, but appeared to not know where they were heading. I normally ride a good 3 ft into the lane, as this is a multi-lane road, plenty of room for the cars to go. As the car begins to pass me, I notice that I only have about six inches between my bike and the car. The car is traveling slightly faster than me at 20mph and is very slow to overtake me. Also, I see that I'm slowly being pushed towards the curb. I tap on the window to let them know I'm there. As I bring my left hand back to the handlebar, I look down at my wheel and watch it hit the curb, head hits ground, I roll on the right side of my body, I hear some stuff hit the ground. I quickly take off my helmet, throw it on the ground and chase the car. Adrenaline's pumping, so I don't notice the blood flowing down my legs and I'm not quite dizzy from the thump on my noggin. I give my share the road speech, peppered with plenty of "what the f**k do you think you're doing?"...look back at my bike, convinced I heard carbon snapping and yell even louder when I think my bike was destroyed. The couple in the car keep telling me they're sorry, and somehow use a recent cancer diagnosis of the driver as an excuse. I couldn't follow the linkage....if cancer was going to cause him to nearly hit people by running them off the road, then he shouldn't be the driver, right?

A fellow cyclist rolled up and helped me out...he called the cops and checked out my bike making sure it was rideable while I sat there dazed. I got the full emergency treatment with 2 police and ambulance and a firetruck...quite the scene. They checked me out and I filed a police report. I told the cops and paramedics I'd be fine to ride home. Before I took off, I noticed the passenger in the car was pretty emotional...went over to tell her to not worry about it, they didn't hurt anyone. The driver came over, said he was sorry...then caveated the apology with a "i thought i gave you plenty of room"...I stood there in shock, not knowing what to say. I stared at the guy, said "merry christmas" and left. Not sure if he received a ticket...felt bad for the guy being diagnosed with cancer, but I still don't know why this was an excuse...and why he ended the exchange with a half-apology.

Bike appears to be ok...I got a good road rash, a couple bruises and my pinky's stiff. I've felt a little light-headed, but that could be attributed to the 3 beers I've drank while setting up Christmas toys.