Bicycle Accident Averted
December 17th, 2005 -
I was on the Pacific Coast Highway on my bike, the road had signs at the curves indicating various speed limits. I had learned that Speed Limit 25 meant I could maintain speed, 15 meant I should slow down a bit, no posted speed limit meant I should accelerate… except when it meant that the speed limit sign had probably been knocked out by a logging truck! Not long after I got into that curve I realized I was in trouble and began applying brakes and attempting to turn in, but I was slipping outward, and as the road had a steep grade, braking was not slowing me down at all. My tires slipped off the edge of the road onto the dry sandy clay, I knew I was doomed. The Pacific was few hundred feet below, and the hillside was percipitous. I still wasn’t quite to the sharpest part of the curve; the sharpest part had a guard rail. Even if my tires had still been on the asphalt, there was no chance I could have curved sharply enough, I was going outside the guard rail in 25, 15, 5 feet, O GOD O GOD
Next thing I knew I was past the curve, the road was nearly straight, my tires were right between the double yellow lines, there was no other vehicle on the road.
When I climbed the other side of the valley, directly across from where whatever happened happened, by chance (???) there was a multi-county EMS Fire-Rescue training drill in progress, several trucks and probably a dozen Officers. Maybe someone among them saw just how I ended up in the middle of the road instead of splattered down the face of the mountain.