When Opening Car Doors - Look 1st

[xbgs351]

Last night when riding home after doing an intense bunch ride, I was cycling two abreast with one other rider. I was riding about one metre out from a line of parked cars doing 32 km/h, when a driver opened their car door a fraction of a second before I reached it. I had absolutely no opportunity to swerve. I collected the door with my left hand and handlebar. I had visions of being flung off my bike and into the path of a following vehicle, just like an incident that recently claimed the life of a cyclist in my region. Fortunately I was flung off the seat and out of pedals and I managed to stay upright by sliding along on my bike shoes, kind of like a barefoot water skier. When I came to a stop, I laid the bike down on the road and walked to the footpath. My middle finger on my left had felt sore, so I had a look at it and I didn't like what I saw. My first impression was that I had lost the end of my finger, but on closer inspection it was all there, but had been degloved from the tip to just before where the finger nail begins. I was dripping blood all over the footpath and luckily one of the first people on the scene was a GP. She put everything back in place and wrapped it in a tea towel. I was feeling rather light headed and nauseous at this stage. The couple from the car that opened the door on me were very apologetic and helpful. They took both myself and my bike to the local emergency department and hung around until I was admitted.

I was taken into triage within quarter of an hour and there the nurse inspected the injury and placed a bandage onto the finger. I was then lead into the emergency ward, stripped off my bike clothes and gowned up. After awhile a doctor arrived, I was given morphine and a drip and she inspected the injury. A surgeon was then called to look at the wound and he instructed the doctor to give me a nerve block, flush out the wound and stitch it up. The doctor sewed up the wound, I was given IV antibiotics and some more pain killers and I was sent home.

When I got home I had a look over my bike and gear. Where my finger was, the handlebar tape has been cut all the way through into the carbon fibre of the handlebar, a bidon cage had been ripped off, the carbon fibre sole of my left shoe had been cut all the way through for about an inch and the cleats had been really worn down. I haven’t had a quote done yet, but I expect the repair bill will approach $1000.

This morning I went back to the hospital for x-rays of my fingers and hand. It turns out that the finger that had been degloved has multiple fractures at the end of the finger, but that the other fingers although stiff and sore are unbroken. The stitches will come out in a week and I can return to work in a fortnight. Looks like I will no longer be getting the Christmas break that I had planned as I will be too busy catching up on all the delayed work.


So guys and girls, never open a car door without taking a good look for approaching traffic.