What do you get if you cross a 50cc motor scooter with an old model Ford Laser?

Pretty much the same as last time.

I'm frickin' cursed.

Same type of accident - someone in a car "just didn't see [me]" and pulled out across my path. This time, I didn't get the bike caught between the wheel and the car; I hit the panel behind the wheel pretty dead-on.

So, this one, I hit straighter. I don't seem to have anywhere near the bruising that I had last time, but this time I hit more with my knees than my upper legs; but the bruising, although it is much less than last time, is in almost the same places.

I haven't been to the doctor. Luckily (!?!) I already had holidays booked for next week -- yep, this happened at 4.55pm on a Friday afternoon before a week off -- to watch the U.S. mid-terms, so I don't need a med cert and I don't hurt too much. I'm planning to go to the doctor next week anyway, since I've done four of the five pathology tests for my asthma, so if anything still hurts unduly I'll talk to them about it then.

At least I can cancel the bike service I have booked for Tuesday.

The bike might not be a write-off. The front wheel doesn't seem to have been knocked out of alignment like last time. A lot of the plastic panelling has been destroyed, but there's funny stuff, like the front headlight assembly is hanging by its electrical wires but nothing actually appears to be broken - the bulb is intact and the casing isn't busted either.

But I'm getting really sick of this.

I think I got off really lucky this time, even though I was probably going faster; but, next time I could get crippled. Which is a shame, since climate change is so obvious that even the four-eyed fuckwit acknowledges it now, because I'm thinking of giving up the bike unless driver attitudes to those of us on two wheels change really quickly.

You can't slam on the brakes doing 53km/h on the little wheels on a scooter. You'd be just as likely to end up under the car as on the bonnet. And unfortunately, these people pull out when you're so close to them that the instinctive reaction of letting go of the throttle doesn't help much. The only solution is that people will have to start SEEING US.

I propose mandatory jail time for anyone who is at fault in an accident involving a bike. Not that any legislation would have to be passed; just proposing it should do the trick.

So, it might be goodbye to my 3l/100km transportation device.

[Although who am I kidding? They'll either fix the bike or replace it again and I'm still paying for it, so I'll use it rather than have it sit in the garage while I walk a mile to catch a bus. ]

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