Friday morning, 6.15am, a short, simple ride up Mt Butler and the Peak awaited. With the sun yet to make an appearance, I met JK at the normal spot and we headed off down Kennedy Road as usual.
As we descended down to the base of the morning's first climb, the ride was cut dramatically short... a scooter had pulled out directly in front of JK and she had smashed into it at approx. 35km/h - sending her flying through the air like a rag doll and then sliding 20 metres down the (fortunately slightly wet) road (principally on the left side of her face). Poor light, a general tendency of motorists not to look for cyclists and no front lights on the bike had meant the driver had simply just not seen JK coming.
As we descended down to the base of the morning's first climb, the ride was cut dramatically short... a scooter had pulled out directly in front of JK and she had smashed into it at approx. 35km/h - sending her flying through the air like a rag doll and then sliding 20 metres down the (fortunately slightly wet) road (principally on the left side of her face). Poor light, a general tendency of motorists not to look for cyclists and no front lights on the bike had meant the driver had simply just not seen JK coming.
Before we knew what had happened JK was laying in the middle of the road, screaming like a banshee (JK's words, not mine), with her bike sporting a seriously mangled front wheel.
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| This doesn't really do justice to how much of a pringle shape the wheel has... |
JK was pretty bashed up - scraps all down the side of her face, lacerations on her knees, bruised hips and hands, and what we would later find out was a fractured right wrist. With a little bit of calming she was convinced that she hadn't broken both of her legs, despite their limited movement.
General chaos ensued, people milled around whilst I shouted at them to call an ambulance and several cars tried to just drive over JK rather than make the small diversion around her.
A very worried scooter driver quickly called the police and within 10 minutes half of Hong Kong's constabulary appeared to have arrived to ask each of JK and me the same questions over and over, continually request the HKID card that JK didn't have with her and generally just mill around a prod the bikes.
JK was bundled into an ambulance which was driven off at great speed only to be parked just 10 metres down the road, where JK was treated and the police continued to question her. Vicky then meet JK at the hospital whilst I again explained to the police that I didn't know JK's HKID number and got both bikes into a taxi back to my flat.
JK arrived back at the flat a few hours later all patched up, with a cast on her right arm and pretty concerned that not being able to get on a bike for five weeks would mean that she would need to spend a lot of time on her turbo trainer.
Most cyclist have had some sort of crash (I have slid off the side of mountains at great speed, front flipped into a Clinton Cards and gone over the roof of a cab to name but a few), but this was pretty dramatic and everyone is just really thankful that a fractured wrist was the worst of it.
Heal fast JK!
General chaos ensued, people milled around whilst I shouted at them to call an ambulance and several cars tried to just drive over JK rather than make the small diversion around her.
A very worried scooter driver quickly called the police and within 10 minutes half of Hong Kong's constabulary appeared to have arrived to ask each of JK and me the same questions over and over, continually request the HKID card that JK didn't have with her and generally just mill around a prod the bikes.
JK was bundled into an ambulance which was driven off at great speed only to be parked just 10 metres down the road, where JK was treated and the police continued to question her. Vicky then meet JK at the hospital whilst I again explained to the police that I didn't know JK's HKID number and got both bikes into a taxi back to my flat.
JK arrived back at the flat a few hours later all patched up, with a cast on her right arm and pretty concerned that not being able to get on a bike for five weeks would mean that she would need to spend a lot of time on her turbo trainer.
Most cyclist have had some sort of crash (I have slid off the side of mountains at great speed, front flipped into a Clinton Cards and gone over the roof of a cab to name but a few), but this was pretty dramatic and everyone is just really thankful that a fractured wrist was the worst of it.
Heal fast JK!
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