*beep!* *squeal!* *thud*

So here’s what happened in the accident (which was completely my fault, I’ll say):

I was biking home down Wabash Ave, which is a 45-mph “highway”. When I reached my apartment complex (which is on the opposite side of the street from where I was), I looked to make sure there was no traffic (which there didn’t seem to be–the road had been dark the whole way up Wabash), then pulled out to cross the street. The way wasn’t clear, and I was hit by an SUV. Apparently, there had been a stopped car back near campus (which I didn’t see, but several people mentioned it), so they were going much slower than normal on account of the traffic. This is good, because the guy driving managed to nearly stop before I had even been hit, and when I bounced off the hood, they were completely stopped.

I was back up quickly (the thought in my mind was, “OMG, don’t let them actually run over me.”), and although the woman tried to get me to stay still while she called the ambulance, I got off the road and over into the yard of the elementary school across from my apartment.

The ambulance was called. I didn’t go to the hospital for two reasons: 1) I suspected I was just bruised, and I hadn’t hit my head, and 2) I had no medical insurance that night, because my father just switched jobs.

The EMTs looked me over and although my blood pressure was a nice 152/90 (and I could feel my pulse fluttering in my ear), they pronounced me okay. I had a decent amount of pain in my left shin (the side I was hit on), so I mos def made sure there was no immediately muscle or bone damage by moving through a full range of motion on the joints in my leg. I like running, dammit! 🙂

Looking at the bruise there now, it’s just where my leg hit the lower bar of the frame of the bike. *shrug*

The couple that were in the SUV were very, very nice, even though the guy driving was in as much shock as I was, I think. I was mostly embarrassed and wanted to go home.

The cops came and got stories and filed a report with an actual case number and stuff. The whole process took maybe 45 minutes to an hour, which places the accident at about 22:00 on Friday evening.

As soon as I got home, I collapsed into what were probably pretty scary hyperventilating sobs. My roommate didn’t really know what to say or do, but he was kind enough to offer me pizza once I got up off the floor. I then tried to get in touch with WO while I calmed down. He is a wonderful, wonderful man, and he comforted me immensely, even though he wasn’t physically present.

I then called the parents (shhh…), and left what may have been the worst voicemail they’ve ever received. What I later learned was that they got my message on Saturday morning, then spent all day in the hospital with a cousin of mine that is dying of an infection of some sort (?!), unable to contact me because I wasn’t home. I am a bad spawn.

Anyway, we talked later that afternoon and again this morning. My father and I assessed about how much the damages would be to their car (they have a $500 deductible, and we think I will probably be out for about that much, if not less), how money will be handled (i.e. I have enough to fix their car, but not my own plus getting another bike), how transportation will be handled (apparently, my father is going to have a new bike shipped to me, even though all I probably really need for the old one is a new set of tires), and how I will get my car fixed (instead of getting the huge 60k tune-up plus telling them to fix everything that’s wrong with it, I’ll take it in for three specific things, which my father thinks are, in fact, merely tune-up-related things [shit out of alignment, etc.]).

So, causes of the accident: fatigue and, well, fatigue. This was the first week I tried biking on Fridays (after the 2-hours of sleep due to Thursday night’s newspaper production), and I knew I was taking a risk when it came to getting home safely. Needless to say, I won’t be doing that again. Even driving home on Friday nights isn’t really safe (the week before, I had no recollection of the short time I was on the road), so I will probably find a way to sleep on campus Friday nights, then go home Saturday morning. It’s just safer that way.

But I’m okay, and I think they (the folks driving) are okay.

Oh, and WO submitted an interactive fiction (text-adventure) game to the IF Comp. To use his words, “If you like IF games, or if you don’t like IF games and are pretentious, go play some of the games from the competition.”