No athlete training outdoors wants to think about it, but the cold hard truth is that cyclists and runners are targets for motorists.
Maybe more inadvertent than intentional, but cars versus cyclists or runner is a no win situation.
On January 8, 2011, in Olathe, KS, a woman was hit by a car and critically injured. She was wearing running clothing and assumingly out for a morning run when she was struck by a car. The police reported they could not identify her at the scene and had to issue alerts to try and contact loved ones. She was reported hit at 8:30am and her identity was reported known by 5:30pm the same day. That’s a time lapse of 9 hours!
In Huntington Beach, CA, on January 9, 2011, a cyclist was hit after two cars crashed. You may think that’s not out of the ordinary for a cycle versus car accident, but the kicker in this story is the two cars crashed, tumbled down an embankment on to a pedestrian and bike trail and hit the cyclists as he happen to be riding by. He was riding on a designated trail and still could not avoid being hit by a car!
These stories stress the importance of carrying identification and emergency contact information no matter where you are out running and riding. Obviously loved ones would want to know what has happened, but what’s the plan if the injured have allergies to medications? It’s not that far-fetched that some people have allergies to pain medications. What are you going to give someone just struck by a car in excruciating pain? Inject someone with morphine that’s allergic to narcotics and you have a dead person.
Road ID can save your life. Not to mention, carry a cell phone with an ICE (In Case of Emergency) contact in the contacts directory or some form of identification with pertinent health information. You can peruse all sorts of stories on Road ID of athletes getting injured without a way to communicate. Everyone has a story of close calls with a car, but if you want to be able to tell your story of being hit, you better have something on you that you can be identified by!
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Comments
Another important point is to follow correct rules of the road: if you are running, face traffic and if you are cycling, ride with traffic. I was running a couple of weeks ago and was almost struck by a car because the driver was looking down instead of straight out his window. If I hadn't been running towards him, I never would have seen him coming and had time to jump out of the way. A couple of days later, I passed a runner who had his back to me and any other oncoming traffic. It was 5:15pm, starting to get dark, and he was wearing black clothing — three strikes against him. Like the cyclist in California, you can never be 100% certain of your safety, but common sense will go a long way in helping, too!
Thank you for the relevant article. The woman from Olathe is a friend of mine, she is still in the hospital. As a runner, I never thought to carry ID until this happened. I always figured it would never happen to me. We all need this reminder, CARRY ID at all times. I ordered my Road ID the day the accident happened.
I see that Dick Ross over at SeeKCRun.com held a fundraiser as well for her. That's a very sad deal. I agree with Debi, face traffic to you see what's coming. Too bad Road ID won't prevent those accidents but the pertinent health info goes a long way in an emergency situation.
What a valuable post, Ryan, thanks.
I'm such a huge user of Road I.D.s When I ride outdoors, I keep one on my wrist AND one on my bike.
And I keep one on my daughter's back pack with her info on it.
Interesting story: When I cycled in the Pyrenees a couple of summers ago, I had special Road IDs made up that had the phone number of American Express on it and a special ID# that Amex had set up to activate the travelers assistance that Amex offers (i.e. medivac, transportation back to the U.S., etc.).
Had I been injured, that whole process could have gotten underway in one phone call, much faster than it would have taken for someone to try calling my emergency contact back in the States.
Cool, huh? Great post. This is such good awareness for athletes to have.
Susan
My husband was killed July 27th, 2011, riding his bicycle in Orion Twnshp MI> He had 3 pieces of ID, Road ID, cell phone with ICE and his driver's license! It took medical people 1 hour and 45 mins to call me! By the time I got to the hospital , he had passed. We need to really promote the idea that medical people look for ID and notify the family. I am so hurt and appalled that with 3 pieces of ID, it took them so long to notify me!
Susan, thanks for the comment. Judith, that's pretty horrible that it took them that long. I would like to think they spent the time trying to save your husband and didn't have the moment to call, but it's hard to tell. Sorry about your loss.
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