Bike Crash Photo - Cyclists PLEASE Be Careful Out There - Bike Accident in Mexico!

Photo: Steve Byers at UCSD.
As a biker, you're surrounded by hazards.

In my last 10 years on the bike, I've had 10-20 very narrow misses with cars whose drivers were apparently distracted by something - kids in the back seat, texting, eating, talking on the phone, falling asleep and even the dangerous cross lane swerve of alcohol.

I remember vividly a large pickup truck that almost hit me near the Wild Animal Park and the drunk driver that spun out of control on a bike ride in Rancho Santa Fe, taking his car inches from my friend and I, and then going up on two wheels before he continued on his scary little way.

Safety must be the number one concern when you take your most valuable asset (and the most valuable asset of your family) on the road. And I'm not talking about your bike.

You need to be consistently aware of what's around you, and what might happen. Thanks to my friend and marketing genius in Denver, Colorado, David Perleberg, I caught this crash photo and article this morning on deadspin.com:

"The truce between cars and bicycles is an uneasy one at best, and is surely broken from time to time; but never more horrifically than seen here. And you are excused for that coffee spit-take. It happened outside of Monterrey, Mexico, near the U.S. border, on Sunday when a drunk driver apparently fell asleep at the wheel and slammed into the middle of a bike race, killing one and injuring 10. A couple more photos following the jump, if you're so inclined."

There is a very good website (in several languages) called bicyclesafe.com and it shows you 10 ways to avoid a bike accident. "This page shows you real ways you can get hit and real ways to avoid them. This is a far cry from normal bicycle safety guides, which usually tell you little more than to wear your helmet and to follow the law. But consider this for a moment: Wearing a helmet will do absolutely nothing to prevent you from getting hit by a car! Sure, helmets might help you if you get hit, and it's a good idea to wear one, but your #1 goal should be to avoid getting hit in the first place. Plenty of cyclists are killed by cars even though they are wearing helmets. Ironically, if they had ridden without helmets, yet followed the guidelines listed below, they might still be alive today. Don't confuse wearing a helmet with biking safely. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It's better to not get hit. That's what real bicycle safety is about" Click here to see 10 ways you could get hit, and how to avoid them. Stay safe out there, triathletes!

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