first crash

i ride my little scooter down the same streets everyday, so i guess i’d kind of lulled myself to sleep. today, i drove out of my garage and turned left…like usual. my street turns into Santa Monica Blvd. I crossed the street to get into the left-hand turn lane at the red light. it turned green and i inched myself out into the intersection. there were only about 5 cars in each lane — they passed quickly. the 2nd lane had a bus that was lagging, so i timed my left-hand turn until after the bus passed. i accelerated around the bus … and just then i see a lady riding a bike with a kid in back crossing in the crosswalk. i slammed on my brakes — mostly cos the sight spooked me so bad. bad idea. my front wheel locked up and i fell onto my left side in the middle of the intersection. the lady in the bike just kept pedaling. i think i looked up at her in confusion and she looked back and yelled out “are you ok?” and just kept pedaling. i hopped up, and moved my bike out of the road. i set the kick stand and just slumped down onto the curb, slightly shell-shocked. the other light turned green and a car came across the intersection towards me. it stopped next to me. the guy yelled out: “are you ok?” … “yeah, fine.” … “that lady didn’t even stop!” … “yeah, i know.” he drove off.

after checking the big raspberry on my left elbow and the growing knot in my hip, i decided i needed to get to work. everyone that had witnessed the accident had already driven off. no one else would stop to ask how i was. it took me awhile to get my scooter started again, but i drove off to work.stupid pedestrians.