Not the easiest bone to break, I don’t think – but somehow I managed to pull it off. It took me a second to piece together the pattern of the events. I had the right of way, and I was going to be going across part of the intersection where the whole “right on red” rule for Florida comes into play, and the driver of a cornflower blue antique Ford pick-up was not paying attention.
The visibility on the corner is pretty damned amazing from all directions, and I know, if he had been paying attention he would have seen me. What mistake did I make? I had my right hand behind me to hold back my lunchbox, so I only had one hand on the handlebars. I could only get to the front brake in time. I had been helping my wife learn to bike ride not too long ago and had vehemently warned against use of the front brake by itself, so the irony was not lost on me.
I went over the handlebars and was effectively jamming myself into a handstand hard enough to cause a radial break on the head of the tibia, or ulnar (there was some disagreement between x-rays) on my left arm, and I punched through said lunchbox with enough force to twist and tear up the muscles in my right arm.
No one got out to help, so I ended up correcting my now misaligned handlebars, and I biked a mile into my office to get help. My initial assertion that I thought I had broken my arm required some repetition, as I was apparently very calm. I had this same problem as I navigated a pair of Uber rides to and from the Emergency Room, and even whilst being seen to.
So, it slowed my roll for a second. But, a few weeks on, and I am rolling again. Apart from not being able to straighten the arm fully – it is still healing, I am almost fully functional. Ready to get the movement regular again.