Local columnist and cyclist writes about being struck by a car

September 19, 2012 • Posted by: Michael McKisson

Local cyclist and (for now) Arizona Daily Star columnist Josh Brodesky was struck by a car while riding north on Mountain Avenue last week.

He wrote about the experience in his column. Here’s a snippet:

I was hit by a car Wednesday morning. There are a lot of different ways to tell this story. The most basic version: I was riding my bike up Mountain Avenue in the bike lane, heading north toward the Rillito River trail, when a Toyota Camry driving east on Drachman hit me. The driver had been waiting at a stop sign, and he thought the intersection was clear.

Here’s another way to tell it: I was riding my bike up Mountain Avenue when I looked to my left and saw this green car accelerating at me.

It was just an instant. Just a blink of an eye.

But it was long enough to do the math and know, with absolute certainty, I was going to get hit. There was nowhere to go. There was nothing to do. It was out of my control. The car was speeding up.

I remember saying, maybe yelling, “No no no.” And then I felt force.

His article is about cherishing the people around you and making sure you let them know you love them because you never know what could happen. Give the article a read here.

I’ve ridden with Brodesky before and often seen him riding up Mountain Avenue, while riding to work with Luci in the mornings and it easily could have been us that the driver hit. I’m not sure I could forgive as quickly as Brodesky seems to have.

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5 comments

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I am dismayed that the seriousness of that whole area, with its construction, track hazard and grid-locked traffic congestion seems to be lost on the BAC. The photo of the girl falling on the tracks that appeared in the 'Star' was made rather light of at the last meeting and and the connection between distractions that affect cyclists and the results was not at all made. This area of heaviest bike use in the city is taking the hardest hit and it is just not right. The negative PR of that picture and Josh's account easily wipes out positive gain from any two bike boulevards.

Martha Retallick

I was at the Living Streets Alliance open house last night. Much talk about making this town friendlier for pedestrians, who aren't exactly catching a break in the UA area. And don't get me started on the idiocy of the drivers on the 4th Avenue Bike Boulevard. While I was en route to the LSA meeting, I spied one member of the Driving Idiot Club. He was dead-smack in the middle of the bike box, trying to make a right turn onto Speedway. Well, I fixed his little wagon. I rode right up next to the passenger side door and planted myself there until the light changed. No right on red for that bike box-stealing doofus.