I almost became roadkill on Newcastle's busiest road...

[Fassa Albrecht]

I decided last night to take my bike into university so I wouldn't have to get too wet and so I could get home faster.

Getting there was fairly easy. However I decided very stupidly to take a route right onto the Haymarket, a massive intersection in the city centre. Bear in mind that this road has two bus stations, several taxi ranks plus a main motorway feeding onto it.

Anyway, I was cycling along near the metro station when suddenly a piece of debris from the road came flying into the spokes of the front tyre. I came off the bike at speed, hitting the road infront of several taxis and a rubbish collecting truck. I had my laptop in my backpack which also took a blow (it seems OK, I'm typing on it right now).

Result- one injured right knee, a blow to the head, a scratched laptop and a massive dent to my crossbar of my bike.

Not a good night...

PS No, I wasn't wearing a helmet. Yes, I know I shouldn't have done that.

[Techmonkey]

Sorry to hear that Fassa! that's terrible

glad you got off better than you could have though!!! hope your knee gets better soon!

the only thing that puts me off cycling is how busy the roads are - and there's no decent cycle path where I live either!

[TheDarkReaver]

i wouldn't describe where you were as the absolute busiest in the newcastle, but i know that it still can be pretty busy there.

was the debris litter or something that had come from the building works on haymarket station? if it was the latter you should consider contacting the contracters working on it, just to alert them of the danger of losse debris...or something...i dunno. either that or sue the highway matinence people

but yeah, glad to hear you weren't subsquently squished by the other traffic and that your latop survived too!

i've actually nearly been run over in the same part of town, by a bmw no less.