BUMP IN THE ROAD
KEEPING YOUR BIKE ‘RUBBER SIDE DOWN’ – your wheels in contact with the tarmac – is high on the agenda of anybody who gets on a bike. Cycling is a statistically safe activity – in the UK in 2020, there was one death for every 9.4m journeys – but crashes, whether involving collisions with other road users, hitting crater-like potholes, mechanical failures or user error, do happen. Incidents that cause injury can leave physical and mental scars that make you reluctant to cycle again, so we spoke to four people who’ve recovered from crashes and are back riding, to hear their stories.
Escape from the country
The rural road
“The car came around the corner, on the wrong side of the road, straight at me,” David Fraser, 50, vividly recalls of the crash that occurred as he commuted home from work along a familiar Oxfordshire route, in September 2019.
“I barely had a moment to react to avoid a head-on before it hit me, flipping me up in the air. I landed on my shoulder, broke my collarbone and suffered cuts and grazes all down my left side.”
Research by NFU Mutual – the specialist rural insurer – shows that, when looking at all road
