our beloved matty b. was hit by a car on his bicycle last night on 16th street. he suffered a fractured collar bone, several staples to the dome and a bunch of cuts and bruises. he had an all expense paid trip via ambulence to howard university hospital, where had a luxurious overnight stay. he now resides in his bed, with minimal mobility and lots of painkillers. please wish him well here!
ericanm [email] said at 1:26 PM 08-31-2006: i don't know many details yet, i was going to ask him when i get home. we talked on the phone for a little while. i saw his helmet in his bedroom this am so i am assuming he wasn't wearing it.
it happened last night between 10:30 and 11 pm, i believe. from what i understand he was turning onto euclid from 16th street heading east and got hit by an oncoming car. when i get the full story i will post it on his behalf.
matthew [email] said at 7:05 PM 09-01-2006: Yes, even though I own a helmet, I wasn't wearing it. Because I am a fucking idiot.
I'm not (nor will I ever be) in a position to lecture anyone on the many reasons why they should always wear a helmet while riding a bike--even if you're only riding to your girlfriend's apt. (which is about a mile away) and there aren't many cars on the road because it's late.
That said, when I do get another bike, you can be damn sure I'll be wearing a helmet whenever I ride it. Fuck, not just a helmet--I'm going out there in full ice-hockey goalie gear from now on.
evan [email] said at 8:15 PM 09-01-2006: yeah, glad you're ok man. i've finally gotten in the habbit of wearing a helmet every time i get on my bike, even when i go ride the empty streets of red hook at 1am. sure, i might not need it, but there's always that off chance i might. i'd rather err on the side of caution. hope you're back up and riding soon.
anthony [email] said at 1:58 PM 08-31-2006: feel better dude. It is hard doing it with a fractured collar bone, but it can be done. I had a friend who broke his in one of our rugby games and he suffered through the pain.
shauna [email] said at 10:36 PM 08-31-2006: NOOOO! oh my god, mattie! my poor sweet young matthew!
that's the second friend down off a bike with a broken collarbone this week!
mattie, don't make me come pick you up from work from now on.
matthew [email] said at 7:08 PM 09-01-2006: You realize that this is the fourth time I've been to the emergency room since I've been working at the paper? I'm going for the record...
Also, buy me drinks!!! To, uh...dull the pain. Wednesday night at Cosmo (Chris Burns' & Ari's'"Disco City") is always a good night!
denman [email] said at 2:05 AM 09-01-2006: Wow, I hope he gets better soon. Yeah, I crashed the other day trying to avoid some guy who wanted to left turn me right over. I bruised a rib, but I feel lucky compared to Matt. I fucking hate most drivers. I hope you are up and around soon.
matthew [email] said at 6:56 PM 09-01-2006: Hello!
I'm sorry for re-posting this from a different board--but I have to type one-handed, and this took forever to write out...
Hey everyone--
Thanks for the well-wishes--I really appreciate it. I'm doing okay. Carp has been taking extremely good care of me, and Erica/Cat/Sarah have been very helpful at the house as well. (Erica cleaned up my disaster-area of a bedroom so that I could actually walk from my door to my bed, which is amazing...) One of my co-workers dropped by last night with a card signed by a bunch of people from the office, which was nice.
Like Erica said, I fractured my collarbone and got half a dozen staples in the back of my head. My left arm is in a sling (which means I'm typing all of this one-handed--ughghgh). Plus my left hip is one huge bruise and my face is scratched to shit. According to an eye-witness (who, coincidentally, also works at the City Paper) I flipped up onto the guy's hood, smashed into the windshield, and then landed flat on my face on the street. Of course, I don't actully remember any of that--I just remember lying in the middle of the street in a pool of my own blood, wondering what the hell happened. For the most part, the painkillers are doing thier job. I'm still pretty much sore as hell all over.
My bike is completely trashed, but it's an old Schwinn I got through Craigslist for $150, so I'm not too worried about it. My PowerBook is pretty fucked--although it powers up/works, the frame is all twisted, and the internal wireless connection/card/whatever is busted, and who knows what else). I DO have renter's insurance--which, supposedly, covers all of my personal belongings inside and outside of the home. So I'm going to call them and see what I need to do about filing a claim. Everything (bike, computer, even my cut-up clothes) should be covered--I'm just not sure if the whole "shit got broken because I was run over by a SUV" aspect will affect anything.
Also, this means I can't play any ice hockey for 4-6 weeks (or however long this will tkae to heal)--but whatever. That's the SECOND least thing I'm actually worried/concerned about. (The first being the $5 traffic ticket for "[bicycle] not yielding right of way" that a cop slipped in my hand after the doctors told him I wasn't going to die...)
All things considered, I feel like I'm pretty lucky. Things could have been MUCH worse--so if a broken collarbone is as bad as its get, I'm fucking grateful. Actually, I've been in a really good mood for the last 24 hours (which I only slightly attribute to the generic Percocet I'm taking...). So, again, thank you for all your help and thoughts.
