It was a terrifying moment when the world seemed to revert to slow motion, and I thank God for that because had it not I would have killed him.
I was on my way home in the early evening gloom of a
December day, it was slow progress as it had been for months due to major road
works, and I had sat through two light change sequences before my journey
finally got underway.
Well, when I say “I was on my way home” I was actually
on my way to pick up my wife Tina first which is why I was driving down Maybury
Road.
It was a single-track, one-way street running parallel
with the railway line from Sheerwater into Woking Town Centre which is heavily
tree lined along the railway side and predominantly terraced housing on the
other.
It’s quite a long stretch of road and runs as straight
as an arrow and under normal circumstances such a stretch of road might tempt
you into excessive speed.
However, running on the left-hand side of Maybury Road
is a cycle lane and, on the right, intermittently parked cars which narrowed the road
dramatically and this combined with very poor lighting and a significant number
of side roads a cautious 20 to 25 mph was the order of the day.
So, it was under the afore mentioned conditions that I
proceeded along Maybury Road towards Woking Town centre.
I had just about reached halfway when I saw a
well-equipped cyclist ahead of me in the cycle lane, I slowed to 20 mph as I
passed it, leaving as much room as was possible given the parked cars on the
offside.
I safely passed the cyclist and was just beginning to
think about increasing my speed, but instead I took my foot off the gas as I
neared the rear end of a parked Ford Transit van and just as I did so another
cyclist appeared from the darkness heading straight for me.
He had been riding along the pavement when a number of
pedestrians inconveniently blocked his path, so he swerved out into the road
and straight into my path.
He was dressed in dark clothing and the bike had no
lights, so he was almost invisible, and I only spotted him at the very last
second as the van had turned on his lights.
I slammed on the brakes and slewed the car sideways so
my front-end way blocking the cycle lane, fortunately the bike I had passed had
not caught me up.
The whole incident took little more than a second yet
seemed to run in slow motion, I think if it hadn’t, I would have him.
Of course, time didn’t really slow down it was just
the way my brain processed it.
I missed hitting the hapless bike rider by the width
of a bike wheel and we finished up with him sandwiched between me and the van.
But quite unperturbed he picked up his bike and
wriggled between me and the van and was quickly on his way.
I on the other hand just sat where I had come to a
stop with my heart pounding in my chest.
My hands gripping the steering wheel so tight my
knuckles were white, and there I sat until I heard a tapping on my passenger
door window.
“Are you alright?” A muffled voice asked.
I wound down the window.
“Are you alright?” The voice asked again.
It was the girl on the bike I had overtaken a minute
or so earlier.
“Yes” I replied, “it just took my breath away”.
“Bloody idiot” she said.
That’s a bit harsh I thought to myself I didn’t do
anything wrong.
“Its idiots like that that give us cyclists a bad
name” she said indignantly, and she gave me a smile and was on her way.
Just at that moment the driver behind me sounded his
horn which brought me out of my torpor, and I drove off.
When I met Tina outside her building, I got in the
passenger side and let her drive.
I recounted the story of what had happened and then
reflected on what might have been.
Had I not backed off the gas when I did, or had the
van not turned on his lights when it did it may have been a tragedy rather than
an anecdote.
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