Egad. Hit and run.

I was hit this afternoon on my way home. At a stop light. By a pickup truck. In line for the light. (Dont' worry - both I and the bike are fine.). I was on a side street coming up to a stop light at a main street. The pickup passed me (safely) and then pulled up behind two other cars at the light. I rolled up behind the truck as I usually do and waited patiently for the light to change. The driver was having trouble keeping the engine running, and it's possible - since it was a stick shift - that what happened next was truly an accident, and not carelessness or malice.

Suddenly, the truck shifted into reverse and zoomed back toward me. I scrambed to walk the bike backwards (I still had one leg clipped in), but she still hit my front wheel and almost knocked me over. She then shifted forward, cut a hard right, and zipped through the quickie-mart parking lot to our right, short-cutting the intersection. Oh. Her tail lights weren't working either.

I was too stunned to do anything cool, like take a photo of her license plate, or call the cops, or even shout anything more than "Hey!" Instead, I stood there in disbelief, then came to, picked up my bike, and rode on when the light changed. My legs were shaking from the fright for most of the rest of the ride home.

I still can't figure out whether she just impatiently decided to back clear of the car in front and cut the corner, or if the car just jumped into reverse, and she was so started by hitting me that she ran off, or if she did it on purpose. I'm going to assume she was just careless and didn't look back, or the truck jumped back farther/faster than she expected (it was running rough, and she was revving the engine to keep it from stalling out).

Still, it's a sobering experience. I'm fine, the bike is fine, and I'll be back out there in the morning. But maybe I'll stop just a bit farther back from the car ahead at the next stoplight.