One afternoon a couple years back I embarked on what became a long and fatiguing journey from the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane for a job interview.  The highway leg of my trip in was going quite smoothly; however once I hit Brisbane it was approximately 3:30pm meaning peak traffic had begun. In addition to excess cars on the road, the area had several schools nearby which led to an abnormally large amount of child pedestrians and cyclists journeying home from school and work. I made my way slowly through all the traffic towards Toowong; where my destination in which the job interview was being held.  After navigating the busy roads I was about to make the final turn to my destination. To complete the turn I needed to turn from the right hand lane across traffic in to the adjacent street. Traffic in the opposite direction was in gridlock with no movement ensuring visibility was very low.  I was at a complete stop in the left lane, put my indicator on to inform the traffic coming in the other direction I wanted to turn across their path into a street on her right.  The line of cars on the other side of the road were all trying to exit to their left and were lined up 20 cars deep. Whilst waiting for the traffic to clear a driver in the opposite direction left space for me to pass through and waved indicating for me to go and left room for me to turn across her path into the street on the right. After acknowledging the compassionate driver I began the turn completely unaware of the cyclist heading in the opposite direction. The cyclists were not being held up like the cars were so they were going at a fast pace down the road, halfway through the turn a cyclist crashed in to the side of my vehicle.  At the point of impact the cyclist flipped over the handlebars and the bonnet of my vehicle and landed on the road opposite side of the car.  I froze, some of the other cyclists stopped, jumped off their bikes and helped the injured cyclist off the road. Luckily one of the cyclists was a general practitioner and she proceeded to check over the injured cyclist while another rang the ambulance. 

 

The impact had taken me by complete surprise leaving me in shock. As the view was completely blocked by the oncoming traffic there was no chance of me seeing the bicycle lane let alone the cyclist.  One of the onlookers moved my car off the road and I remorsefully went over to check on the cyclist. Rushing over to him I witnessed the extent of his injuries, despite having a bloodied leg and totalled bike the cyclist seemed in a stable condition with those being the worst of his injuries.  Next the ambulance arrived and checked him out confirming his lucky escape.  Shortly after, both the fire brigade and police arrived to take statements from me, the cyclist and some of the witnesses.  During this time the wife of the injured cyclist turned up to collect her husband; after all the statements were taken everybody was told the report would be done and they would be informed of the result in due course.  The wife of the injured cyclist proceeded to walk over to me; not to yell and scream at me for hitting her husband (which is what I was prepared for), but to offer a cup of tea at their house as she was worried about the shocked, emotional state I was in and the long drive back to the Sunshine Coast I had. 

 

The contextual lens of:

Me; the driver

initial thoughts / feelings

Shock from the incident

Did I just kill someone? – Guilt

Denial – it wasn’t my fault, he ran into me; I didn’t see him

Worry for the injured cyclist

Devastation that I hurt another human being

thoughts / feelings once the initial shock passed

Embarrassment – Fire brigade, Ambulance, Police in the driveway of the company Jaidah was meant to be having a job interview with

Relief that the cyclist was ok

Fear of what was going to happen to me after the police had completed their investigation

Touched that the wife of the cyclist was so caring and genuinely wanted to make sure I was ok

Cyclist

thoughts / feelings

Pain

Am I ok?

Did anyone else get hurt?

Anger towards me – what was she thinking? Why didn’t she see me?

 

Is my bike ok?

Relief that he was ok

Thankful when his wife turned up to collect him

Police

thoughts

What happened?

Is everyone okay?

Who was at fault?

Judgment towards me for causing such an incident

Outcomes 

The report came back a couple weeks later and found that I was in the wrong; even though I did not see the cyclist coming I did turn into his path when by law I had to give way to him.  On a happier note I did go back for the job interview at a later date and was offered the position.