So as a means of closure for myself and analyzing the event I’ll go through what happened, why it happened, aftermath and what to change/do better in future as means of my own safety.
So the hit happened on a crosswalk at one of my local town’s multiple roundabouts. Below is a google maps satellite screenshot with the car’s path shown in red and my path shown in green with the impact point indicated by the black star.
I was wearing my normal riding gear: TSG pass full face helmet, knee and elbow pads, riding gloves and my backpack with minimum toolset and spares. Days have been so hot lately that I’ve worn a short sleeved t-shirt and rolled the leg of my cargo pants up to get some extra airflow. I’m a little bit iffy about having generally any uncovered skin show while riding in case of falling or an accident resulting easily in some nice road rash, but it’s just been so hot.
Here’s a couple pictures from the actual location that I took while visiting the post office. They are taken from direction of my travel.
This one was from the accident after everything had cleared up.
So I came from my direction of travel and slowed down for the chicane (don’t wanna go wide in case of other pedestrians or cyclists) and for the crosswalk after that. Also It’s a dangerous spot as the trees to the left obscure possible pedestrians and cyclists coming to the crosswalk from the car’s leaving the roundabout, especially if they come fast, but I know this so I take it slowly and affirm that any drivers see me before starting to cross.
Now this is where the situation happened and unfortunately my own “game eye” failed me, causing me to put myself into a bad position, as I usually ride defensively and rather wait things out to make sure it’s safe to move on in blind spot/corner and crosswalk situations.
So there was this dark blue BMW coming towards the roundabout from my right side of direction of travel. I did look at the driver to make sure he had seen me and that it was safe to continue crossing as I was rolling forward on the crosswalk on the other side of the lane splitter, but unfortunately I must have mistaken the direction of his eyes or it was just that he had not noticed me despite looking at my direction (he confessed that he had not seen/noticed me (senpai)).
So I, assuming that he was aware of my existence, accelerated towards the lane splitter to crossover and the positions of us two progressed in the following manner. Note that taking into an account the driver side’s A-pillar, I stay mostly behind it, AKA if you’re not specifically checking behind the A-pillar (moving your head a little bit to the side) or not paying that close of a attention, there could be some there and you don’t even see them.
It was when I had my front wheels in the middle of the lane splitter that I realized that the car was not slowing down and he hadn’t seen me. I was carrying enough speed and the time to impact at this point was so short that I realized that it was going to happen. I didn’t have time to start turning or slowing down, so all I had was a short moment to brace for the impact.
I’m a goofy-footed rider, so I have my right leg in front, which means that the car approached me from my back’s side. Just before the hit I oriented myself forward (back completely towards the car and head looking forwards the roundabout) as I knew that the impact was coming and letting myself go a little limp.
Now, the following moments are a little unclear for me, but judging from the initial impact to where I ended up I would guess the event unraveled roughly in the following way.
The initial impact/push caused me to tip over onto the bonnet of the car. My backpack must have given me a bit of a buffer to decrease my acceleration against the bonnet, as this hit wasn’t that bad.
The board got launched forward by the grill/bumper and rotated upwards as my feet were pushing into the footstraps, at this point I think the driver hit the brakes as I think I started to move forwards off of the bonnet with the momentum I had gotten from the impact.
Now I had a brief image during the flight where I saw my board and behind it there was blue sky, I believe it must have been at this point.
I landed arse first back to the tarmac (couple scuff marks on my lower back) and my board landed with a clang and my left leg, which isn’t strapped in, slipped out of the footstrap and I came to rest. The impact against the ground felt harder than the impact against the bonnet.
I was situated roughly like this when I came to a stop in front of the car (car not shown), which was probably about a 1-2 meters forward from the end of the bonnet.
After I had come to a rest I remember seeing bits of my mudguards from the impact side wheels still bouncing around and my remote landing a couple meters further and I just laid there for a couple second just moving my eyes around. After I didn’t feel any terrible pain I moved my hand to open up my visor. I lifted my head up slightly and looked around, checking that all my body parts were still apparently connected to me and I was alive. I then proceeded to un-strap my right leg and then get up. I did a check-up on myself and was slightly surprised that I seemed to be apparently fine, no big pain anywhere and my head wasn’t pounding or anything.
At this point the driver of the beemer comes up to me panicked and spooked (understandably), I held him firmly by his shoulders and told that I seem to be fine, in fact he must’ve been more scared at that point and I just reassured him that I was seemingly mostly ok. I proceeded to gather my stuff and bits of my board off of the road and the driver said he was going to move the parking lot of the market right next to the roundabout (as seen on the google maps pictures), at this point a lade pulled up to the pedestrian lane on her scooter and told that she had seen the whole thing and that she was willing to be an eyewitness. We exchanged contact information and got the beemer’s register plate number just in case. I then informed her that she was free to go and I was going to exchange contact information with the driver and have a chat.
We probably talked for about 15 minutes on the parking lot where he admitted that he hadn’t seen me at all (so essentially a person materialized onto his bonnet suddenly, which I understood must have been quite the scare. I was ok, because I knew it was going to happen and had that short mental preparation for it). He mentioned that he has been driving for 30 years without an accident, so that would have placed him somewhere in his fifties, he had his 8-12 year old son in the backseat. He promised to cover any physical and material damages that had occurred through his insurance, as he was at fault. We took a look at the front end of his beemer and didn’t see any permanent damage anywhere (at least obvious big damage) and then took a look at my board and there had clearly been some kind of damage, as the impact side drive wheel was now rubbing against the drive belt, so something must have gotten bent somewhere.
I then informed that he has my information and the eyewitnesses information and I have his, so on my account the situation for now is clear and we can move on. Throughout this exchange he was very apologetic (for reason of course) and I was just reassuring that I was feeling pretty well considering what had just happened. It was after I had left him leave the scene that I realized I should have asked him for a ride home…
Well I got my stuff and checked if there was anything immediate I could do try to fix the belt rubbing against the but it was something that I couldn’t fix on the scene. I then called my mom and explained what had happened… In the end I slowly rolled on my board back to home.
The aftermath
I scheduled a doctor’s appointment for checkup and to get the visit marked into the system in case there are future complications, in which case I might need extra insurance compensation and to just get a professional to give their opinion on my health. The doctor essentially just asked me to show different movement ranges: touch your toes (lower back), lift your knees to your chest (knees and hip), bring your arm up from the front (shoulders). Had no problem with the moves and told me that there hadn’t been a need to call the police or an ambulance on the scene, so the doctor just prescribed 3 days of rest and some pain medication and essentially shushed me out of his office for wasting his time 
I also filed an insurance form with the driver’s insurance company and they agreed to compensate everything, but that they will take statements from the driver and eyewitness as well. No police report was filed as we didn’t have any
Mah poor board
I’ve been working on board trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with from the evening of the crash day to the start of today (Wednesday evening to Friday morning) and I believe I have diagnosed the problems now. This is basically for what I want the insurance company to compensate me for.
Both front and back trucks’s impact side wheel axles are bent upwards, probably from the cars front/bonnet hitting the top part of the wheel causing a very hard and sharp impact stressing the axles. This also explains tyre started to rub against the drive belt, as the top side was turned inwards, towards the belt.
I will also get 2 new hubs for the impact side, as I don’t wanna risk there being some kind of hidden damage in them. Outer wheels and inner tubes I can switch over from the old ones.
I’m also going for new motors. btw can anybody recommend any 6384 sized motors in the 130-150kv range, my current ones are from APS. Go for same motors or does somebody know a better manufacturer?
New helmet. I’m going to get a replacement for my TSG pass. Probably gonna get another pass, but if anybody have other suggestions I’ll hear them.
Ending notes
Survived with very light injuries, just a couple of bruises and contusions. Wasn’t really scared, as I was able to brace for the impact for that short moment.
Wear your protective gear always (at least a helmet) and be on the lookout. Sometimes you can do everything right yourself, but have your day ruined by somebody else not doing the same.
I’m gonna have a bit more defensive attitude on crosswalks now and I’ll make sure I can personally see any incoming cars actually start slowing down for me before starting to cross, assuming they are in a hitting distance.
Mah board! Annoyed way more about my board not being in top shape, as my own injuries where so light…
speedy recovery ( of your board of course). In Portugal you’re not allowed to crosswalk on a vehicle, so if it’s bicycle, you have to walk it. That’s what I would do if I had to
So, now I don’t use bindings on the street unless I’m somewhere where I know there are no cars.