Bus Collision

Today has been a bit of a sobering day. A bus hit a train, leaving at least 6 dead. One of my co-workers who sits like 3 cubes away "missed" that bus. Apparently he tried to flag down the driver, but the driver didn't stop. So he had to take the next bus. I would assume that the bus was fairly full, which if my co-worker had gotten on the bus he would have been near the front of the bus which was sheared off in the collision.

I've ridden a bus my fair share over the years and I would never have imagined dying on one. For collisions they are usually bus vs something smaller than the bus - and the bigger thing usually wins.

Perhaps it is morbid but I'm often thinking about death as I'm riding my bike to and from work. I feel by thinking about it and identifying the possible causes of injury I can be better prepared to avoid it. I've pictured myself being killed by a bus quite a few times... The buses are just so wide and the side mirrors are inconveniently located a head height.

I'd rather show up late to work than dead. In the physics equation of collisions, on my bike I'm pretty always going to be the softer object with less mass. And you know what they say, whether the stone hits the pitcher or the pitcher hits the stone, it's going to bad for the pitcher.

So, I'm going to redouble my efforts on getting from point A to point B alive and well. There's no prize for almost not getting injured.

Picture of me demonstrating safe biking technique.