CTHB

I had just crossed Kosciuszko, southbound on Hope on the east side, when the lights changed. I had noticed a woman and two men on the southwest corner of the intersection waiting to cross--well, mostly I'd noticed the woman--and had just turned my attention to continue on my way when I heard the impact.

Turning back, I was just in time to see one man go down and the woman bouncing off the front of a silver SUV--no plates, Volvo dealer marquee. The other man appeared to be fine. The accident happened pretty much in the center lane, so the trio had already made pretty good progress across the street.

The man remained laying on the ground, but was clearly alive and upset. Immediately, his friends, myself, and a handful of bike couriers converged on him and there was the chaos of figuring out what was going on. The driver got out and was hysterical for a bit, but one of the couriers tended to her. The man that was down was tended to by both of his friends--the woman was fine, just some minor clothing damage.

A bunch of us were on cell phones trying to reach 911 but all of us hit the same hold message indicating that all operators were busy, which seemed somewhat ridiculous. I switched off and called the office and had them transfer me to 911 and the call got through. It sounded like I was the second or third person to successfully call in and paramedics were dispatched. They arrived shortly thereafter.

With so many people on scene and a fire truck and a paramedic truck on-site, there was really no point in me hanging around. I exchanged business cards with the guy that remained unscathed in the whole thing and went on my way.

So, right around now, I would normally go into hyperanalytical mode and start breaking down everything that did or didn't happen, but I don't think that will serve me any purpose. I've laid out what I know. I know what I did. There's nothing else I can do about the things that I didn't do. I'm moving on.