My wife and I just bought a house that came with this vintage oven, and we don't love how much gas it uses to keep the pilot lights lit. Does anyone have any experience with something similar? We're trying to figure out if we should keep it or try to sell. Everything works, though it's missing some kind of decorative grounding nut below the timer.
About four months ago, I was commuting to work on my class 3 ebike when I t-boned a car that had effectively run a stop sign after the driver didn't see me (you can see in the video he really didn't come to a stop either.) I was going 25 mph in a 30 mph zone with a bike lane, and there's no stop sign the direction I was going. It was a little after dawn, and I was wearing light-colored clothing with just a bit of reflective material; I also had a light that you can barely see in the grainy video. The video is from a security camera.
I ended up with a broken femur and surgery to get an intermedular rod that will likely stay in my leg forever. I went into shock immediately and have only vague memories of the seconds before the crash, the crash itself, and the minutes before the ambulance got there Somewhat miraculously, the femur was my only injury other than some road rash. I should make a mostly full recovery. The driver was uninjured.
The driver was a man in his 60s who apparently hadn't gotten a ticket in 30 years. He very thankfully stopped, called 911, admitted fault at the scene, and has insurance. I think he pled guilty to careless driving and got community service, a fine, and some points on his license.
The bike had some damage to the headset or headtube, so while it still rolled, I had to trash it because the bars wouldn't spin (and the frame was likely compromised). The car had minor to moderate damage to the side panel and door but was drivable.
I've commuted tens of thousands of miles by bike (mostly on a non-ebike) and definitely know that staying safe is more than just following the rules -- you have to be ready for drivers who aren't paying attention. While the crash was 100% the driver's fault, there are things I could have done differently:
- While I was wearing light-colored clothing and had a light, I feel like a hi-vis vest and a brighter light would have made me more visible in this particular early morning situation. I've started wearing a vest, and my replacement ebike has a much brighter light.
- This happened at the start of my commute, in a pretty bike-friendly small town/suburb right next to a university campus. There are some small parts of my 26-mile commute (I don't do this every day) where cars can be openly hostile to me, but this stretch of road gets tons of bike traffic -- if you look at the Google Streetview, there's one ebike commuter and one road biker that the van passes within a couple blocks of this intersection. Normally, I watch every car to make sure it doesn't try to kill me, but I assumed this driver would see me, and I didn't have time to react as he was pulling in front of me. (One note: the street I was on is a major arterial for this small town, while the street the car was on is a minor side street. I have a vague memory of seeing the car start to pull out and thinking, "That's fine, he's probably turning left next to me and there should be tons of room.")
This was my first major commuting accident and first commuting injury. I hope I can remind fellow bikers to stay vigilant and be as visible so they can avoid this.