Welcome to story #3 in my Safety Week. I had surgery Monday so decided I would get some help this week. I tell my story here. Dave tells his story here. Today I welcome Floyd from theregoI. Over the past 3 or 4 years we have been blogging, Floyd and I have become online friends. I respect his thoughts and comments. His story here is actually 2 stories…both which have had an impact upon him. So I’ll turn it over to him:

I don’t know too many people that don’t remember the day they learned to ride a bike. It was dangerous and painful for the majority of us. The pavement is pretty unforgiving… So are ’65 Pontiacs. Lucky for me I hit it and not the other way around.

Another milestone in life is learning to drive a vehicle. In both milestones, we learned to drive rules to keep us and others safe and alive, but rules get broken. Lives too.

When I was in high school Shawn McCarty was the BMOC, (big man on campus). The difference between him and other typical BMOC’s is that Shawn was kind and genuinely humble. Some decades later Shawn and I worked out together at the same gym. When my wife peddled the Tour De Tucson and Scottsdale, Shawn and his group of riders looked out for her. Shawn protected her like his sister.

My wife and I had just finished a thirty-mile ride when we heard about the guy that had been hit and killed on his bicycle a few days earlier. He had been riding east on Thompson Peak Parkway by himself. The driver veered out of her lane and into the bike lane where she struck and killed my friend Shawn…

My wife and I were peddling up Pacific Coast Highway and got separated at a light. I was ahead and missed the turn to the marina. With zero chance of finding her and without my cell, I peddled back to the house and called her. She was forty-five minutes out. At fifty minutes, I called and started pacing. At fifty-five minutes and no answer I went to the street to look for her.

My wife called me at the one hour mark… she’d been hit by a car on her bicycle.

The elderly woman that hit her as she was crossing the street was doing fifty miles an hour. An eyewitness said her bike did five 360 degree spins in the air before she landed and skidded across the intersection into a curb. Divine Providence allowed my wife to walk away with some knee issues and a spine that’s been recently screwed together.

When you see someone on a bicycle, remember the first time you learned to ride, the wind in your hair, your senses fully alive. And thank God you weren’t hit doing it. Never mind the six degrees of separation, everyone, whether they believe like us or not, on bicycles, you’re related to. We’re all of One blood. Let’s treat each other like it.

No one should have to maimed or hurt on a bike ride. Give ‘Em Three Feet.

Thanks Floyd. I certainly can’t and don’t disagree with that sentiment. Don’t forget the bear giveaway and the T-shirt giveaway. For more information check here.