Case study: ‘I went straight over my handlebars’

Gwo-Tzer Ho shows off his cycling injuries at Haymarket, Edinburgh. Picture: Contributed

“I was cycling west along Shandwick Place and there was a bus right behind me. I tried to get out of its way. You need to get the angle just right if you’re crossing the tram tracks to make sure you don’t get stuck or skid, but I didn’t on this occasion and I got my front wheel stuck. I went straight over the handle bars and my face went straight into the floor.

“As soon as I fell, I scrambled up as quickly as I could as I didn’t want to be lying in the middle of the road and as I did so, the bus behind me drove straight over the wheel of my bike and then kept on going.

“I’m a really experienced cyclist – it’s what I do more than pretty much anything else and I’ve been commuting to work by bike in Edinburgh since 1998. As soon as there is any sort of traffic, you feel very vulnerable. It was OK when the roads were smooth because you could easily get out of the way, but on the streets where the tram tracks are now, it’s more difficult.

“I still have scars on my chin from the accident and contusions on my hands and left knee. My wife is a first aider, so she dealt with the wounds and then took me along to A&E where I had to have X-rays and scans to check there were no bones broken or that I didn’t have concussion.

“The same thing happened to one of my colleagues just this morning and he has broken his arm. I also know quite a few people who this has happened to – pretty much every week, you hear of someone who has had an interaction with a tram track.”