As I was taking a roundabout, a red 1990's minivan approached from the righthand side, just as I was midway through.
I made (or so I thought) eye contact with the driver and turned my head back towards my line of travel and started to straighten out when, quite to my amazement, I saw a flash of red paint and the hood of the minivan (a Dodge Caravan) out of my peripheral vision moving up on my right side about a foot behind the seat of my bike.
Instinctively, and purely out of self-preservation not conscious thought, I threw my right leg out of the way as its front driver's side quarter "rolled into" the soft saddlebag on my right. The minivan pressed the Bandit's saddlebag hard enough that I felt my rear tire "hop" a couple inches to the left, but I was otherwise balanced and managed to keep moving forward. The minivan screeched to a halt midway through the roundabout, I'm sure just as surprised as I was.
Now for the irony - I am waring my brand new Scorpion Exo-R710 florescent high-viz helmet with a florescent yellow high-viz Triumph jacket as well. How that driver didn't see me after looking right at me is completely beyond me. The whole incident left a bad taste in my mouth.
But honestly, before I could say "what the f**k?!", I was shoved and then rode out of the roundabout and continued along. The minivan and its driver didn't follow, don't know what happened to her.
Lesson learned: even though they are looking right at you, who knows whether a driver ACTUALLY see you or not. I was taught about "inattentive blindness" by Jason in class - now I've experienced it firsthand.
Not fun.
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