1959? The Crash of Cliff

This very much mirrors Mitch's mishap - alliteration can be fun? If memory serves, I was ferrying my bicycle from home in Southend-on-Sea to R.A.F. Kirkham where I was doing my mechanic's course. The scene is London, not far from King's Cross station. I was pedalling along in traffic probably more dense than I'd ever seen. I was following a trolleybus.

.................. Trolleybuses? Six wheeled, double-decker buses. London Transport used them extensively - sadly now extinct. They ran like ordinary buses on rubber tyres but collected electric current from wires hung above the road using two poles. Being electrically driven they could slow or stop or accelerate very quickly ..............

This one slowed very quickly at a bad moment. Unable to match the bus's deceleration I was on the point of crashing into the back of it. So I opted to swerve around.

Unfortunately a lorry (truck) was passing the trolleybus and I became the meat in the sandwich.

Next thing I knew, I was sitting on a low wall, a very shaken up Cliff with a gashed ankle and an unrideable bike.

A number of scenes follow - ambulance - hospital ER for first aid - locating lost and bloodied shoe - collecting a badly bent bike from King's Cross police station - journey on a train to Kirkham. I must have been a sad sight - hobbling, tired and shocked, dragging/carrying my bike half the length of Britain.

The bike and I healed. It was probably as potentially a fatal cycling accident as Mitchell's but that's life. Fate smiles or frowns.