Image by Ken Hawkins/Staff

As I headed north by bike on Anson Street at about 4:30 on Tuesday afternoon I came up on stop, stopped, and proceeded to take my turn as another vehicle stopped at the cross street of George.

Read more stories on this subject in our bike topic page.All went well until I was about five-sixths the way through, that's when the silver truck to my right proceeded to turn, that is: turn into me.

As I became aware of what was about to occur, the metal beast paused oh so slightly, only to accelerate moments later.

You could call the blow a soft one, but when it comes to truck vs salty-bag-of-mostly-water on metal frame, even a soft blow is more than enough to send a bike rider toppling -- topple I did.

I escaped with what (I expect in the morning to be) a pair or bruised palms and a bruised knee and a mildly bent rear wheel. I am rather lucky, had the driver decided to press slightly more heavily on the gas, things could have turned out much differently.

Moments later I learned the man driving the truck is a frequent bike rider and by all accounts we had both done exactly as we were supposed to. This accident could not be attributed to a lack of rule following or car driver rage, it was simply an accident.

And I suppose that's my point, as we continue to see chaffing between Charleston's growing bike and car populations we should all remember that sometimes accidents just happen -- even when everyone's following the rules.

I know the two of us will be more cautious and we got lucky things weren't much worse. Sometimes things do get much worse for folks to have their sober reminder -- that's something  we were reminded of this weekend.