I Hit a Pedestrian

A few weeks ago, I was riding my bike to teach a class in the brand new university building, and, as I often do, I wonder about the novelty (for me) of riding a bike and how I should be careful because some day I was bound to run into a car or something. Of course, you can imagine something crazy had to happen just then.

A pedestrian started to cross the street and changed his mind. He stepped back, into my path.

Yep. I hit him. Hard, even though I squealed that handbrake. I was jolted as I stopped dead in my tracks, but neither of us were harmed, so after apologizing, I rode off.

I hit a pedestrian.

Or maybe I should re-phrase that to be "a pedestrian used his body to stop my bike."