A cyclist says they feel 'lucky to be alive' after they were knocked off their bike in Galway.
GP and academic Dr Ciara Curran was cycling to work in Salthill on Monday morning when she was "doored" by a parked car door that opened unexpectedly in the road.
The collision threw her off her bike and into the next lane into oncoming traffic - a terrifying experience that has left her shaken this week.
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Speaking about the ordeal, she says the past few days have been a 'rollercoaster' and has made the reality of the risks all the more clear.
Explaining what happened, she told Galway Bay FM's Galway Talks: "We live just at the end of the Salthill Knocknacarra area and I was cycling up to the Coco cafe area.
"I'm a relatively seasoned cyclist so I know this is a bit of a black spot because the road narrows. There's an island in the middle of the road and there's always cars parked on your inside, so you're always aware of it."
But as Ciara cycled past, one of the car doors opened, catching one of her handlebars, knocking her off her bike and sending her flying into the middle of the road.
She went on: "I was in the middle of the road, and traffic stopped thankfully but I wasn't even sure what had happened at that point. I just remember looking up and there was a bus behind me, so I was very grateful not have come to a grim end.
She stayed with me and phoned for an ambulance, and it was a pretty impactful collision on my behalf - I thought my hip was broken so I didn't even want to move, I was just very, very sore.
"As you can imagine there were tears at that point as well."
She continued: "Obviously when you're cycling you're trying to avoid the car doors on your inside but you're also aware that there's a lot of traffic.
"You're aware that people are trying to get to work, as are you, so you can often get a build-up of traffic behind you when you're too far in the road to avoid the door zone, but if you're in too far you're putting yourself at risk.
"When I was lying on the road, I knew there was an element of shock and I needed to let that pass to assess whether serious damage was done."
She added: "At the time, I was so confused, but Rachel told me that my helmet took an almighty whack and the sound was unbelievable."
She said she now feels lucky to be alive but that the collision has put in sharp focus what could have happened.
"It has been an emotional rollercoaster over the past few days - it sounds cringey but I honestly feel lucky to be alive. I am lucky that I don't have a spinal or brain injury which could have been a different outcome. I just want to heighten driver awareness of the parked car doors. I don't want this to happen to anyone else because it could have been so much worse."
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