St. Charles County is one of the better places in the metro to ride a bicycle. The Katy Trail runs through Frontier Park in St. Charles and on west along the river toward Defiance and Augusta. Local trails connect neighborhoods, and riders use road shoulders to get between them. Most of those miles are uneventful. Where bikes and cars meet, at trail crossings, driveways, parking lot exits and shoulders, some are not.
This entry is for the rider who was hit by a car and walked away, and for whoever is helping them.
The helmet tells you about the head
If a car hit you and you went down, the first question is whether your head struck anything. The helmet often answers before you can. Look for scrapes, cracks, crushed foam or a shell that has shifted. If the helmet struck the ground, assume the head was involved.
- Confusion, a gap in memory about the crash, a headache that builds, repeated vomiting, unusual drowsiness, or one pupil larger than the other is an emergency room trip right now.
- Even without those signs, a head strike deserves close watching over the next day. The quiet concussion covers what concussion after a crash tends to look like, and the CDC's HEADS UP pages describe the signs in plain language.
- Set the helmet aside and do not ride in it again. Most helmet makers say to replace a helmet after a crash, even when no damage shows. Keep it or photograph it for the history.
The rest of the bright line
Cyclists land on outstretched hands, a shoulder or a hip, and those are common places for injuries that need imaging. A wrist, collarbone or hip you cannot move or put weight on, or any visible deformity, goes to the emergency room. So does everything on the standing emergency line at the bottom of this entry.
What posts late
A cyclist has no seat belt, no headrest and no car around them. When a bumper or a mirror connects, the body is thrown, and the neck and back absorb the landing. The scrape on the knee or elbow is what riders notice first. The neck that stiffens overnight, the low back that will not straighten on day two, and the shoulder that aches reaching up usually post later. The week after explains the timeline, and feeling fine is an entry too.
The rider's entries
That night, write down:
- Where it happened: the crossing, the road, the nearest cross street or trail marker.
- How the car hit you: from behind, from the side, turning across your path, pulling out of a driveway or lot.
- How you landed: hands, shoulder, hip, head.
- Photos of the bike, the helmet, your clothing and any scrapes, before anything is cleaned or repaired.
- The driver's information and any witnesses, including other trail users who stopped.
- What hurts tonight, in plain words.
Add one dated line every morning for two weeks. If you record rides with an app or a bike computer, the ride file holds the time and place of the crash; save a screenshot. The dated entry explains why the date matters.
Getting seen without the bike
A cyclist hit by a car often has no easy way to get anywhere the next day. The bike is damaged, and for some riders the bike is how they get around. Ask someone for a ride, and plan the trip around the office hours rather than hoping it works out.
Missouri Injury Clinic publishes auto injuries as a lane: diagnosis and a treatment plan after a crash. When you call, say you were on a bicycle and a car hit you, say when, say what hurts, and let the office tell you whether it fits before you go. The O'Fallon office is the county's own: 2163 West Terra Lane, (636) 280-0990, open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 9 to 6, with Wednesday and Friday by appointment. Hazelwood, (314) 627-1411, and Tesson Ferry, (314) 530-5480, are open Monday through Thursday 9 to 6 and Friday 9 to noon. Every office closes from 12 to 2. Book around the midday closure so a late ride does not land you at a locked door.
Bring your notes, the photos, and any emergency or urgent care discharge papers. One call, one exam walks through what the first visit is.
Back on the trail
Riding asks a lot of a neck that has to look up from a low position, wrists that hold the bars, and a back that holds a bent posture for miles. Ask the clinician who examines you when riding again makes sense, and write the answer in the ledger with a date.
The bright line. Chest pain, a sudden severe headache, weakness or numbness on one side, trouble speaking, a loss of bowel or bladder control, or a head injury with vomiting or worsening confusion is an emergency room trip right now, not a call to a clinic. Call 911. An injury clinic is built for planned care, and a clinic that sends you to the emergency room instead of booking you is the system working.