This morning, before catching a bus to the office, I revisited the scene of my accident, thanks to the wonders of Google Street View. I hadn’t expected to be able to find it, partly because I wasn’t sure of the location, and partly because I didn’t expect to remember the scenery. However, I did have a map of the route for the ride I was on that day, and the accident scene turned out to be in the place along the route that I guessed first. The scenery, it turned out, was actually quite memorable, perhaps because I spent plenty of time staring at it while I waited to be taken to the hospital.
The most surprising thing about the scenery, aside from my memory of the view, was that it looks like it really wasn’t much of a hill I was coming down. I knew it wasn’t one of the steeper hills I’ve experienced, but I was still surprised at just how slight the incline was. Although the possibility occurred to me that incline may have just been difficult to detect in the pictures, Google’s terrain map suggests that the grade might be a little above 5%. My walking map of Oakland puts the grade in the 6% to 9% range. This is not steep enough that it should have been problematic had I been paying full attention to what I was doing, so I have to suspect that I was not.
Shock and Jaw 
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