Cycling accident survivor demands more steps from city

The truck hit her so hard that it shattered her entire right side: her shoulder blade, collarbone, ribs and radius, and her pelvis in five different places. She spent a month in the emergency room and five more in a hospital bed. In 2008 Natividad Ruiz, 59, had the exact same accident that killed another biker in Barcelona last week. She, too, was riding a public rental bicycle along a cycle path in the neighborhood of Eixample, observing traffic regulations and going in a straight line. That didn't stop a truck from knocking her down as it made a turn.

It has been nearly four years since Natividad's accident, and she has been unable to work in all that time. She is still in rehab, and is caught up in a legal battle to have her physical disabilities recognized.

She has undergone several plastic surgery procedures and is terrified of getting on a bike.

Ruiz could easily be angry at life, but she sounds serene. She says that yoga, which she practiced before the accident, has helped her a lot. And despite what she's been through, she still believes that bicycles are a great way to get around the city.

"[It's good] for the environment, for health reasons, for lessening the traffic... But the road network needs to be vastly improved. Local governments need to get serious about it, " she says.

Natividad, who has two grown-up children, was self-employed and worked in screen printing, but now she lacks the strength in her forearm to do that anymore. She did, however, get a "very good" check from the insurance company.

"But it's not worth it. Every day I have headaches and backaches, I sleep poorly, I feel sharp pains, I have to exercise to prevent atrophy..." She has also undergone several plastic surgery procedures and is terrified of getting on a bike. She is even scared of riding in the car with her husband.

Before the accident, Ruiz was a cycling activist. A veteran of the association Amics de la Bici (Friends of the Bicycle), she was well known in cycling circles and her mishap garnered a lot of attention. The private network Telecinco even went so far as to predict she would die from her injuries.

"It all happened so fast," she recalls. "When I saw the truck turning despite my screams and those of the pedestrians around me, it did not occur to me that he might not hear me. I don't know how it is that I didn't die on the spot."

The 49-year-old cyclist who died last week had the same problem: the truck driver simply did not see her. Ruiz is calling for better street signage "because trucks, due to their height, cannot see the bikes." She is in favor of banning heavy vehicles from streets with cycling paths altogether.

The Federation of Barcelona Neighborhood Associations has joined the growing chorus of voices demanding more city initiatives to boost bicycle use in the Catalan capital.

Barcelona's mobility councilor, Eduard Freixedes, said that the priority is not to extend the network of cycling paths - "We're not aiming for a Guinness World Record" - but to "consolidate and improve existing paths." Freixedes promised an analysis within two months, but failed to provide any investment figures.