Noah "Lelouve_Mechant" Goyette

Thank you for reading friends and all. On Friday February 24 2023 I suffered a traumatic bicycle accident. I am asking for your help to push me along, until I'm back at work in the next couple weeks. I landed on my chin, face, neck, wrists and back, and injured a variety of areas of my body that are still healing and will take some time. I live with a physical disability that affects my joints and joint tissue healing well. The primary problem was the many times previously reported issues of ongoing delivery cars parked in bike lane at 1005 and 1006 West Main street. These cars force the driving lane over which forces the other driving lane to act erratically which pushed us all into an intersection with a (now filled) giant pothole. (I am not the only person who has been hurt, endangered, scared or inconvenienced by this series of ongoing issues.) Once in that intersection, I was nearly clipped by another car trying to move through that traffic. Once missed by this car I hit another pothole I never would have been near, were it not for the previous dangerous obstacles. This all happened in a matter of seconds and would never happen if the city/state heeded the multiple complaints about this parking issue, potholes, and installed plastic bollards to protect that bike lane. I'm a seasoned lifelong biker/cyclist/skateboarder and city kid, and yet I was surprised, rendered unconscious, and I am lucky to be alive (so says my various saviors/providers). I had to be hospitalized and have reconstructive surgery/work on my face/ear, due to the confoundment of factors. I have to enter PT, for my wrists, shoulders and back. My jaw was subluxed and I injured my ability to breathe well/normally(bruised/contused ribs), and swallow (sprained hyoid), I hyperextended both shoulder blades, contused both MCM joints and dislocated my right shoulder and sternoclavicular joint. I have multiple abrasions, contusions and sprains throughout, though I am coping well enough. While bike friends, Bike Durham and Bullseye bicycle and other community members I know have been emotionally supportive, the city and state still are refusing to acknowledge and address these issues effectively to stop this from happening again to someone else. When I re-report the issue, with photos and asks, I am told to contact parking enforcement only, and that the state owns that part of main street. I have used up my emergency funds and my PTO in the past many weeks due also to just previously having had COVID less than 4 weeks before the accident. I applied for FMLA as I have had to miss weeks of work, and it has not started yet. If there is any way you can help please do. I am pursuing legal action and financial forgiveness from Duke. I will ALWAYS continue to advocate for bicycles, pedestrians and accessibility. I'm a career long social worker and community improvement advocate I want to be back on a bike asap but it will be some time. I am ambulatory but still unable to do many basic tasks for myself and those who rely on me. I have many appts coming up and a relatively high co-pay for all. For now, I just need to get by until such time as I can start earning full pay at full time again. I am taking other measures to earn cash but in the meantime, anything will help. Thank you.