Is cycling safe?

Image via WikipediaMy first experience on a bicycle was best forgotten and by some subterfuge of the brain/memory it has been. The only reason that I know about it was when I asked about the scar on my ankle when I was about 12. I was told that when I was about 6/7 my father put me on the bar of his bicycle to take me back home after a visit to Anahorish to my grandparents home. The lane in front of the house was uneven to say the least and somehow my leg got entangled in the chain of the cycle. This must have been painful at the time but I have no memory of the event.
It was several years later when I was about 16 that I eventually got possession of my own cycle, a blue racing bike, and was to use this to go to school at the Rainey in Magherafelt for about 2 years.

Most days I would meet a classmate Bartley Stewart, a farmers son from across the main Castledawson to Magherafelt road where we lived in aughagaskin, for the journey to school. There was one morning during the fifties as I was on the way to school there was a commotion near the courthouse. There had been a bomb attack during the previous night and the roof had been burnt down.

There was one occasion I think it was 1958 when I cycled to cregnadovesky near Carrickmore to my maternal grandparents where I spent most summers of my teenage years. This was a journey undertaken with much trepidation, it was the furthest I had been away from home on the bike and was at that time quite a physical challenge. There was also the dangers from dogs appearing out of farm gates . This was greatest where I had to dismount from the bike because of the steep hills encountered on the way. However I arrived safely but exhausted about 2 hours later.