NormanF

I was making a legal left turn on a street in my town when a driver overtook me illegally and ended up scratching my bike. He wouldn't stop to see what happened or to render assistance.

It was a hit and run. There are people like that in this country who have no regard for the rules of the road or a concern for the lives of others. Nothing happened to me but a child in my place could have been severely hurt or killed.

Its not the damage to the bike that has me p*ssed off so much as this guy's complete thoughtlessness on the road. Accidents are part of a life but there is no excuse for fleeing the scene of an accident. Its a felony.

But some people don't care.

FBinNY 

I gather you were too surprised and/or he was moving too fast to get a license plate number. Report it anyway, and do your own investigation looking for the possibility that a camera someplace caught the event. You never know.

prathmann

Yes, it's been reported multiple places that hit&run incidents have been increasing. I was on a club ride just last month where one of our riders was hit by the mirror of a passing car which fled the scene. Fortunately he's now recovering (had 3 broken ribs, broken clavicle, and numerous lacerations), but at the time we were very fearful of the outcome as were the first EMT responders who initially called for a helicopter evacuation. The highway patrol has closed their investigation saying they were unable to locate the involved vehicle (no one got a license number but there were pieces of the side mirror from a silver 2008 Hyundai SUV left at the scene). This crash occurred in the middle of a sunny day on a perfectly straight road with the cyclist riding in the 8' wide bike lane.

NormanF

There wasn't a streetlight at that intersection.

And I couldn't get his license plate number.

Thankfully, the damage was cosmetic and I was able to clean it up.

My point is there are people like that out there in a hurry to get some place and they don't bother to slow down.

I'm glad nothing happened to me but the next person might not be so lucky.

NormanF

I'm sorry to hear that happened to one of your club riders.

The police generally don't investigate these things because its difficult to find the guilty driver.

That said, there is NEVER an excuse for leaving the scene of an accident, no matter how minor.

mtbikerinpa

How hard was the impact? Did you yell? I only ask because my SO just had an accidental contact car-to-car where both parties backed out of parking spaces convergently. Our bike rack which was folded took the brunt of it in a springy motion but Liberty plus rack vs a Prius didn't fare as well for the Prius. The problem is the springy/rattle of the rack negated the sensation(reportedly, since I wasn't there) and didn't make it apparent to need to stop. It later came to our attention when the police came to the door.

All this to say not all contact is readily apparent over modern radios or rattling cars. In most cases though I would agree the drivers SHOULD know when overtaking and that is why I like using obnoxious lights and a little less 'inviting' posture. In the daytime I set my headlight to super strobe as well. Sometimes it makes people cringe but they stop when they do, so its effective.

stevenw00d

My wife had a guy yesterday hit her car as he pulled into the parking space. He then got out, looked at the damage, backed out, and manage to hit her again as he pulled back into the space. She wasn't there at the time, saw the damage after work, and called to report it. Luckily while she was talking to the cops, a co-worker came by and said that he saw the whole thing. He knew the vehicle and said it is a regular in the lot. Hopefully they are eventually able to find the guy.
Way too many people are just inconsiderate and disrespectful nowadays.

TheManShow

First off I am not introgatting you but have a couple of questions. How are you sure the person operating the motor vechicle was aware he made contact, and damage your bicycle? What lead the the conclusion he was aware?

Two in most states it is like $250.00 damage, or bodly injury.that constitutes feloney hit & run. That bodley injury could be as small as the car brushing up on your side, and breaking the skin.

Be happy you were not injured.

GP

I got hit by a mirror once. I said something to the driver and she told me to **** off and drove off. I figured I wasn't hurt bad enough to risk getting my butt kicked by an old lady so I let it go.

Chris516

Yes, They have thoughtless disregard for other road users. I was hit twice in the past couple years. The first time, the driver had no regard for knocking me into the other lane going the same direction.. The second time, the motorist claimed they didn't see me in the sun. But that motorist paid for the damages to my bike.

jeichelberg87

Please stop. Take the time to research the word(s) you are about to write and make sure you are correctly spelling prior to making your post.

I imagine you meant the word interrogating rather than introgatting. Regardless, I will tell you your next paragraph is practically useless. If you cannot be trusted to research your own writing, your statement about felony hit and run caps at $250.00 might as well be used as TP.

I am sure you are a pleasant sort of fellow. But your posts leave much to be desired as they are very tedious to read. I want to easily understand what you are writing.

TheManShow

Honestly it the internet not everone remembers the skills they learned in school. If you don't comprend what I just said than that is your problem.

I like caps, and will continue using them. I am not working on my PHd in English or trying to pass a profency test to allow me to leav e high school. I only replied to your post because I want you to know i read it.

I am hoping the person who started this thread answers why he believe the guy who clipped him was aware of his actions.

BTW is a 80,000 pound semi bumps a VW Beatle it could be hard for the semi drive to realize it.

jeichelberg87

1) It is not just my problem. I have seen others who have also commented on your failure to proof read your writing;
2) The use of the word "caps," in my post refers to the $250.00 figure you mentioned in your post and not capitalization of letters or words;
3) It now becomes your problem, not mine, as I will no longer respect anything you write as worthy of any attention. Your staunch defense of your rights to be ignorant and remain ignorant are left intact.
Good day.

TheManShow

Like I said I did good enought in english to get out of high school. I never went on to some University as that was not in the cards.

There are educated people with no common sense, I would rather have common sense, some real world life expierence, verses a PHD from Harvard and live in a theoretical world.

At my age this dog is not up to learning to learning new tricks. The skills we learn in life do not stay with us unless they are used & practiced frequently.

I am sure I would have problem today field stripping blind folded, and reassembling an M-14. Have not done that in over 45 years so I would bet I would need the instuctional manual.

Love when you said others do you alway play follower v/s leader.

echale3

TheManShow--the point is not that people can't eventually make some sort of sense of what you are trying to communicate. The point is that if you don't take the time to spell properly, construct a sentence properly, punctuate properly, etc., then your ability to get your point across is compromised. Not taking the time to do all those things could even lead to a complete misunderstanding of what you write.

If nobody cared about the points you were trying to make, nobody would take the time to read your posts, and nobody would notice the spelling/grammar/syntax errors. The fact that somebody commented about the difficulty of understanding what you were trying to get across means that your input is valued, so it would be in your best interest as part of the group to communicate your input effectively and accurately.

79pmooney

[QUOTE=jeichelberg87;18089318]1) It is not just my problem. I have seen others who have also commented on your failure to proof read your writing;
2) The use of the word "caps," in my post refers to the $250.00 figure you mentioned in your post and not capitalization of letters or words;
2) It now becomes your problem, not mine, as I will no longer respect anything you write as worthy of any attention. Your staunch defense of your rights to be ignorant and remain ignorant are left intact.
Good day.[/QUOTE

I read his post and had no trouble "getting" what he was saying. And your 2 (did you mean 3 but didn't catch it on your proof read?) "It now becomes your problem, not mine" - I doubt TheManShow is going to take what you think of him on as his problem.

I have had lifelong typing and proof reading issues. I am quite aware they have cost me jobs, opportunities and the respect of probably more than a few fellow forumites. I've come to accept that is what is. And I am as OK with it as I am sure some here are not.

Ben

TheManShow

I understand there are nit pickers who are grammer & spelling police. Remember in the Marine Corps our fire team got this 8404 FMF Corpsman assigned who was a hill kid from some back water town. The guy was lets say not real smart, did not seem real bright, did not seem real worldly. Honestly it was almost a standing joke how he ever made it through HM School.

His standard answer was Navy was hardup for Corpsmen. Any way the story had a good ending, when the chips were down this odball, remembered everything he learn in HM & Field Medical School. Earning him the title of "Doc", Marines call great corpsman "doc" it was a title earned, not given. He also picked up a couple of Bronze Stars with "V", and a Purple Heart. Forget the guy name, but will never forget his smile.

Chris516

Who cares what his name is. The fact that he chose to serve in the military, along with his performance in the line of duty. Warrants his name not being remembered. He got to do, what I couldn't. Because of my lifelong health issues'. I was told by the U.S. Army Recruiter that I would not be able to join.

ItsJustMe

It's a valid point that if you can't communicate effectively (*) then people take what you have to say less seriously. Many of us will just skip the post entirely after the 3rd or 4th misspelling. Your words are all we have to judge you by on the internet, and if a post is full of misspellings and the like, most people will assume that this is someone not particularly worth listening to and get on to the next thing.

(*) Effective communications does NOT require the reader to expend undue effort to read it. If I have to go over a sentence 3 or 4 times to understand its meaning because the wrong homophones are used, or the sentence structure is really screwy, then it's not effective communications. You've already irritated your reader before they even figure out what you're saying. In many respects, your words are who you are in many situations. If your words demonstrate that you just can't be bothered to even learn to write your own native language correctly, you come across as lazy, stupid, or some combination of the two.

indyfabz

What. Is. This. Thread. About?