Advocacy & Safety - my first accident

Guess I was naive...didn't think it would happen to me...but it did. I was commuting back from work. Had a nice ride to work from Performance Bike in Cary to right by the Trek store in North Raleigh. But on the way home, I was coming down Millbrook road toward Six Forks and got run off the road by a truck. Wow that hurt. I was going pretty fast too. Road rash from my right hip all the way up to the top of my right shoulder. Bloodied my elbows and knees. However...thank goodness I had purchased a quality helmet...the back is completely smashed. Had i not had it on....I would easily have fractured my skull...occipital lobe to be specific. Just looking at that helmet made me cringe. I was doing about 25 when I flew.
The bike is in the shop now, getting repaired. Looking like 300 or so in damage to the bike. But honestly...the thing that makes me really angry is not that I wrecked, nor that a truck ran me off the road. What really really ticks me off....is the guy did it on purpose. Got an excellent look at his face...not a plate number though. He pulled up beside me as i hit the bottom of the hill. Honked...even waved...then swerved right into my lane trying to scare me....it worked. I swerved...hit the spot where the asphalt dipped to the culvert section and flew. Of course...he didn't stop. Now my bike is all jacked up...and I am sore. However...when the bike is fixed..I shall be back on the road again.
Oh...before you ask...why didn't I call the police.....no point. The truck was long gone and all i had was a vague description. What could they have done? Nada. But, I wil lbe back....and on that road....maybe..I'll get lucky and spot him. Then.....who knows.

You should and still can call the police. Describe everything you know.
Al

I concur with Al. Leaving the scene of an accident is a crime, even if it's your word against his about the rest.

There must have been witnesses. See if you can get a good accident lawyer, maybe you'll collect. Not that you're about money, but that might be the best way to teach this guy a lesson.

Just don't spend any money of your own.

I agree that there is not much the police can do if this was a single offense - but I would still report it.
For all you know this guy is a serial offender and the police are already looking for him. Every extra detail coming from each witness can help them catch him.

It's still worth a police report. If the guy is in the habit of "scaring" cyclists they may need to establish a track record or pattern to catch/convict him. The next cyclist he plays with may end up dead.

I spoke with a buddy of mine on the local force. He told me there is no known incidents with a driver of the vehicle and person i described and that while filing areport would be the right thing to do...finding that particular truck and driver in a city of half a mil.......no use, much less pressing charges on a he said he said issue. Gotta have prooof. On the local forums...I provided a description of what I saw to other cyclists and hopefully they'll keep a lookout for him. However...do note....I will be riding that road again as soon as my bike is fixed and will be on the lookout for him myself...have a tastly little surprise for him.

file a police report. just do it!
i have been in simular situation and feel for you. report what you can and include driver discription. you eye to eyed driver, right?
hope you heal fast!
tomg

For God's Sake! File a Police Report!

file a report.
If he does it to someone else and the cops remember your wreck you can ID him.

...if someone did this with similar results and you were in a car, would you file a report?

seriously. file a report. it won't take long, and you're really hurting the cycling community by not reporting things like this.

File a report. To not file a report is totally irresponsible.

Have you filed the report yet?

You mean "my first assault".

OK OK....sorry...didn't look at it in the respect of the larger picture, and effects on the cycling community.......report will be filed ASAP.

Sorry to hear this.

I live in Falls River and commute in that area every day. Luckily I haven't encountered a driver that aggressive yet.

Get photos of your injuries before they heal. Photos of the damaged bike, too, if it's not too late. And the helmet. Keep all of your receipts. You never know if and when you might wish you had evidence.


I spoke with a buddy of mine on the local force. He told me there is no known incidents with a driver of the vehicle and person i described and that while filing areport would be the right thing to do...finding that particular truck and driver in a city of half a mil.......no use, much less pressing charges on a he said he said issue. Gotta have prooof. So an elderly woman is returning home from the grocery store and is mugged by a thug who beats her with a baseball bat, putting her in the hospital. And your cop buddy would say "No use pressing charges, it's a he said she said, gotta have proof"?

Right.

This was not a fender bender, it was an assault with a deadly weapon, and while I can appreciate the difficulty involved in getting a conviction (assuming there were no potential witnesses to the assault), I don't believe for one moment that the local cop shop would shrug their collective shoulders and go back to their donuts if it was an elderly woman mugged with a baseball bat.

Talk with the cops, as high up the chain of command as you need to go, until one of them gets that this was an assault, and not a fender bender.

By the way, this is an example of an incident where I would say that "accident" is a misnomer. This was no accident. You were assaulted with a deadly weapon.

Hope you heal soon, and glad it wasn't worse.

sorry guy but +1 to the above
please explain how this was an accident?
not recless/negligent driving

sorry guy but +1 to the above
please explain how this was an accident?
not recless/negligent driving

I'm going to smack the dumb out of you.

First of all....it was an accident because I wrecked. He nor his vehicle ever actually made contact with my person or bike. He just swerved toward me and then back into his lane ( about halfway into my lane) in an attempt to scare me...which by the way worked. when I swerved I hit the drainage dropoff from the asphalt and flew. Therefore, he has plausible deniability as far as assault is concerned because he never touched me and there were no witnesses. The first witness came along about 40 sec later and the guy was already gone. I was just laying on the side of the road. IF I could ID the guy....can't prove he swereved at me. Therefore, according to the police....I had an accident. I know what the truth is, but my spokes are twisted up on the one. Maybe I should just get a helmet cam. Filing the report anyway.

Actually, if he swerved to scare you, it meets the definition of assault, or at least battery. If someone points a gun at you as a joke, for example , even unloaded, it's technically battery with a weapon.

I hope you did file the report, even if it doesn't do anything else, it will be brought into the statistics which help planners decide on infrastructure items.

All that said, welcome to that other group of cyclists, the ones who've crashed. :p There are really only two types of cyclist, really, the ones who have crashed, and the ones who haven't.......yet. ;)


First of all....it was an accident because I wrecked. He nor his vehicle ever actually made contact with my person or bike. He just swerved toward me and then back into his lane ( about halfway into my lane) in an attempt to scare me...which by the way worked. when I swerved I hit the drainage dropoff from the asphalt and flew. Therefore, he has plausible deniability as far as assault is concerned because he never touched me and there were no witnesses. The first witness came along about 40 sec later and the guy was already gone. I was just laying on the side of the road. IF I could ID the guy....can't prove he swereved at me. Therefore, according to the police....I had an accident. I know what the truth is, but my spokes are twisted up on the one. Maybe I should just get a helmet cam. Filing the report anyway.

There are really only two types of cyclist, really, the ones who have crashed, and the ones who haven't.......yet. ;)

May be true, but this statement bugs me.

The first time I heard something similar was when I was 19, sitting on a motorcycle talking to some friends. A girl pulled up on a motorcycle and in the course of our conversation made the same comment about motorcyclists.

Later that night I had my first motorcycle wreck and have lived with the compressed vertebrae every day for the 15 years since.

First of all....it was an accident because I wrecked.There's a perennial debate here, with some people arguing that there are few true "accidents," because almost every crash is rooted in somebody's negligence. I don't subscribe to that theory. Instead, i argue that "accident" means the crash was the unintended consequence of somebody's negligence-- it was "accidental"-- as distinguished from a crash which was the intended result of an assault-- an "intentional" act.

Your crash was no "accident." It was the result of deliberate act intended, at a minimum, to scare you, and even perhaps intended to cause you to crash.



He nor his vehicle ever actually made contact with my person or bike. He just swerved toward me and then back into his lane ( about halfway into my lane) in an attempt to scare me...which by the way worked. when I swerved I hit the drainage dropoff from the asphalt and flew. Therefore, he has plausible deniability as far as assault is concerned because he never touched meActually, (assuming that he were apprehended and charged), he has no "plausible deniability." In civil law (i.e., if you were to file a lawsuit against him), "assault" is an act intended to frighten the person assaulted, and by definition does not include actual physical contact with the person assaulted (that would be "battery."). All that's required is that the person commit some act with the intent of causing you to fear imminent harmful or offensive physical contact, and that the attempt is successful in causing you to believe that harmful or offensive physical contact is imminent. Because you were actually injured, even without actual physical contact, I think that may make this an assault and a battery.

In North Carolina, the criminal code merges assault with battery into the same offense. That is, there's a criminal violation regardless of whether the person is assaulted or battered. The North Carolina criminal code states:


§ 14‑33. Misdemeanor assaults, batteries, and affrays, simple and aggravated; punishments.

(a) Any person who commits a simple assault or a simple assault and battery or participates in a simple affray is guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor.

***

(c) Unless the conduct is covered under some other provision of law providing greater punishment, any person who commits any assault, assault and battery, or affray is guilty of a Class A1 misdemeanor if, in the course of the assault, assault and battery, or affray, he or she:

(1) Inflicts serious injury upon another person or uses a deadly weapon;

Use a deadly weapon in committing an assault-- an act intended to cause the person assaulted to fear imminent harmful contact-- and it's a Class A1 misdemeanor. Assault somebody without a deadly weapon, and it's still a Class 2 misdemeanor.

If the guy who assaulted you were put on trial, and used "there was no physical contact" as a defense, he'd be convicted and sentenced to doing time.



and there were no witnesses.That's a problem in getting a conviction. But it doesn't mean that you therefore weren't assaulted. Think back to my elderly woman example-- there are no witnesses in her mugging either. So does that mean she wasn't mugged? Of course not. Does that mean the cops would go back to their donuts? Of course not. They'd go out and apprehend the guy. And they shouldn't be giving you less consideration just because you're a young, athletic man on a bike. Maybe they can't get a conviction without witnesses, but at a minimum, they should be having "the talk" with this guy about his "hobby."


The first witness came along about 40 sec later and the guy was already gone. I was just laying on the side of the road. IF I could ID the guy....can't prove he swereved at me. Therefore, according to the police....I had an accident.Lazy police. Yes, you can't "prove" he swerved at you, without some kind of corroborating evidence. That doesn't mean he didn't assault you. Or maybe that elderly woman in my example just had an "accident" too, eh?


I know what the truth is, but my spokes are twisted up on the one. Maybe I should just get a helmet cam. Filing the report anyway.I'd still go up the chain of command until somebody gets it. But before you do that, you have to understand that you didn't have an "accident."

And yes, a helmet cam would give you corroborating evidence if something like this should ever happen again.

Doesn't matter; put in the report. Even if they can't get him on this right now, it means that it might come back later to haunt the guy, and also it'll go into the planners reports on where some dangerous places on the roads are that need upgrading.

Didn't mean to post here.

You did not have an accident. An accident is like when I hit a pothole wrong and went over. This was a deliberate attempt to cause injury.

That was assault with a deadly weapon and leaving the scene of an accident for crying out loud. Leaving the scene usually results in the revocation of a drivers license if found and convicted.

Chances are you will see this joker again at some time. Fate works that way. I would make that road my official every day riding road and my eyes would be peeled for his truck.

To quote your signature "You enter this world armed only with your mind...". When riding around aggressive drivers, I armed myself with a little Beretta .22.

I keep a close eye on people who drive by me suspiciously, and I automatically look at their plates each time. Having worked in law enforcement for several years, this is a habit of mine.

Several years ago I was returning from a 100 kilometer ride when I saw a couple high school kids stopped at a light looking at me kind of "funny". I knew something was up, and I made a mental picture of the driver and the passenger. Sure enough, a few minutes later the car passes me slowly, and they hurl bottles, trash, and even eggs at me. The car passed by, and I saw the plate. I have the number memorized to this day.

I called the local department and talked to the sergeant, he sent a man to meet me at my home (I worked for the county). I filled out a report for vehicular assault and hit and run (the car bumped me onto the sidewalk as they were throwing things out at me). Running the license plate indicated that the car was the same make and color as the one I saw, and the address was only half a mile from where the incident occurred.

I rode along with the officer to the address, and the car was in the driveway. We knocked on the door, which was answered by the 16 year old driver's mother. Needless to say, she was shocked at the news, and looked ready to strangle her son. Her son's friend happened to be there as well. I identified both of them, and they were both taken to the city police department to be booked.

Luckily for me, there was no damage to myself or to my person, but I pressed charges against the driver and the passenger, and both were convicted. The kid's insurance company gave me a $1000 check, and had me sign a release.

I got in the habit of wearing a badge on a chain underneath my jersey. It works wonders when a belligerent driver sees it. They go from smoking mad "I'm gonna kill you" to "oh my God, I'm so sorry" quicker than I can say "pull the f*** over right now!!". I laugh now when I remember it, sadly it's happened at least a dozen times.

If and when an incident like this happens, always file a report. In most cases you have 24 hours to do it. It's always possible that a police officer has seen this vehicle and/or it's driver before. You may see the him again yourself, and he may do the same thing again, but since you didn't file a report for the previous incident, there will be no proof or record of it ever having happened.

why swerve...hit your brakes and he'll fly right by you and it'll give you the chance to get his plate number as well. Sorry but the actual wreck was your fault for choosing the wrong thing to do, you NEVER swerve off the road if you have the option to hit your brakes and prevent the same problem. I haven't come across a time when I needed to swerve off the road, then again I commute mainly on "city" streets and therefore there are always plenty of people around to witness if something ever happened to me.

You are still better off reporting this to the police, and should've called them at the scene, of course it won't get you any money but it will give the police added charges to file on the guy if he is caught. And technically I believe you can use the guy who showed up 40 seconds later as a witness to if anything you lying beaten on the ground. Of course it's too late for that unless you got his information.