Commuting - Who would have been responsible?

This evening as I was getting on the bus downtown, there was an employee from the bus company that was directing bus traffic. This guy decided to give me a hand in securing my bike in the bike rack. He slammed the brace down on my front fender, as opposed to setting down on the tire. My first thought was ouch - that is going to break my fender.

As it turns out there was not any damage at all, but it got me to thinking. If this guy had broken the fender, what would I have done. Fact is I'm not sure. Part of me says accidents happen, he was just trying to be helpful. It would not have been a big deal. Another part of me says, I didn't ask for help, he was negligent and and the bus company would have been responsible for making me whole.

Given you found yourself in a similiar situation (or have actually lived it), what would you have done?

I almost always reject such offers of help. If someone starts to "help" without asking, I'll ask them to stop. I always assume the samaritan knows nothing of the care and feeding of bicycles.

In such a case where that happened and said employee broke my fender (or damaged the bicycle in other ways) I would get the employee's name and/or badge number, and complain to the transit authority at my next opportunity.

bus systems around here have a policy not to help you, even if you ask for help.

If it did happen to me, i'd probably get the employee's name and call the transit people. I'd probably just tell them about the incident and mention that the fenders were only $25 and see if they offer to buy a new set. I probably wouldn't push the issue too hard....but I'd give them the oppertunity to do the right thing.

What Becca said. A polite "no thank you" would have been a better option here. The fact that this guy meant well doesn't automatically make him competent.

He was well-meaning, but you'll have to beware of that.

given the question is what if, after the guy helped ... I'd say that given he's a bus company employee assisting with the flow of bus traffic, that is, he's trying to move things along, and acting in his job capacity, you could file a claim for damage with the bus company. In the case of a regular "good Samaritan" ... regular citizen helping ... it would be just accidents happen and no claim on anyone.

0.02 is all ... this is probably worth less.

You did technically allow him to help you (hard to really prove otehrwise) unless you shoutd a big NO!!!! before he did anything. So I would think it would come down to your responsibility. If the other person was a good guy then he/she may offer to pay for it but I think the first reaction on their part would be "FU I was helping you you ungrateful..."

I believe that a company is generally liable for damages caused by employees on the job - especially when performing job related duties. It certainly sounds like the employee was performing a job related duty so they would probably owe you for the fender. collecting might be another matter and $25 is hardly worth the trouble to fight about.