UGASkiDawg

Riding down the road tonight on the way to my Wednesday night group ride. It looked like it might rain so I was wearing my clear lenses in my shades. I am going about 25 down the road and I see this jeep pull up to a stop sign on a side street. I make eye contact with the driver and keep hammering...he pulls out right in front of me I grab a handful of both brakes (too much rear as it turns out...lesson learned) and t-bone right into the driver side door and smash my cheek against his driver side window I never hit the turf as I popped out of the pedals and and had slowed enough that all it did was shock me. A bus driver has seen the whole thing and called the cops. I was pretty well recovered and nursing a sore wrist, cheek and checking my bike out when the ambulance, fire truck and police car showed up. Everyone was aking me questions and I was thinking....I'm gonna miss my group ride you morons shut and let me go. The guys and his young wife are super apolgetic and andworried about me and all I can think about is can I ride tonight. Bike seemed to be okay and I had sore wrist, jammed finger and bruised cheek. I told the ambulance I was fine waited for the cop to ticket the guy and rode off. Missed my group so I rode a 60 minutes TT around the park and the bike seemed fine. It is Litespeed but I will take the bike itn the shop and have hem take off the carbon fork and check the steerer for damage even though it rode fine after the crash. Scared the he double hockey sticks out of me but al I could think of was "I am going to miss my ride dammit"

Szczuldo

why'd you let the driver off with only a ticket? chances are something got messed up but you don't realize it yet. I had a crash a couple weeks ago and only now realized that my rear axle is bent very slightly (can't feel it but rear wheel felt odd). I was fixing a flat today and was spinning my rear wheel and it looked like my cassette was moving slightly and within 2 minutes I found out I am in need of a new axle. Well hopefully you'll be able to write any damages to that drivers expenses but I doubt it now since there is no way to prove when those things happened.

I've had too many close calls with drivers being idiotic in their decisions to make moves when faced with a cyclist to feel sympathy for any driver who would hit me. These moves they would normally not do if the cyclist is replaced by a car. Some people feel the need to prove to themselves that cars are faster than bikes and they will do almost anything to prove it, even if that means running you off the road. Don't be lenient on drivers who collide with you. If you had a stop sign at that intersection, then you really have no case otherwise you should've taken any possible damages into affect.

Ralleh

I bet he can track the guy down later through the city if he got a ticket without too much trouble.

Szczuldo

well at that point it just might be hard to prove that the damage was done in that incident. But if you were going slow enough i guess damage to bike would be minimal, but check your crankarm and rear derailleur very carefully since minimal damage to those parts could cause big headaches in the long run.

UmneyDurak

Sore wrist.... Check make sure it's not fractured. You T-boned a car, I sure wouldn't trust a fork after that.

trek1

25mph and only a sore wrist/cheek, I would say you are not the norm for sure and extremely lucky.

Farby

x1,000000
Last week I got tossed from my bike at like 15, 16 mph.. sore arm, thought nothing of it at first. Then woke up in the middle of the night and my arm was pounding. Sure enough I fractured my radius.
Go to the doc!

UGASkiDawg

I wasn't going 25 when I hit him...I had grabbed the brakes hard...I can't have been going more than 10 mph

What was I supposed to do.....handcuff him

The cops came they ticketed him, the ambulance came and checked me out and asked if I needed to go the hospital.....I said I didn't and I don't so....

I got all of his insurance info and I will get the bike checked out.

I don't have any sympathy for what he did he should have been paying more attention. On the other hand, I've been at fault in an ACCIDENT before so there was no need to be a dick about it. He admitted his fault to the cop so assuming I need something his insurance will pay.

sonnyred

It was good he was ticketed, but without an accident report, even though he gave a statement to the officer, you have no real documentation that he was liable. See if the officer made an incident report, and put the drivers comments in the notes of the call. A ticket just punishes a person for violating a traffic statute. An accident report would document that he admitted fault, and it would be used if at a later date the driver changes his story, which people tend to do after they think about things for awhile. Our department allows delayed reports, especially if initially there was an officer dispatched to the crash, and now you need documentation for insurance purposes.
Sonny Red

'flyer

You win the "Advice of the Day" award.
OP was a very lucky (so far) dude!

UGASkiDawg

Holding the accident report in my hands.....he couldn't write a ticket for being involved and at fault in an accident without an accident report. The only law he broke was pulling out in front of a a moving vehicle which had the right of way. He stopped at the stop sign...he just pulled out in front of me. If I hadn't hit him then no law was broken. But thanks for the advice!