Originally Posted by
gadabout007
I ride every now and then with a lawyer... he's a property lawyer not a personal injury lawyer, but his advice to me after hearing the story was... if you hit the deck during the accident and have injuries, stay down and wait for the ambulance. Accept treatment and go to the hospital if they ask you to. Never tell the driver or witness' you're okay even if you are. There may be injuries you're not aware of. In my case it was bruised/inflamed kidneys and almost a month off the bike. Had I handled things differently, I could have also got some pain and suffering damages. Which I would have been okay with since the driver tried to lie to the cops and place blame on me.
Makes sense - when the adrenaline passes, you start feeling the pain.
I was hit twice by men who were riding small children (once two, once one). Didn't want to traumatize the kids so I jumped right up both times, laughed and waved, like I was making a prank with their dad.
Once by a man who was driving an obviously pregnant woman. Did the same thing, jumped right up, said I'm OK, but they behaved like ********. Still didn't want to bother with the police - no damage to me or the bike that time, so I just rode on.