Originally Posted by
treehog59
I'm sorry to hear about your accident.
I suggest getting a lawyer.
I was hit by truck last year. I wanted to do the right thing and just get my bike replaced. I tried working with the company that the guy who hit me worked for but they were complete a((holes. I called, faxed, for 3 weeks with these nitwits. All I wanted was to have my bike replaced. When they found out how much my carbon frame bike would cost to replace I think the were shocked. I guess they thought I was riding a Huffy.
I hired a lawyer that is a cyclist. He has handled several bike cases. I ended up getting more than I had originally asked for and it cost the a**holes twice as much as it would have if they would have settled in the beginning.
Keep a record of every event, encounter, phone call, messages you left, calls that were not returned, report, fax, email, etc. Dates, times. A month from now it will be difficult to remember what happened when.
Get a lawyer and let him/her take care of it. I wasted a lot of time at work and home.
I've talked with 2 attorneys - one taht I really didn't feel comfortable with (they kept focusing on the money angle, and not my real concern, which is current/long-term injury and my bike). The second was very thorough, and personally responded with an e-mail follow-up of all the things he suggested.No solicitation, no pressure, just some good advice. One thing he mentioned was keeping a nightly journal of what's going on physically - do I sleep OK (no, I don't - I wake up 3-4 times a night, and it's hell to turn over in bed), when do I get cleared to get back on the bike or resume other activities, etc. So, I've put together a folder with originals and copies of everything from the ER, and will have the accident report, photos, bike shop report, etc. As part of the journal, I'm also going to keep track of what it's costing me to drive in and park at work. Between parking, tolls and gas cost, it's about $30 every day that I can't ride the bike.
Again, I don't know if I'm going to file a suit or not, but I am going to keep extremely good records of everything that's going on as a result of this. My wife is even pushing me to just buy a new bike now (we can afford it) because she doesn't trust the frame now. If we get comped for the cost of the old bike, great, but my safety is the more important thing.