Found myself on the hood of a car last Friday, veeery interesting POV I must say! And the lady whose car jumped out in front of me admitted that it was "mostly her fault". Really? What part of "Right-of-Way" don't you understand? (She's french & maybe the laws are different there?) She counters that I should have known that she was going to cross & that I should've slowed down. That's when I decided to get the phone # of an eyewitness & to call a cop to file a report of the incident.

Results: a contusion, a bent fork & destroyed shifter (LBS is still evaluating the rest of the bike for damage.) I finally got her to agree to pay 2/3rds of the repair expenses. (I now know that w/the police report, I could just have insisted she pay 100% but...live&learn eh?

I know that I should feel gratitude that I'm okay but mostly I am just PO'd, this is my only means of transportation & a pricey $900 bike to boot.

The shop guy said he's ordered a Surly fork to replace the one I had (Bianchi Volpe stock fork). He said it'll be an improvement, I wonder why? Less weight?

Was she cute?

Am I the only one who sees the irony of this situation, what with your screen name and all

I do feel bad for you and I think that you should go after her. It's no skin off her back at all if she's insured. Insurance companies rarely argue over small payouts like this.

Yeah. It was clearly her fault all the way. I was 1 car length back doing 15mph in 20ish rushhour traffic. She had a stop sign. She wanted to jet across the road, saw me coming along & figured that she could do it in time. How'd I know this? She kept saying "You were going so fast! You should have seen what I was doing & slowed down." This's why she feels that she believes she should not pay ALL the expenses. The bikeshop owner, the police officer & the eyewitness all told her its her fault. That aggravates me if I dwell on it. Like to say "shut up and suck it up please!"

It's right there in the law. Failure to Yield. For the sake of everyone ELSE on the road, that woman needs some points on her license.

Why don't you just make her pay for the whole thing? If she refuses just get her insurance company involved. They'll pay you, and she'll pay them for years.

It's ridiculous that you should have to pay one cent of the repair bill, sheese, no way is it your fault.

What can I say? I was so relieved that I didn't feel like fighting Kind of "screw this, I just don't want to argue" feeling combined w/ the fact that her car was junk & she looked like she was in rough shape financially. In the moment, I just wanted cooperation so I compromised. After I started walking though I felt pretty disgruntled about it. But I figure I made a deal w/ this person, stupid as it sounds....believe me, I haven't a dollar to spare. Man, I just want my ride back.

Just her unwillingness to accept full responsibility for her actions would be more than enough for me to go after her for every last cent of damages. You're ride-less while she is still driving around in her cage beleiving that you are at least partly to blame for the consequences of her impatience, and your inaction is affirming that. How many broken bones will the next cyclist have to endure so she doesn't have to be inconvenienced?

Go get what is yours, for everyone's sake.

Rent a bike while you wait for yours to be repaired. Hit her with the 2/3 cost of your medical, lost work time, bike rental and bike repair. When she baulks at the cost of the 2/3, she has broken your deal. Get the insurance info off the police report and file a claim for the full amount.

Screw her out of her food coupons.

Get oral sex once a week.

That is a deal to me.

Unless you signed it you didn't agree to anything. If police report says she is at fault, file a claim with her insurance and make them pay for everything.

surly fork = great (from what I've heard)

Oral contracts are worth the paper they are written on. Go for 100%.

I'm sorry you are without a bike. How are you getting around?

Get her for what she really owes you. She needs to pay for her mistake.

Does she agree that if it was her in her car approaching that intersection, that SHE should have "known the person with the stop sign was going to go and slowed down to allow it?" I bet she thinks THAT is just crazy talk.

If her fellatio technique is anything like her driving, could be dangerous. Might end up decapitated!

Seriously, let's take her idiotic attitude to total extremes:

"She should have known I was going to kick in that direction, she should have gotten her head out of the way!"
"She saw me waving the gun around, she should have ducked!"

I swear, people sometimes.

I agree with filing an insurance claim. She hit you. Her fault. Period.

Maybe I missed something, but how does anybody know this from what was posted? I don't know where the OP is, but almost every US jurisdiction these days applies some kind of "comparative fault" theory in negligence cases. Any bicyclist who runs into a car pulling out in front of the bike is going to be accused of having some fault in the accident - "you were going too fast, weren't paying close enough attention, should have been more visible, should have anticipated that she'd pull out, should have maintained your brakes better," should have ..." And if you ran the facts past 100 juries, I'd bet that most of them would find the bike rider at least 1/3 responsible on one theory or another. Given this reality, I can't find great fault with the OP for avoiding the hassle.

Something I'm not clear on: she had stopped at a stop sign and then proceeded, believing she'd have enough time to clear the intersection before you got there, correct? Did you also have a stop sign or stop light?

GCRider, if OP didn't have a stop light or stop sign, would OP still be held partially responsible?

Seriously, coming from experience, stop talking to HER and start talking to her insurance company. They'll be listed on the police report, and BELIEVE ME they will take care of you.

+1

She had a stop sign, the cyclist didn't, the cyclist was going at or below the speed limit. IMHO she's 100% at fault. Even in "comparative fault" states, there is still such a thing as someone being 100% at fault, unless you can be at fault for being on the road at all, or waking up in the morning.

OP, if any of these facts are not true, please correct me, but that sounded like the case from what I gathered from your posts.

Well, most juries are made up of people who are 1) retired, 2) unemployed, or 3) too stupid to think of an excuse to get out of it, so I'm not surprised at your conclusion.

As for the facts, if someone is going straight and has no stop sign, and someone else blows through a stop and hits them, sorry, that is absolutely 100% the fault of the second driver.

As far as a point by point...
1) She admits she saw him, but thought he'd apparently stop to accomodate her
2) If he braked harder, he'd have only done an endo into the car, which may have happened anyway. Bikes stop faster than other vehicular traffic anyway.
3) Don't know the speed limit, but most are over 25, and most cyclists spend most of their time under that.

That he should have any culpability in this is a joke.

As for the facts, if someone is going straight and has no stop sign, and someone else blows through a stop and hits them, sorry, that is absolutely 100% the fault of the second driver.

The one thing that I think was a bit different in this situation was, the driver blew through the stop, and the cyclist hit her -- not the other way around.