RobertFrapples

If a driver was passing you and turned his head to look at you as he was passing and he hit another car, would you stop or keep going?

DallasSoxFan

Stop. Give witness info and/or contact info to both drivers.

10 Wheels

Stop if you actually saw the crash.

grinningfool

Keep going. The in-attentive driver will likely try to blame you, and if he gets a good lawyer, you could find yourself having to mount a defense from a lawsuit. Get out of there fast.

AlmostTrick

^^^This. For me in my area anyways. Bikes in the road are fairly rare in the auto centric suburbs. Everyone involved might try to find some way to blame the cyclist, even the cops I'm afraid. If I was in an area where bikes were more common and accepted, then I'd stop.

One morning just as I was turning right into my workplace driveway on my bike, I witnessed a driver get rear ended and then hit by an oncoming truck while waiting to turn left into the same driveway. (only thirty or so feet to my left... it was quite exciting) Later one of my co-workers tried to say it was somehow my fault. He was half joking but still the thought was there and it wouldn't have been if I was in my car.

AdamDZ

Yup. Screw it, this is litigious society and I don't have the time and money for courts. You don't even know for 100% if he was looking at you.

Adam

genec

Stop... you are a witness... and for any negative that one driver may heap on you, the other will probably take away.

ItsJustMe

I'd stop and wait to see if witnesses were needed. I'm not too worried about being blamed; I was once hit in my car by a guy watching an ambulance go by - was the ambulance at fault?

AlmostTrick

Of course not. But auto centric society believes that ambulances have more right to the road and lane than bikes do. No one will say the ambulance should have been on the sidewalk, yet even cops have told cyclists exactly that. The actual laws will only save me once I'm in court with a lawyer. No thanks.

The fact is, if I was the only witness I'd stay. But if there are plenty of other witnesses, I'm gone.

Arcanum

Half of you guys sound like the callous "cagers" you hate so much. "This might cause trouble for me, so screw that guy."

MNBikeguy

If many of you would keep going for fear of being "blamed" you may want to check out a basic community ed course on legal liability.
Fear is a waste of energy when it can be replaced by simple knowledge.

Kimmitt 

Dude, have you ever been sued? Believe me, once you've established that no one is seriously injured, avoiding a lawsuit should be your very first priority.

That said, I don't live in bicycle-hating suburbs, so I'd hang out to the extent that my schedule allowed.

Kimmitt 

I'm sorry, but it doesn't matter if you're at fault or not -- it matters whether or not you'll be spending twenty thousand on a lawyer to keep you from having to be at fault.

MNBikeguy

I'm not disagreeing this is a litigious society, but ridiculous lawsuits like this is what your insurance company is legally obligated to defend you from.

genel

As sympathetic as I am to splitting, I suspect that I would stay. I'd want to be sure that the police had my statement that I was following all traffic laws at the time.

wolfchild

I would keep going. This has nothing to do with me. The driver needs to be watching the road.

10 Wheels

Change Positions: Your were the one hit.
Would you not want the bicycle rider to stop as a witness?

wolfchild

If I witnessed a pedestrian getting hit, or if I witnessed a cyclist getting hit, or if I witnessed some idiot running a red light and causing an accident, then YES I would stop and call a police and I would be very willing to explain what I've just seen happen. The situation that OP is talking about is completly different.

wolfchild

How do you know if the COP would believe your side of the story ? Especially if the driver(s) involved would try to twist the whole story and turn it against you ?

njkayaker

I sure hope you (and others) never complain about witnesses not coming forward to help you. Because, that would be, like, hypocritical.

(Keep in mind that the cyclist may be helping the other guy.)

halltp

A few years ago I was replacing a tube in my rear tire on the side of the road. A woman drove up to me, and stopped while still in the road. She asked if I needed any help, which I thought was nice, but I thought it was dumb for her to stop. Right after I said no thanks, another woman driving a big pickup truck slammed into the back of the first woman's car. The truck wasn't in bad shape, but the car was most likely totaled.

I stayed until the cops came, because I sorta felt bad for both of the women (though the truck driver obviously wasn't looking where she was going). The cop didn't really care to ask me anything though.

It all happened maybe 20 feet from me, and was crazy to watch. Afterward I got a little mad at that first woman for stopping, what if the truck driver had swerved to miss her and run me over?

Ever since then, I get sorta mad when people break the law while on the road because they're trying to be nice. I just heard some woman at work the other day complaining about someone waving her on and then getting hit. Don't try to be so nice, just follow the law.

spyro1123

Well if you aren't there to defend yourself you can be sure they will. Also you better hope no one can identify you...

JeffS

In a minor accident it simply doesn't matter.

spyro1123

Woman who stopped was reacting to what she perceived as an emergency, truck following was going faster than the driving conditions allowed. Law breaking makes me mad too but blame the correct person.

halltp

There was obviously no emergency. She slowed to a stop and asked me calmly if I needed anything. She didn't think it was an emergency. That's even more of a reason for her to pull off on the shoulder before she stopped.

Certainly the truck driver was to blame as well, but both of them caused the accident in different ways.