I was behind an Escalade this morning in a left turn lane waiting for the light to change. The light changed, the Caddy started to turn, I put my weight on the pedal and took off behind her and the driver slams on the brakes as the rear wheels cleared the crosswalk! I grabbed for the brakes but still barely bumped the back of the Escalade. Then, the driver puts the thing in REVERSE! As she backs up onto my front tire, I pounded on the back glass. She stopped the car, got out and walked around to see if I was hurt. I was fine, and pulled the front tire out from the bumper. The front tire was cut just a bit, but the wheel spun true.
The lady started gushing that it was all her fault, that she was going straight through and started moving when the light changed, but her wheels were turned to the left and she was in the left turn lane! Anyway, I showed her the 1-1/2" crease in the bumper of her Escalade and she decides to call the cops.
I tell her to go ahead and turn left through the light, and pull in the bank parking lot so we can talk to the law, and she gets in the caddy and pulls out in front of traffic and goes straight through the light that she already knew she was in the turn lane of!!
I figure I'm screwed, because as far as I know, if you hit someone from the rear in this state, it's your fault - period.
So the cop shows up, reinforces that it's the woman's fault, and tells her he will write it up if she REALLY wants it on her insurance. She calls the hubby, he tells her to forget it and be glad I'm not hurt, and I ride off with a small abrasion on my front tire and she will have to pay (I guess) $1000 - $1500 to get a bumper for the Escalade if hubby decides to fix it!
Ha! Feel the sting of my 30 year old Araya rim and despair, foul Caddy SUV!

Glad she didn't get up to ramming speed.

Some drivers.

"Oh wait, I'm in the wrong lane! Should I just go around the block? Naw, I'll jam up traffic like an idiot, that way I'll save a minute or two."

Nice story there.

Had something similar happen when this little sporty Mercedes decided to first basically force a merge into my lane (I was in the left lane after passing through an underpass so I had no option to be in the far right) then at a light he quickly slams on his brakes and I hit his rear bumper doing maybe 8-10mph. I fall over, get up, a kind pedestrian asked if I was okay and I just rode off without a word as the guy jumps out of the car and checks his bumper (There was no damage and I didn't care for an argument)

But your story is pretty awesome considering that your wheel basically came out unscathed and left a bump in her freaking fender. All hail old rims, they just dont build em like they used to. And kudos to the Police for not being jerks.

Glad you're okay. Also I think she owes you a tire.

It was a great day to be Karl, so Karl didn't push nothin'!

I am also glad you're OK, I once hit car with a motorcycle, he tried to go through a roundabout when I had right of way, then stopped in front of me. I basically parked the bike in his front fender. After the shouting and screaming, which calmed down to exchanging information, I pulled the bike out, examined the wheel and tire, fine, examined the plastic fender, minor scratching. Said "See ya!" to the car driver, who was looking at a bout $4-$5,000 damage to his car, ( i had manged to cream 3 panels ) and rode off.

I wouldn't ride (or drive) off from an accident where there was anything substantial in property damage - at that point there's nothing preventing the driver from calling the cops, claiming that you did a hit and run, and by the time you get to tell your side of the story everybody else in the world is convinced that you were the culprit and won't believe anything you say. Get a police report, or at a minimum a signed statement from the driver acknowledging that he was at fault in the accident.

OP, sounds like an awesome outcome! I once tapped the rear bumper of a car with my bike tire, but the driver didn't follow up by putting the car in reverse.

So how many times have you seen people backing up the emergency lane of a freeway just because they missed the exit? Never enters their mind to proceed to the next exit and turn around.

Glad you are OK. The driver should still be ticketed although I am not sure what law would apply.

I think that's a Kentucky thing haha

That's a great story, especially with all the harm those bloated boats have caused lately.

Nope I've seen it here... driver backing up long blind ramp to get back on the freeway. I couldn't believe it. Hey, maybe they were from Kentucky, eh?

oh wait, nope I remember seeing a mini-van doing it. Sorry kentuckyers

It seems no one takes their driving mistaken errors anymore, I see people holding up traffic because they almost missed a turn or are in the wrong lane on a busy day. If they would just keep going and turn around somewhere less obtrusive we'd have less traffic jams/accidents.

I don't think bumpers run up to a $1,500, and I don't much like dumb drivers but I'm disappointed in your gloating over ruining someone's day, especially during the holidays. Glad you and your bike didn't take too much damage, though.

Nope they have it up here in Canada also. stupidity is worldwide!

she ruined her own day. There are a lot of drivers that need to have their reverse gear disabled, I have had a lot of problems in parking lots with that. Never been hit, but that's only because of quick thinking on my part. If a bumper cover needs to be replaced, it can easily cost $1500 or more.

albert, UH is right; she did this herself. And too many people use "the holidays" as an excuse to be stupid, rude, arrogant and condescending. Sometimes all at once...!

Sure, she was apologetic... until she saw HER damage, then it was an ISSUE. It was a truly appropriate slapdown to a foolish driver.

The cost of the bumper IS an assumption I made based on the incredibly inflated price of a complete Escalade(in my personal opinion). I'm constantly amazed at the utter lack of a sense of humor on some internet forums, and the ability to misinterpret ANYTHING so as to become offended(this would ,in part, refer to you). I don't think I was in any way responsible for ruining this person's day. I was merely amused by the ironic turn of my 30 year old bicycle damaging the caddy and coming out virtually unscathed. I thought it would make an amusing story. Levity -obviously not for everyone. Happy Holidays!

After being thrown completely over one car, and hugged the hood of another to keep from getting sucked under the front wheel with my bike, and after replacing two front wheels and one fork due to motorist stupidity, I can sympathize, and can see the humor in a bicycle causing more damage to a car than the car caused to the bicycle. The only negative car-bike interaction I had during the year that I was living in Bend, OR (an awesome town, btw) involved some middle-aged d0uche in his midlife crisis d0uche-mobile merging into the turn lane, through the bike lane that I was currently occupying. He pushed me over into the turn lane, I yelled, and his Porche received a 6" scrape along the passenger door from my left pedal. We both pulled over to discuss it, and the driver was soooooo apologetic that I calmed down, agreed not to call the cops, and let him go. After all, I was fine, my bike was fine, and he had to pay to fix his Porsche's paint job out of pocket.

Except, OMG! I just realized that was the same pedal that failed a month later, sheared off at the crank and wrecked me hard! Put me on my back at 25 mph in traffic, with road rash, bruises, and tore up my leg with the chainring which left me limping for two weeks. At the time I'd blamed Kona for their crappy pedals, but I hadn't made the connection between the d0uche's Porsche merging into me, hitting my left pedal, and my left pedal failing shortly thereafter. Whoa!

Anyway, If I were you, knowing what I know now, I would've made the motorist buy my a new tire, maybe even a wheel. That bumper cover only costs a few hundred dollars (unless it was some aftermarket job), so let's hope that the labor charges run into the quadruple digits. Maybe then she will learn to watch behind her when she backs up, either in her mirror, or in the backup camera that all escalades come with (I drove a bunch of the behemoths when I worked valet in Tahoe, they've all got 'em).

This is one of the reasons I usually pass the stopped cars in turn lanes and wait for the green light in front of them. That way, they all know I'm there. The other reason is I don't want to get rear ended. I was told in a bicycle safety class this is wrong but I feel safer doing it this way.

I don't know how it is in your jurisdiction, but in Ontario, Canada, if a driver is in reverse generally they are at fault:
https://www.ibc.ca/en/Car_Insurance/d...tion-Rules.pdf clause 19(a)

And where I live, it's generally illegal to reverse on a freeway:
https://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/sta...8_e.htm#s157s1

Car v. Car in my most recent case, but it was my cycling habit that saved me from damage.

Driver behind me wasn't paying attention and just slammed 35mph into the arse end of SuperJeep at a stoplight. My Thule Parkway was attached to the hitch at the time, and she totally obliterated the front end of her Forester. Total damage to SuperJeep: Matching paint marks on the bumper where her car was wrapped around the hitch post.
She bought me a new bike rack and we called it even. She had to replace the entire front end of her car. Easily a $4000 job.