Rear Ended at speed today.
 

Add me to the list of those that have been hit. Hit and run actually. I was tooling along in the right lane at about 20mph and next thing I know-BAM- and I'm sliding along in the left lane. This is a 6 lane city street. I had a PBW flasher going on the rear but I should have had a mirror. Bike took the brunt of the impact, wheel taco'd and rear triangle tweaked. I got road rash and bruises. Helmet has a nice dent but did it's job.

Think I'm going to just drive in to work tomorrow, get a mirror and safety vest this weekend, then back on the bike Monday.

Really pisses me off. I had just got that 3 speed together and was enjoying the heck out of it.

EMSA was pretty lackadaisical about the whole deal, and one of the cops was a bit of a dick, making smarmy comments which amounted to I'm an idiot for being in the street on my bike.

Oh well, I love my rides.

edit: added photo of the aftermath.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=275379

I am buying some safety green shirts....

Ouch. Glad you're OK at least.

Thank goodness you'll be okay. Gear can be fixed and replaced. I'm sorry your ride got jacked up though.

You know, this is why I went ahead and bought a GoPro camera. If you could have captured the tag, then you would have been able to recover the stuff they damaged. What kind of asshat rear-ends someone on a bike, and takes off? :mad:

And they would have been in hot water too. Dick Tracy would have had to actually do his job instead of adding insult to injury.

Try to keep the wounds clean and dry, You'll probably need some Aleve in the morning. :)

Glad your ok, people suck.

Dude, where was you when you got hit? Racking my brain and can only come up with either downtown or somewhere along 71st...

Could have been worse- LEO could've given you a citation. I used to have Bike Soup (Paul Tay) as a 'friend' on facebook and remember him posting all kinds of advocacy stuff- including that there are ordinances on the books prohibiting riding on the sidewalks and the streets. I think it was in retaliation for pulling a trailer with his bike on the B.A. expressway, during rush hour, waving at people while wearing his Santa suit.

Glad you're okay.

+1

have you ever wanted to get a cam for the back of the bike as well?

Call the officer's supervisor and insist that you want a report and action. My experience with the police is that they'll do as little as you'll let them do. If you have an issue, call a supervisor. If you have access to an attorney, have the attorney call the supervisor. ALWAYS be respectful, but explain your position and don't back down from it. Tell them you expect them to investigate this hit and run incident in which you were injured. Ask them what steps they're taking. If it doesn't seem adequate, or if you're being brushed off, push. They are our employees. Did you see the car that hit you? Have a description? If he hit you that hard, he might have damage to his bumper - you want notice to go out to garages.

I don't get this, but I hear it a lot. If I were in your position, I'd go after that, talking to his superiors until he had to go to night classes to learn the local traffic laws. I mean, I can understand random yahoos in cars thinking that bikes in the road are asking for trouble, it doesn't even surprise me terribly when the mayor of Toronto says it, but I'd like to think that cops who are supposedly there to "protect and serve" would at least know and understand, maybe even support, the basics rules of the road.

I am not anti-police, though it may come off that way...I'm a law and order guy, but I'm also a pragmatist. The average police officer isn't the best educated, or brightest guy out there. Most really don't know the laws very well, certainly not the subtleties, and we're trusting them with exercising a LOT of authority when they aren't really adequately trained in the laws they're enforcing. If you're expecting most police officers to understand laws relating to cyclists, I think you're going to be disappointed. These aren't lawyers or judges...they're blue collar guys who are looking to get home with as little grief as possible and who have a difficult job dealing with the scum of the earth all day, every day.

The way to handle it is to agree with the officer on scene and, if you aren't satisfied, take action afterwards. Start with contacting a supervisor...it helps to have an attorney. Who it is on the other end of the phone really matters...I get treated far differently today than I did when i was a 20something bartender. Class and place matters. ALWAYS be respectful...don't raise your voice or yell. Be firm, but polite and professional. They hear blow hards going "I know my rights" every day...and they aren't impressed. In most areas there is an assumption of good faith for their actions and they usually have a very strong union...so they're not going to be intimidated by you. Request...don't demand.

Be the squeaky wheel, but don't make noise that gets you removed.

I guess I'm spoiled living where I do. The police around here pretty much get it.


This part I completely understand. I've got a cousin who is a cop, and he occasionally shares with me some of the gruesome details that he thinks I can handle, but I can tell from the way the job has affected him that he sees an ugly part of life that most of us are sheltered from.

Even so, hit-and-run is hit-and-run and the victim was never "asking for it."

Yeah, maybe for Christmas. I actually have a Kodak video camera that's every bit as good at capturing video as the GoPro, but there is just no way to mount it to the seat post unless I fab one up.

The only reason I have one on my bike at all is because of situations like this one right here. If you don't have any way to prove that you were hit, then it's your word against theirs. That's only if you aren't injured to the point where you couldn't get a tag#.

Cameras don't lie...and video evidence is admissible in court. Especially if it's a felonious hit and run.

It would be really cool if GoPro, or another camera company could make a camera that had 2 small remote lenses that fed video data into a central unit.

Glad you're okay. I agree with those saying to contact the cop's supervisor. His conduct was unprofessional, regardless of how stressful his day might have been.

Glad to hear you're OK. The only other thing I can ad to the discussion is to mention it's time for anew helmet too. Your helmet did it's job, and now it's time for another.

I'm very glad you're here posting about this rather than the alternative

My goodness, glad you're ok. Sucks that the authorities don't care. Stay safe man.

I wouldn't focus on the officer's behavior or attitudes, I'd focus on how to best get the results you want. Don't view it as a complaints department...view it as asking for service.

Anyone tried the Tachyon cameras?

http://www.tachyoninc.com/

I agree with a lot of people on this thread-Very glad you're o.k.!! I have a mirror on my bike, a good one with a glass mirror, not a plastic one. Some people make fun of my mirror, but if their making fun of me...I know I'm still alive! I'm going to buy a safety vest next.
Ride On!

That would be pretty neat. Is the Kodak waterproof? Anyway you could mount it to the rack on the back if you have one?

Wow this is my biggest fear...to be hit from behind completely unaware. Glad to hear you are "OK" and not giving up biking. Here on Guam a lot of my route to work has absolutely no shoulder and even if, I see careless drivers drifting into the shoulder almost everyday. This is why I ride in the shoulder against traffic and pull off into the grass often. I must be able to see and react to shoulder drifting drivers. No way I can turn my back to these *******. I don't see how you guys do it;it takes a lot of guts.

I'm sorry, I just don't see how a mirror would have saved the o.p. unless he spent so much time monitoring it that.... ... BAM! Front end taco'ed, over the bars and whatever can result from that. A camera? Two camera's? Really? We are supposed to invest as much or more than we spent on the bicycle in video recording devices? Do you think a driver can see your GoPro on the back of your helmet if he didn't see YOU? If a bicycle is traveling at speed and is rear ended by a car that is traveling enough faster to do the kind of damage inflicted in the above accident the bicycle operator should have heard it coming up behind him. Unless he is HOH and that wasn't said in the o.p. You don't have eyes in the back of your head, and mirrors are NOT, eyes in the back of your head. You have EARS, however, that operate in 360 degrees. Finally... ... the o.p. said "I was tooling along in the right lane... ..." I only ride "in" lanes when I have a car wrapped around me. If not, I ride out of the traffic path as far to the right as possible. Of course it is still possible that a driver that way out could come after me because he is bent that way but it is unlikely, in that event, that any responding LEO would be as smarmy about it.

H

Any witnesses? What about local businesses with outside cameras? Traffic cameras? What about a story to a TV station?

Sorry to hear that. I got rear-ended once by someone taking a right on red and he merged through me in the bike lane on his way to cross 2 more car lanes to get to a turn lane. People don't know how to drive it's a big problem. That's how I learned to be cautious w/ all intersections no matter how much right of way I have.

We call that "salmoning" here, and it is illegal in most places. Only pedestrians can travel legally against traffic. That said, if salmoning is part of the overarching bicycle road culture in Guam and a LARGE majority of cyclists ride that way, then drivers will be used to it. Red light running is not legal in NYC but such a large number of cyclists do it that you don't even get so much as a honk from drivers as you sail past. In Oregon where I live now, red light running is not a big part of bicycle roadcraft and when I do it it really riles up the drivers that I leave behind. If your fellow cyclists are managing to navigate the roads of Guam without needing to ride against traffic then YOU become the outlier and your life will be the harder for it. It may even be a shorter life despite your "efforts" to prolong it.

H

I have used a mirror for years and hate to ride without. I have observed motorists overtaking me, sometimes at high speed. They have always passed or slowed at the last minute. I have never taken evasive maneuvers which called for riding off the road into a ditch, curb, or sidewalk full of peds. I sometimes move to the right when I know there is a vehicle behind me to make it easier to pass. Sometimes on a busy street controlled by traffic signals I will use it to avoid a group of cars by ducking into a parking lot for a minute while they pass. Better that than several minutes of close encounters with petroholics. I don't think a mirror would have prevented the incident. A vest would help the majority of motorists to see you and avoid a collision; however, the threat of distracted driving poses a risk to everyone on the road. Where's my flying bicycle :/

Maybe it could have, maybe not. However, it's worth having even if it's only 50% effective. Yes, you're supposed to monitor it every few seconds, which is a really trivial amount of effort to those of us who don't have vision problems. I value my mirror mostly for keeping me aware of my surroundings, and not having to unbalance myself or take my eye off the road by looking back over my shoulder. The mirror also keeps ME from making stupid mistakes like crossing in front of other vehicles' paths or panic-stopping in front of cars.

As far as riding in the lane...that's where you're supposed to ride, practical or not. (providing you've got all the proper and necessary visibility gear)

agreed. My mirror has prevented many right hooks. Tells me the story on whats going on behind me. Gives me another tool in the tool box.

And people wonder why I still sometimes wear my florescent orange shirt with large lettering on the back that says "Can you see me now, a$$hole?"

I don't care so much about the message the drivers are getting that might be bad, as long as they are seeing it..... :D