First bike accident today
 

Only I was the one in the car. I've been on a break from commuting for a bit for medical reasons and was on my way to work... I'd headed out early to grab breakfast at a diner. I found myself stopped at a light, waiting to make a left. The light turns green, and I'm looking left, being that I'm turning left. I move forward to begin my left turn.

All of the sudden I hear a noise and see a guy flailing, falling off his bike. He'd been coming from the right, off the side walk, running a red light, without a helmet. I never saw him until he slammed into me and went flailing. It was just a sickening feeling. I still feel it thinking back on it. I backed up and got out of my car to see if he was okay. I got his bike off the road and helped him to the sidewalk, where he fell, apparently unable to walk. I called 911 and reported it.

Meanwhile a woman walks over from across the street. She explained she was in the lane to the right of me and she nearly hit the same guy. She didn't, but I did. She said she would stick around as a witness to say it was the guy's fault. The police came quickly and rather quickly determined the accident was the fault of the guy on the bike. And then the guy suddenly regained the ability to walk... he refused treatment from the fire personnel that showed up. He had to get to work, you see, or he'd be fired.

I'm glad the guy is okay... he's lucky. And I wish I'd been aware of potential surprises coming from my right so it didn't happen. But being that I'm a bike commuter who often has to share the road with heavier, faster vehicles, and I got to be the one who would inevitably hit the guy, no one is more irritated by this guy's recklessness than me. Somehow fools like this are going to make things worse for the rest of us.

I doubt anyone on this forum is this stupid on their bikes, but none the less after this experience I feel the need to say, please, for the sake of us all, be careful out there.

Make sure that you get a copy of the police report.

I got it.

At least you handled it in a manner that you would like to expect if it were the other way around. Accidents can sometimes be avoided, but in the real world they happen. Whiplash can take a while to show up, but it is good to know he survived fairly well.

From your description, would it be safe to presume that besides:

A) riding on the sidewalk
B) running the red light

That he was also riding against traffic? If so all three actions reinforce why one shouldn't

A) ride on the sidewalk
B) run red lights/stop signs
C) ride against traffic

His sudden recovery is a little convenient.

Why? The OP didn't report any damage to his car at all. In fact the OP didn't report if the bicyclist did any more than "flail and fall down." The OP also included the obligatory irrelevant BS about the cyclist's helmet status. It may be that the OP was more shook up than the cyclist.

When did sidewalks start having directional traffic?

This is exactly the kind of thing that makes people who have never ridden a bike hate the idea of bikes on the road. No one wants to hurt or kill anyone, but a lot of drivers feel like letting more bikes on the road means they might - and they imagine a situation like you describe. Then they have to face the fury of the cycling community wanting blood when it happens.

I obviously don't agree with drivers like that, but I think situations like this help us to understand where their fears come from and how we can better educate them.

When they cross the road. I had the same thought as Digital_Cowboy, that it sounds like the cyclist was on the wrong side of the road.

Going the wrong way on the sidewalk is the most dangerous way to approach an intersection that I can think of. No one coming from any direction is looking for a vehicle approaching there, and even if they happen to check chances are they won't see him.

For pedestrians it isn't a problem, but as has been demonstrated in this account if one is riding their bicycle not only on the sidewalk but against traffic. Why it of dangerous to do so.

Think about it, had the person riding their bike in the road and with the flow of traffic odds are nothing would have happened to them.

I'm not condoning the actions of the biker on the sidewalk and am not defending his actions, but the driver of the vehicle was making a left which means traffic was coming from the right and the bicyclist came from the right also. I still think that expecting the bicyclist on the sidewalk to follow vehicular traffic direction is a stretch though. For instance, what do you do with runners on the sidewalk since they are often moving faster than a bicyclist?

Driver making a left on a green light usually assumes that the cross traffic has a red. So generally no reason to look right when making a left at a light.

But... I live in Texas and in the last two years I've seen three 60+ MPH double T-bones on legal left turns (double because the driver running the red still has their foot on the accelerator when crashing, so "Smash, Screech, Smash" again). So I look right even when turning left at a light. Every time. Without fail.

If traffic can turn left, they have a green light. Anyone on the sidewalk should have a "Do Not Walk" sign or a red light, and must yield.

The cyclist was completely at fault in this case.

Well, at least, after hitting your car, he didn't jump up and start beating you through your open window or something.

:thumb:

I disagree. If people actually cared about hurting or killing someone else, they wouldn't chat on their cellphone or text while they're driving.

Can a person riding a bike on a sidewalk ever be considered to be a pedistrian? I mean like a kid riding his bike on the sidewalk. Is he to be held to the same standards as a cyclist riding on the road. To me a person riding a bike on a sidewalk could be considered a pedistrian.

Maybe the cyclist didn't even hit the vehicle. No damage, no foul. The OP never really said what the cyclist did but fall to the ground. The rest of the cyclist's alleged improper/unsafe actions on this thread are only so much guesswork and speculation from the junior g-men of BF with an axe to grind.

I think, by calling the police, you protected yourself well from a "slip and fall" lawsuit. It porbably was no "accident".

Assuming they drive on the same side of the street in NYC as the rest of the country, you are mistaken. This was a six lane road so I had to clear three lanes of traffic coming from the left before I had to legitimately be aware of traffic from the right. But just to reiterate for those who are blocking it out because they never want to side with motorists in the event of an accident, I had a green light. Which means traffic coming from either direction had a red. A pedestrian or runner would have a no walk signal. A runner who runs through an intersection like that is also probably getting hit. The guy on the bike had both a no walk signal and a red light. And he still barreled through it, so yeah he was at fault. I hope that clears things up enough.

"I-Like-to-Bike", I haven't been on this forum long and this is already the third or fourth time a perfectly innocuous comment by myself inspired a flame rant from you. I realize the guy on the bike who hit me was one of your people, bikers who march to their own drummer or whatever, but seriously, you are stretching if you insist on having something to get riled up about here. I can't imagine what kind of existence would lead to you to get your hackles raised over absolutely nothing, but might I recommend an outlet of some kind... meditation, a stroll in the park, a hooker, bong hits, riding on the sidewalk through red lights without a helmet... whatever floats your boat. Or keep spewing insipid mental bile arbitrarily on message boards. If it's directed at me it doesn't take much effort to call you out for what you are.

Your sarcasm aside, if you read my posts carefully, you will see that I never questioned whether the biker was at fault since it was obvious he was.

What I question was that now there are laws that while biking on the sidewalk, one must bicycle in the direction of vehicular traffic according to what some other post. I find this a bit hard to believe and would like some proof of these new laws otherwise I think it's BS being thrown about.

Fair enough, sorry for the misunderstanding. Around where I am generally the laws indicate cyclists must ride on the roads unless a sidewalk is a designated bike route, and I'm pretty sure on those sidewalks there is no law governing which direction a cyclist must travel (often the designated bike route is only on one side of the road).

You never mentioned what part of your car was struck.

After the cyclist "barreled" into your car and made a "noise", did it/he leave a mark or even scratch the paint of your car? Did the cyclist have any visible injury?

Some of out BF comrades are already implying the cyclist was trying to pull off some sort of scam, without a shred of evidence. Curious minds want to know know how serious was this accident.

From the OP: "The police came quickly and rather quickly determined the accident was the fault of the guy on the bike. And then the guy suddenly regained the ability to walk... he refused treatment from the fire personnel that showed up."

If it smells like a..................It's probably a.......................

Another BF Sherlock Holmes has sniffed out a scam based on his Columbo like crystal ball derived powers; what a bunch of Drama Queens! Tear yourself away from your TV for awhile.