nixternal

And you won't believe who caused this.

Saturday my father was doing a craft show in New Lenox at the campgrounds off of Lincoln Highway. I went with as I always do to help him set up and I bring my bike to cruise the Old Plank Trail. My brother lives in Tinley Park near 167th and Central. After looking at the map, I saw that OPT goes to Central and my total ride would be about 20 miles. So off I went. What a great ride I must say. On OPT it was damn near empty, I was able to keep an 18MPH average without people getting in the way. I hit Central, took the left and off I went. As soon as I crossed over Lincoln Highway I was hit with a head wind that was insane. I struggled to maintain 14MPH.

Anyways, I get to up 167th and I take a left, cross over the tracks, and attack (HAHA! If that's what you want to call it) the hill with a heavy headwind. Shoot, if I was doing 8MPH I would be impressed. Anyways, as I am getting ready to crest the hill, bam, a mirror hits my handlebars. I looked back before it happened and noticed a Cook County Sheriffs car behind me, and thought nothing of it was I got out of the saddle expecting the car would give me way more room than I needed. Boy was I wrong. The stupid ass brushed my handlebars causing me to turn in to the curb where my pedal struck it, slinging me off the bike and into the grass. There is a bike trail right there and it is a bit of a hill down to the trail, so I kind of did the movie type hill roll. That was fine, nothing hurt, nothing broken, just prickly weeds which totally suck when you are sweating.

The ass didn't even stop. I was so pissed, that I grabbed whatever I could, a nice sized rock, and threw it at the car. No chance in hitting it. Anyways, a Tinley Park cop had to have witnessed it as he/she was heading east on 167th, but didn't stop.

I filed a complaint with Cook County but was told that unless I got the number on the car there is nothing I could do. Considering the only place I know the number on a CC car is on the roof, I didn't see a damn thing from the rear end. The lady at the Sheriff's office didn't even say sorry, and actually told me I had a bad attitude because I called the officer a piece of ****. I then proceeded to say, "If I am text messaging in my car while driving it is against the law, but when one of your dumb f*cks are typing on the computer when driving, it isn't." I doubt that helped my cause.

If it happened about 5 more feet in front of me, I would have hit one of those nasty sewer covers where a wheel would go into it. Nothing hurt on me or the bike which is good, but I am still having a hard time believing what happened. Usually 167th is jam packed with cars, and the speed limit is only 35MPH, and it is more than wide enough to pass someone safely. I was riding on the fog line which was only an inch from where the road ends and the curb begins. Not a single witness, just my luck!

ColorChange

Sorry man. Glad nothing worse.

nixternal

Yeah, it was just a very light brushing. If I were holding on the bars a little looser, I probably would have been fine, but because I was out of the saddle and climbing, if that's what you want to call it, I was gripping them hard. It happened to a friend of mine earlier this year, but he turned into the car which prevented him from crashing. The cop car wasn't going fast, actually I would put it at about 20MPH tops as it was just taking off at the light.

What really angers me is this. When I got to my brothers, I jumped into the pool to cool down. His wife then brought me a beer, which led to many more, causing me to not ride back to the campgrounds to finish my ride for the day Now my shoulders are so sun burned I can't even throw on a pair of bibs

kdgrills

Hmm, a careless / untrustworthy cook county official. Who'da thunk it.

Glad you had a soft landing.

It's really sad that someone can have such little regard for other people.

nixternal

It was in deed a soft landing honestly, except for those prickly weed things. The worse was when my pedal struck the curb, it shot the bike up in to my nether regions. I haven't been racked like that in a long ass time. Oh boy did that one hurt.

Stealth'd

I have enough problems on central in that area...I call you a brave man for taking on 167th..

Mr IGH

Glad you're OK, those roads down there are very narrow and folks driver too fast. Crook County employees are expected to act like that, Toddy and his dad Johnny want it that way!

John Wilke

Glad you're okay.

I hate reading stories like this, that's exactly how I was mowed down.

I'm trying to get the gumption to ride more, but this doesn't help!

I'm driving 30 mins one way as it is in order to ride through the corn and manure.

Hard to get clobbered by a 15mph farm tractor.

gitarzan

Tell the news...

DX-MAN

YUP, tell the media; then get off the fog line. Take the lane and F*** who doesn't like it. They've already proven you don't matter in their eyes, so make 'em think twice.

rumrunn6

have them videotape a news story on site so the camera crew can shoot some video from the cops car point of view approaching the point where they hit you showing no obstruction to their line of sight, etc. then show where you fell, then show the view of where the cop car continued without stopping.

btw: saying "there is nothing we can do" is a cop's favorite line. BS! the cheif can call a meeting and tell everyone what happened and to be careful out there. there is always something that can be done. what I do when I report something suspicious (this is not an exaple of course) is I say: "I'm reporting something ussupicious. It may be nothing but what I saw didn't sit right with me and I thought I should share it with law enforcement. Then I state the situation knowing they have to log the call and the tape will record what I say. even if what i'm reporting isn't "actionable" - it's still be reported and logged. you never know - sometime in the past or the future there may have been a related/similar incident which when considered with this new information creates a possible profile.

they may have a rouge cop just knocking over dudes on bikes or crashing his service vehicle into stuff. maybe the driver is a drunk. anyway you did the right thing but you didn't win points with your language - touch to stay cool - maybe you should have called an ambulance! right there on the side of the road. hey you might have evidence on your handlebars! paint from the cops' mirror? a scratch-mark, etc?

paint or scratches on the cop car's mirror!!!!!!!! dude you should sooooo mess them up and call a lawyer!

spry

They know who was on duty at that time and location.
It's up to you to push the issue at the station.

Seamless

Sorry that happened, made worse by the irresponsible attitude of the dept.
If it was a legitimate Sheriff's police vehicle, it had an IL plate number (front/back), and probably a squad number painted/affixed to the rear trunk lid. (Of course I understand if noticing it wasn't your main concern at the time.) A h.s. social studies teacher used to advise that it's cheaper to back up and run someone over the second time to make sure the bicyclist was dead; the corollary is to make note of the plate number and scrawl it on the ground with your blood.

Very likely.

nixternal

HAHA.

The reason I couldn't get the plate is because on that part of 167th, when you go off the curb, you go down at least 6 feet to where the bike trail is. Yeah I know, should have been on the bike trail, but I hate hiking up that 6 or 7 foot burm just to cross over 167th to get to my bros house. When I did finally make it down the hill to the trail, when I stood up I could barely see the top of the car.

Nothing was messed up or broke, so there wouldn't have been much to sue them for. If I can't break their bank it ain't worth it

OldLog

Glad you suffered no physical damage. Unfortunately not all law enforcement people are decent people as in all walks of life jerks come in every profession.

dahut

since it was a Sheriffs car wrote the Sheriff himself and relate your story: time, date, place, etc.

Sux, though.