I was riding northbound by the hospital on Main St & had a green light @ 56th Ave. A southbound driver tried sneaking in a left turn before the oncoming traffic coming down the hill.

Of course, it was only after he made his turn that he could see his intended street was completely closed due to construction, with a row of cones all along the crosswalk.

If 56th Ave had been open, he probably could've punched it and made it through the intersection before I got there. But with nowhere to go, he slowed down & planted himself right in front of me. I was able to slow down a bit and aimed toward the rear end of his car, hoping to go around him, but he was way too close. I hit his passenger side @ 8-10mph, took off his sideview mirror as I rolled over his passenger side, trunk, and then plopped down on the street, landing (luckily) on my backpack. Given the great weather, I'd taken off my windbreaker & it served as a bit of a cushion in there.

EMS came and in the fastest ambulance ride ever (across the street) I got cleaned up and checked out. A bit of a shoulder sprain and deep scrapes but no broken bones!! The doc said he sees a lot of people with skull fractures b/c they don't wear helmets.

WEAR A HELMET, PEOPLE.

The front end of my 2009 Allez is pretty screwed up, (pringled wheel, bent handlebars, bent brake calipers, haven't taken a close look at the fork / frame yet. Supposedly the medical bills go straight to him, and hopefully his insurance will also cover the bike damage. I'd rather not have to go to small claims court. In NY you gotta have 25/50/10, the last one being property damage liability.

Anybody in NY have any experience w/this? Thanks!

Glad to hear your injuries were relatively minimal. Sounds like it coulda been much worse. Nope, no experience with that though I've had plenty of close calls. A guy can only do so much to compensate for others' stupidity. I'd be surprised if the frame and fork weren't also compromised.

Is it documented that he/she was at fault?

I had a nearly identical accident in 1975 in Montclair NJ. I was also going fast down a hill and a passenger van made a left turn into my path. I executed a panic right turn to avoid a T-bone collision. Had the driver maintained his speed or slowed down, I would have passed in front of him because my speed increased during the turn. The van driver panicked and sped up to outrace me. He came along side me giving me zero room. I put my left arm against the side of his vehicle to keep some distance between me and his car.

The force of my arm caused my elbow to break his side window and my body to brush against the side of the van. The door handle hit the side of my body and threw me to the ground. That door handle also cracked a rib. Door handles are now recessed to avoid injuries.

I was very lucky. I came out with a few stitches on the elbow that broke the side window, in addition to the cracked rib. The bike's only injury was a pretzled rear wheel due to the angle of the fall.

One contributing cause to the accident was that the sun was directly in the driver's eyes. He did not pick me up due to sun glare.

BTW, I live just past the bottom of that hill in Flushing.

I don't do screaming downhills anymore. My reflexes are not what they were 35+ years ago. I don't think I could execute a panic turn in a panic today.

I recently came across a similar accident on Houston Street where the cyclist, who fortunately was wearing a helmet, wound up shattering the passenger side window -- probably with his head.

I'm not personally experienced with bike-car accidents but I'd recommend getting photos of everything that might be off with your bike and then take it to a shop for an estimate. Were there any witnesses? You should be able to get a copy of the accident report from police within a few days.

Anyone who drives in New York is required to carry insurance but there's no guarantee the owner keeps insurance payments up to date or that that particular driver is covered by the car's insurance.

New York does have no-fault coverage for medical expenses up to $5000. My daughter was in a cab accident years ago. Since it was covered by no-fault I don't think we ever even saw a bill.

Transportation Alternatives should be able to recommend attorneys who deal with bike accidents. Maybe they'd be willing to give a free or low cost consultation.

I'll get the police report tomorrow, we'll see. Can't see how they'd say it was my fault... The guy was making a left turn onto a street that was totally blocked, he obviously wasn't looking where he was going.

Yeah, that's def the last time I go quickly down major roads. Residential streets only, or go slow enough to be able to stop on a dime for a potential dooring or other idiocy. If there was a tractor trailer behind me bombing down that hill, I could've been killed. All b/c some twit didn't look before turning...

Thanks, hopefully I can just handle it through insurance. I don't want to have to sue the guy :-(