seaneee

So I had a really crappy day today (er wait, it's tomorrow). Anyway, I spent 14hrs in a dark editing bay eating lots of bad food and stuff. By the end of the day, I turned down an offer from my wife for a ride home and opted for a bike ride to get be outside for a while.

Bad choice.

About half a dozen blocks from my house, some a-hole riding the line, hits me as I'm about to make a left turn. I could tell he was getting close- something didn't seem right, so I drifted into the opposing lane, but he still clipped my back wheel. it was slow speed, and I was fine, didn't fall, just sort of abruptly stopped.

I was on my beater commuter road bike. He jacked my rear derailleur, bent it into my spokes, and broke a couple of spokes.

The thing that pissed me off is I knew the guy was gonna bounce. So I ran over and took a cell phone pic of his license plate. The I confront him, swears he didn't hit me, then I show him my bike. Says he doesn't know how it happened. So I start yelling at him and he tells me I was in the wrong lane. I threaten with cops, he hits the gas and runs the light.

Cops were cool about it, showed up within a few minutes and had me send the camera phone image to their cells.

Just had to rant and get it out of my system. I could have been waaaaaay worse, so I'm thankful for that.

deathhare

sue him

bonelesschicken

While it sucks to get hit by a car it will definitely suck worse to be that guy when the cops get to him.

dblock

if they get to him. best of luck

seaneee

I'm stoked I got his license plate though... The cops were strangely impressed by that. Honestly, I don't think they will find him- at least not right now. I'll be one of those things when he gets pulled over in the future and has a nasty surprise waiting for him.

estratton

^ Can not wait to hear about him getting snagged by the 5-0. While I try to be a pretty level headed person, crap like this gets me steamed.

Def post when you hear something about him getting caught.

LóFarkas

Well, there is a license plate register, isn't there? Shouldn't take more than an hour to find him if they want to.

Good luck getting reimbursed for your ruined parts and the inconvenience.

roadie138

That Stinks seaneee.I'm glad to here you are OK thats the main thing.I hope he gets what he has coming to him.

idcruiserman

Good job getting the plate. Makes me think it's possibly worth getting a camera phone. Without a witness I'm willing to bet nothing happens to him.

Tangsooyuk

If they had the computer in the car it could have been 5 minutes.
Then all he would have to do is identify the person since he did argue with him.

good luck, glad you weren't hurt.

humancongereel

and do you think they will?

glad you're okay. this summer's going to be hairy, i think. just be careful.

LóFarkas

Dunno. Different continents and all. I'm guessing they have to...
If the OP files a report I imagine they must at least verify tha facts and all that.

Retem

yeah ca laws work to our advantage and especially in certain cities their own laws are harsh on cars and easy on bike however they are seldom upheld

mugatu

good to hear you didn't get seriously hurt
What sucks is that constant stories like this and personal experience causes me to be really hesitant in trying to get people I care about, like my girlfriend, to ride a bike. I don't think I'd be able to handle it if she got hit.

krillz

glad your ok.
getting hit is very humbling.
reminds me of getting jumped and mugged.
your dont feel like the man anymore. and puts things into perspective.
~Joey

mascher

Jeez, that sounds ominous. Why do you say that?

wroomwroomoops

Good to hear you got away without injuries. Let us know the followup.

Car drivers will, generally, feel less compelled to follow the rules if they think they won't have consequences otherwise. Consequences are important.

thebankman

Congrats on keeping it upright, what a lame situation to be in. I watched a female cyclist get a big truck mirror whacked on her body on thursday, she didn't even stop spinning and of course the truck didn't stop to exchange info.

seaneee

I'm pretty sure the guy was drunk/stoned. First off, to say he was hugging the line was an understatement. After that, everything he did was in slow motion. He was stopped at a really long light. He just sat there as I took the plate pic. Took him forever to roll down his window, and even when he ran the light to take off, it was like it took him longer than normal to figure out he wanted to drive off.

In hindsight, I wish I would have taken a pic or vid of him too.

As for the cops, nothing yet. I'm tempted to call in a fav or two to find out where the guy lives. Then just go hang out there and call the cops.

humancongereel

meh, maybe i should lighten up. but in the past three weeks, three people i know, myself included, have been hit. i read about other people getting hit on here. i start to think maybe the cagers are getting restless. more hostile. or maybe more careless.

thebankman

Paranoia can be a good thing, keeps your head up and eyes open for anyone trying to take you out.

barba

Leaving the scene of an accident is a fairly serious offense. If the police do not follow up, I would push the issue somewhat. Unless the car was stolen, it should not be hard to find the guy.

I am glad it didn't turn out worse.

bonechilling

If I ever get hit, I'm totally going to take the advice of this
thread and record the whole thing on my cellphone camera.

deathhare

Why would you do that? They know where he lives if they even bothered to do anything. You need to call the cops and ask them WTF theyre doing about this.
The longer you wait the less likely anything will happen.
Dont forget, you could have died. Sounds like another 6 inches and youd have been very very ****ed. In that case he wouldnt have stopped either.
If you care, you should get very busy on this.
Good luck.

mascher

Maybe having an accident and not being seriously injured is a good opportunity to go through all the steps and push it as far as it needs to go when you're not in a state of rage/danger/$/equipment loss - in a lifetime of riding a bicycle anywhere but your private estate, it will happen, and you will need to know what to do, or what to do if it happens to someone around you.

I have a little spot where I have to ride on a sidewalk under a one way underpass nearly every day (or else go a couple kms out of the best path), and I'm always very careful to go slow or stop for peds, and then carefully pay attention to oncoming traffic when I cross the street that allows me back onto roads, because oncoming traffic has a free left. The other day, a ped was coming across the street toward the sidewalk, and as I went very slowly to go way around her, the clear path I had a second before was full of a double size dumptruck a bike length in front of me, squealing with emergency braking. I didn't realize until after I was across the street another second later that I was very very lucky that the driver saw me and slammed on the brake, and that made me consider a second what to do if you have both a ped and oncoming traffic.

It's a big duh, and I didn't get hit, and this was totally my fault, but I never would have thought of that if I'd had time to panic, and I have a way to deal with it now. Multiply the number of things to know and do when you get hit or someone does and you're on the scene, and you have a whole lot of things to remember, consider and take action on NOW.

I'm even going to take something away from it, anyway - I'm going to look up again how the local no-fault insurance works if one of you is on a bike or both of you are on a bike, because I don't really remember what to do.

Jeez, does it show that I'm listening to a personal productivity audiobook?