I got run over

Yesterday, I was on my way to work and was cruising up the bike path, when a pathfinder decided to change lanes, knocked me down and drug me up the road between 30-40 feet. I'm okay except for the road rash on my left side and I feel like a mac truck chewed me up and spit me out this morning.
It's a horrible path design. The circle is where the collision happened and the bike is where I ended up. The bike path crosses a lane right before the freeway enterance. She was in the far lane and needed to get over and did not see me when she moved over. I have a 700 ion front light that was blinking and a cygolite hotshot on the back which was blinking as well.
My bike is in rough shape. The front elixer 5 is not working anymore. The wheel bearings are shot, peddle toast, rash everywhere and bent. And my thumb throttle intermittently works. And my nice columbia jacket and pants have a few leaks in them now.
Hopefully her insurance gets back to me in the beginning of the week, or I'm going to have to hire a lawyer. I would be happy with 2k to cover my expenses and lost time from work.
Well.. I survived another day to tell my story. Hope none of you have to experience it for yourselves.

Ouch.
Good that you can tell the story.
Ugly one it is being dragged along,
well that just gives me the creeps.

Heal up soon.

+1! Glad you are here to tell about it, and things aren't worse! Hope it all works out for you; heal fast!

Were you riding a regular bike or an e-assist type?

Tom

would be interested to know as insurance may ask about your bike details

This is another reason to ALWAYS wear a helmet and gloves, even at relatively low speeds...this reminds me of when I fell once a long time ago. Thankfully no bones were broken in my hand, but I had a very bad road rash (chicks dig scars, right?). Many years later I crashed again. No bones broken again, but...the only thing worse than a broken bone in your hand, is to have that same broken bone plus a very bad road rash.

I have been told that if you can avoid broken collar-bones or ribs, it is preferable to not find out what that feels like (plus very long recovery times).

I used to ride a motorcycle. And the thing they drill in you at every test and training course is to be aware of the "death zone".



On a straight road, that's easy. You just know where you can't sit, and you slow down or speed up to reduce time there.

When there are corners, merges and lane changes as you had, the death zone is harder to figure out, but after enough experience you just get a gut feel as to whether you're in it or not. One way is to look at the mirror. If you can't see the person's face reflected in the mirror, they can't see you.

Yeow, that was a too close one.

Sure, he was in the death zone when contact was made, but the bottom line is the gal was not really seeing out the front window earlier.

It happens. She may have been more focused on the possibility she had somebody in her blind spots, going her speed, than what was in the bike lane. She may have seen you, and actually thought you'd yeild because she feels cars have the right of way.

Right of way yours or not, you have to be cat nervous about when turn lanes cross the bike lane like that. I'm sorry to put it this way, but the fact is you let that happen. I doubt she warned you with a blinker or anything, but you choose when to time your venture into that danger zone. Dumb as it is to have to, you need to yield to cars simply because they outweigh you so bad.

Still her fault entirely, she should have been looking out the front better. I'm just saying had you seen the risk coming, you could have been elsewhere when she darted across that zone surprising you this time. The key to riding safe is never be surprised by the shit the cars do. Anticipate the right crosses especially. Though a bit different than a car turning into a parking lot, it's really a classic right cross incident. They will do this to you over and over, so be always ready for it.

For sure you likely saw her, but she was in that farther lane. Then you trusted that car not to do any thing funny. Oops, trusted a car. That's my point. You took it for granted a right cross wasn't coming. It's always coming. Trust that.

Thanks for sharing this. I hope others will read it and be more careful/cautious of this hazardous situation.

Do you have any carnage photos to share?

One thing I can tell you about collision riding a bike: They all tell "I never saw you"

No helmet or protection can save you on a long term, if can't distinguish when you are not seen.
A young rider has a few ninor crashes to warn him, then the odds are getting higher. He has to learn soon that his head and bones do rely on his ability to predict all eventualities.

A crash is a good one when you decided to crash. When someone else (or unexpected situation) is crashing you, you are most likely to be badly hurt.

if you ride a bike all the time and don't drive you do not see that everyone is texting on their phone or looking at the GPS directions. they never look around or in their mirrors. if you use visibility as the criteria it is a fail. 50% are looking at their phone when i see them. sitting at the light after it turns green for almost a minute while finishing the texting is not at all unusual in my experience.

hope you can recover the damages from her insurance company and they don't try to blame you and refuse to pay. did the cops give her a ticket for unlawful lane change?

by any chance can you remember your thoughts and state of mind just before they hit you?? i find this very interesting.

I have actually never been hit, i try to avoid all interactions with cars. if i am on a road where there is the possibility of someone sneaking up on me, my head is on a turret-- i know when they are there. mainly because i dont want a cop to see me before i can implement countermeasures (fake peddaling and drastic speed reduction). i want to keep my bike .

I am lucky in that around here there is only a few major roads - which i avoid . there is always a back road or residential connection, i utilise alot of "pedestrian only"walkways to get though rough sections... .


open your eyes if you want to live. get ur neck out and check your six.
peace

Get an attorney and yield as much as you can from the driver's insurance; that's what its for, and that's all the satisfaction you'll ever get when a motorist screws up and hurts you.

I hope I live to see the day when it's acknowledged that people generally are not qualified to operate motor vehicles in public, and shouldn't be allowed to do so. As it is, we waste 40,000 American lives per year and destroy the quality of life in every city pretending that people are fit to drive.

MadRhino said:

One thing I can tell you about collision riding a bike: They all tell "I never saw you".

Click to expand...

At least until they think about for a while and then it usually changes to "It's not my fault, he cut right in front of me".

Chalo said:

Get an attorney and yield as much as you can from the driver's insurance; that's what its for, and that's all the satisfaction you'll ever get when a motorist screws up and hurts you.

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First you figure out if you can get more than what the attorney will cost. He WON'T work this one for a percentage, you'll pay a retainer up front, perhaps $1,500. This will delay the $5-10K limit of what the insurance will pay out from getting to you. Or I should say from getting to your attorney. Are you SURE you want one?

Eclectic said:

MadRhino said:

One thing I can tell you about collision riding a bike: They all tell "I never saw you".

Click to expand...

At least until they think about for a while and then it usually changes to "It's not my fault, he cut right in front of me".

Click to expand...

So last night a woman ran out into the street in the middle of the block from the blindside of a parked car at just the moment a passing vehicle got there, how he stopped without hitting her I can't fathom. So even though the others with her stayed safely out of the road she turns around and starts yelling at the driver. Here's a few of us not far away yelling at her and calling her an idiot. I offered up "Hey, you gotta pay for the damage to his car if you cause him to hit you." Unfortunately that's not guaranteed. Why, oh why, is there no idiot coverage required for these people to be allowed in public?

I'm sorry you got hit, that sucks. Hope you have a speedy recovery and get your bike back together. Good luck with the insurance.

portland has a buncha good lawyers who will help you. they post up on bikeportland as i recall, but just looking around the bike links here will get you connected to someone who can help you recover damages from her insurance company.

dnmun said:

portland has a buncha good lawyers who will help you. they post up on bikeportland as i recall, but just looking around the bike links here will get you connected to someone who can help you recover damages from her insurance company.

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Thomas, Swanson, and Coon.

let us know if you need some cash to retain them up front.

i may be broke but still have credit.

2 things, as a child i took a high speed stack on a cement path when a dog run out of a yard, going down a steep hill, the gravel/cement rash spot on my hip hurt for years after, not sure how the dog was lol but he limped away quicker than me. please consider that your injuries may be the same if seeking compensation

2nd, im not trusting of flashing lights unless its a very slow flash, ive seen too many people entranced by quickly flashing lights, for a while we lived on a highway, 2 shops at the stop lights had lots of flashing lights around them, we often made money by calling the towies first when prangs happened, about 4 a week on average. then the 2 shops shut down and houses built in there place, from then onwards the number of prangs dropped to about 1 every 10 days, and we had to nick returnable drink bottles for our pocket money from then on.
hope ya bounce back quickly

Sorry to hear of your accident. Hope you can get compensated for your injuries and loss of bike. It was not your fault. This could happen to all of us. I'll start using a helmet.
Cars can kill. When I drive a car I often see fear in pedestrians' and cyclist' eyes.

in my opinion bike paths should be separated on such multi-lane roads where cars drive fast. I'm so happy that in my city bike paths near fast roads are 3-5 meters away from the road and often separated by a ditch (often no red lights because underpass tunnels!). But on the other hand we pay huge tax that allows our cities to build bike paths (that are very cheap to maintain though)

Bad crash for you, ‘hope you heal quickly!

Lawyer up and petition the drivers cellphone records ASAP. Do you know exact time of the attempted murder (crash)?

Just this weekend a lady in BMW flew past me doing well over 60MPH on 57th St in Manhattan. Speed limit’s 25. They had to STOP at the next red light and as I ride up and look in, what are they doing? Reading, texting on their god damn phone! SOB…

I see it so much nowadays, it’s very scary - even the best attempts to “predict” what will likely happen in traffic, these damn phones introduce yet another variable into the equation.

Good luck….

Being a motorcycle rider for many years I've learned it's my responsibility to be aware of my environment.I Never assume people see me that are driving because that might be the last assumption I ever make.You need to respect your electric bike as you would a motorcycle.Your bridging a gap between electric bikes and motorcycles when you ride one of these.Be safe and take care of yourself.And always assume they don't see you.