Wife hit by driver
06-30-09, 10:51 AM
#78
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Hey, that's my dream bike! Lucky (if that's what you can call it...)! Glad that she is able to keep riding despite that near brush with becoming yet another statistic, and happy for her new bike opportunity. The circumstances behind the new bike certainly do suck, though. =/.
07-01-09, 04:03 PM
#80
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08-09-09, 11:00 PM
#82
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Bueller....bueller...
01-25-11, 08:36 PM
#83
Well, it has been a long time, but we're close to a resolution. I browbeat the Sheriff into issuing citations, and the driver(after numerous continuances) goes to trial Friday. She's charged with violating the 3 foot law, and negligent driving. The State's Attorney refuses to plea bargain, considering the driver has had 4 tickets in the last year. I'll post the results of the trial as soon as I know.
We settled with the insurance company, and when all was said and done, we hit them for upwards of 20 grand.
After the trial, I'm going to be making my gripes with the Sheriff very public and very loud! Thanks for everybody's support. Wife is fine, just still gun-shy about riding on the roads.
We settled with the insurance company, and when all was said and done, we hit them for upwards of 20 grand.
After the trial, I'm going to be making my gripes with the Sheriff very public and very loud! Thanks for everybody's support. Wife is fine, just still gun-shy about riding on the roads.
01-25-11, 09:23 PM
#84
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Thanks for the update, just caught this. Glad she's ok (sounds like it) but this case shouldnt be overlooked. Imagine if it was a crew doing road work (not a comparision) but maybe a litter crew? They have to remember that most of the cyclists on the road are also tax paying, gas tax paying members of society. Rights shouldnt be lowered while safely and lawfully riding a bike...
MM
MM
01-25-11, 10:43 PM
#85
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Well, it has been a long time, but we're close to a resolution. I browbeat the Sheriff into issuing citations, and the driver(after numerous continuances) goes to trial Friday. She's charged with violating the 3 foot law, and negligent driving. The State's Attorney refuses to plea bargain, considering the driver has had 4 tickets in the last year. I'll post the results of the trial as soon as I know.
We settled with the insurance company, and when all was said and done, we hit them for upwards of 20 grand.
After the trial, I'm going to be making my gripes with the Sheriff very public and very loud! Thanks for everybody's support. Wife is fine, just still gun-shy about riding on the roads.
We settled with the insurance company, and when all was said and done, we hit them for upwards of 20 grand.
After the trial, I'm going to be making my gripes with the Sheriff very public and very loud! Thanks for everybody's support. Wife is fine, just still gun-shy about riding on the roads.
).
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01-26-11, 02:48 AM
#86
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Just got back from the hospital. Wife is more or less OK. She has a concussion, some bruises, and a bunch of road rash. Prognosis good.
The driver is a young woman of 20 or so. She was driving along, she claims at 55, more likely 65, when she reached down to get her cigarettes. She proceeded to whack my wife, totalling her Trek WSD. Boy, when carbon bikes get hit, they break into pieces. The bike was hit so hard it not only bent the rims, but actually broke them. The left chainstay was broken completely off, the top tube broke into 3 pieces, and the down tube snapped off at the bottom bracket.
Her helmet was fractured, but it saved her head. I wont ride without mine anymore!
I'll have pictures up tomorrow!
The driver is a young woman of 20 or so. She was driving along, she claims at 55, more likely 65, when she reached down to get her cigarettes. She proceeded to whack my wife, totalling her Trek WSD. Boy, when carbon bikes get hit, they break into pieces. The bike was hit so hard it not only bent the rims, but actually broke them. The left chainstay was broken completely off, the top tube broke into 3 pieces, and the down tube snapped off at the bottom bracket.
Her helmet was fractured, but it saved her head. I wont ride without mine anymore!
I'll have pictures up tomorrow!
Considering that your wife had a concussion, I hope she had a CT-Scan to make sure she didn't suffer a closed-head injury.
01-26-11, 02:59 AM
#87
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Smart wife, although, I think it should be the idiot driver, not the insurance company footing the bill for a new bike. So it really drives home, how irresponsible the driver was.
01-26-11, 09:49 AM
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Well, it has been a long time, but we're close to a resolution. I browbeat the Sheriff into issuing citations, and the driver(after numerous continuances) goes to trial Friday. She's charged with violating the 3 foot law, and negligent driving. The State's Attorney refuses to plea bargain, considering the driver has had 4 tickets in the last year. I'll post the results of the trial as soon as I know.
We settled with the insurance company, and when all was said and done, we hit them for upwards of 20 grand.
After the trial, I'm going to be making my gripes with the Sheriff very public and very loud! Thanks for everybody's support. Wife is fine, just still gun-shy about riding on the roads.
We settled with the insurance company, and when all was said and done, we hit them for upwards of 20 grand.
After the trial, I'm going to be making my gripes with the Sheriff very public and very loud! Thanks for everybody's support. Wife is fine, just still gun-shy about riding on the roads.
I'm gonna go off to a good day of classes knowing that you managed this.
01-26-11, 11:55 AM
#90
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Good. Although I was agreeing with people early on in the thread that the driver should be punished but not crucified, someone who gets 4 tickets in a year (is that AFTER hitting your wife, I assume?) does need to be taken off the road. People can rationalize a lot of bad behavior, everyone does it, they shouldn't be on the road anyway, blah, blah. Maybe actually losing her license for 6 to 12 months might convince her that what she is doing IS out of the ordinary, and that it will be taken seriously by the authorities.
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01-26-11, 06:47 PM
#91
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Just got back from the hospital. Wife is more or less OK. She has a concussion, some bruises, and a bunch of road rash. Prognosis good.
The driver is a young woman of 20 or so. She was driving along, she claims at 55, more likely 65, when she reached down to get her cigarettes. She proceeded to whack my wife, totalling her Trek WSD. Boy, when carbon bikes get hit, they break into pieces. The bike was hit so hard it not only bent the rims, but actually broke them. The left chainstay was broken completely off, the top tube broke into 3 pieces, and the down tube snapped off at the bottom bracket.
Her helmet was fractured, but it saved her head. I wont ride without mine anymore!
I'll have pictures up tomorrow!
The driver is a young woman of 20 or so. She was driving along, she claims at 55, more likely 65, when she reached down to get her cigarettes. She proceeded to whack my wife, totalling her Trek WSD. Boy, when carbon bikes get hit, they break into pieces. The bike was hit so hard it not only bent the rims, but actually broke them. The left chainstay was broken completely off, the top tube broke into 3 pieces, and the down tube snapped off at the bottom bracket.
Her helmet was fractured, but it saved her head. I wont ride without mine anymore!
I'll have pictures up tomorrow!
andy
edit: Oh my ...just saw how old this thread is... glad it all worked out for you and your wife!
01-27-11, 08:17 PM
#92
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If it's on their website it will take a 10-person crew of Geeks a week to find. Most useless web site I've surfed this week.
01-28-11, 01:09 PM
#93
Part-time epistemologist
Well, it has been a long time, but we're close to a resolution. I browbeat the Sheriff into issuing citations, and the driver(after numerous continuances) goes to trial Friday. She's charged with violating the 3 foot law, and negligent driving. The State's Attorney refuses to plea bargain, considering the driver has had 4 tickets in the last year. I'll post the results of the trial as soon as I know.
We settled with the insurance company, and when all was said and done, we hit them for upwards of 20 grand.
After the trial, I'm going to be making my gripes with the Sheriff very public and very loud! Thanks for everybody's support. Wife is fine, just still gun-shy about riding on the roads.
We settled with the insurance company, and when all was said and done, we hit them for upwards of 20 grand.
After the trial, I'm going to be making my gripes with the Sheriff very public and very loud! Thanks for everybody's support. Wife is fine, just still gun-shy about riding on the roads.
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A narrative on bicycle driving.
A narrative on bicycle driving.
01-28-11, 04:26 PM
#94
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Something to think about is the insurance industry does not like paying out huge sums of money. I smell a mega lawwsuit.
Having a lawsuit will cause the driver to pay higher (extremelly) premiums on her coverage for a long time. It's equvalent to
a governmental agency doing a quasi-judgement on her.
Having a lawsuit will cause the driver to pay higher (extremelly) premiums on her coverage for a long time. It's equvalent to
a governmental agency doing a quasi-judgement on her.
01-29-11, 01:48 AM
#95
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The mandatory policy limits in most states are pathetic -- hitting a sports car could easily exceed them, and actually injuring somebody could burn through those limits in the first few hours in the hospital.
But the insurance company will only pay out up to the limit of the policy, nothing more. If there's going to be a mega lawsuit, so be it, but the insurance company won't be paying it out (unless this person had a mega policy, perhaps an umbrella policy.)
01-30-11, 02:59 PM
#96
Well trial was held, driver convicted on one of two counts. Sentenced to a whopping 175 dollar fine. It came out during trial that the driver has had four tickets since hitting my wife, one of them a DUI. The judge still only fined her $175.
01-30-11, 03:18 PM
#97
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I'm guessing that's for violating the 3' law.
01-30-11, 06:44 PM
#98
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Has she been sentenced for the DUI yet? If not, I would have a talk with the prosecutor in that case.
01-30-11, 08:22 PM
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I have to wonder where those cigarettes were, too. With a 60MPH closing speed, (bike @15, car @75, for example) 450 feet is about 5 seconds travel time. This is what I base most of my visibility mods on, and it's not that hard to achieve 450-500 foot visibility day or night. (Probably why most of the light/reflector requirements call for 500 foot visibility.) 5 seconds is forever in terms of vehicle reaction times, and a long time to be fishing for cigarettes without looking up at the road.
Last edited by KD5NRH; 01-30-11 at 08:34 PM.
