Opinions on bike accident?

[Dan Long]

I'm looking for some advice/opinions here... on Sunday my wife went out for a bicycle ride (~$1500 road bike) and as she was just getting outside of town she was clipped by a car that came up from behind her. She was riding in a designated bike lane on a 2 lane road (45 mph limit), about halfway up a slight hill when a young girl (probably 19-23) driving an 03 Toyota Corolla somehow strayed too far to the right and her passenger side mirror hit my wife's left hand and handlebar, thankfully pushing her a bit to the right before she took a nasty dive and landed in the bike lane rather than the road. The mirror was knocked off the Corolla and sent flying into the grass. The driver stopped, as did 2 cars that were behind her. The police were called and a report filed, and my wife declined an ambulance as she felt okay aside from a nasty goose egg on her hand and some significant road rash on her upper leg/hip where she landed and a few other spots that also hit the ground. She was wearing a helmet, but her head didn't hit the ground at all, so no worries of a concussion. She did go to an urgent care center later and got her hand x-rayed and a quick overall check of herself to be sure there were no fractures or other injuries.



As for the driver, she got a ticket of some sort, but we haven't seen the official report yet. Witnesses names and contact info were collected, of which one was a very nice man and his wife who offered to load her bike up and give her a ride home when the report was done, as I'm currently in New York with work. There is some a small amount of damage immediately visible to the bike, as her left shifter got bent, some gouges in the grip material and a few scrapes.



I'm trying to decide how to proceed from here... obviously the driver's insurance is going to pay for the x-rays and exam, as our health insurance will pursue them for reimbursement even if we don't do anything else. I'm guessing $100-200 for repairs to the bike and a good once over to make sure nothing got bent or otherwise damaged. She hasn't lost any time from work, and is basically okay, aside from being a bit sore and banged up. As for anything else such as "pain and suffering", I'm not the type to feel like we should get rich from this, but through ABSOLUTELY no fault of her own, my wife was injured and could have very easily been killed had that car been a few more inches over, and I feel some reparation should be made. We haven't contacted, nor been contacted by, the driver's insurance company yet, and I'm trying to figure out where to go from here...



Do you think I should contact an attorney first, or give her insurance company a call and just see if she reported the claim yet? If they make any sort of offers, obviously above and beyond any medical costs and bike repairs, what do you guys feel would be a fair amount? Any other advice for the situation?

 

[Robert Thomas]

Get a lawyer or just let go with payment for your medical, your choice. Get the bike checked by a shop and pass that along. Bikes sometime look good but have some hidden problems. As one who has been bounced on a bike quite a few times, these hits add up with age and you are left with "who do I see about this new pain" when you are 60. Glad she is well, that's what counts. Hits from behind are seldom have a good outcome. Just for information did she see it coming.

 

[Dan Long]

Yeah, I definitely plan on having a bike shop give the whole thing a good once over, as the bike is only about 2 years old and was in nearly mint condition. It took her completely by surprise, as we have very generously sized bike lanes on most of our roads and so while she heard cars approaching (it's a fairly busy road), there should have been no reason for any concern. There were no turn lanes or driveways where she was, and aside from the slight hill they were going up, the road was straight as an arrow.



I'm extremely thankful that she's okay, and I can't even begin to express the dread I felt as I read the text she sent me saying she'd been hit by a car... I was out working for a few hours and she had just told me 30 minutes before that she was headed out for a bike ride. Being 1000 miles away when this sort of thing happens really sucks!

 

[scott degroot]

by Dan Long , 2/12/2013 15:25 MT





She hasn't lost any time from work, and is basically okay, aside from being a bit sore and banged up. As for anything else such as "pain and suffering", I'm not the type to feel like we should get rich from this, but through ABSOLUTELY no fault of her own, my wife was injured and could have very easily been killed had that car been a few more inches over, and I feel some reparation should be made.

Seriously.....

 

[Doctor CAD]

If you get the medical bills paid and the bike repaired, what more do you want?????????

 

[Robert Thomas]

what more do you want

I think you "want" a couple of things in this case:



You want the individual that hit you to be properly prosecuted in court. An incident of this type needs to be on her record. You want to follow up with the court and be in court the day she is tried.



In addition to the bike and medical, you may want "pain and suffering" if it was sufficient in your mind to warrant. The court may or could award this directly in any sentence.



The only other thing that one may want is a judgement or settlement with regard to any future problem yoy may have from the injury.

 

[Jackson Ellis]

First of all, I want to preface my comment with the following: my 13 year old son's nose was broken this past summer due to a stupid stunt on the lake that my neighbor pulled. Although the medical bills were quite high (x-ray and CAT scan), and the neighbor is not a close friend, we did not sue and only got very gracious apologies from him.



I've also been in a few accidents that were other people's fault (thankfully never seriously injured), and the repayment for damage to your car is never enough because there are plenty of headaches involved with dealing with the repair, getting a rental, and just generally spending time and energy dealing with a new issue that doesn't fit in your already busy life. Plus the car is not fully restored in value, because "previously repaired accident" and "repainted" will show up on the trade-in estimate when you move on to your next car. Anyways, I've never sued anyone.



On the flip side, after pulling an all-nighter writing a FORTRAN program for a college project, I ran a red light and plowed into a car. The driver jumped out and called the accident in on his cell phone (the first one I'd ever seen!) I was thinking I would get blistered, but he found a fender and wheel at the junkyard and had a family friend do the painting. Charged me $200 which was cheap even back in the '80s.



But, there are considerations in any accident that need to be considered. I would not accept payment from the driver's insurance until I was SURE that no further complications to your wife's hand are possible. The hand has lots of tendons and cartilage, and an x-ray may not pick up injuries to these. However, if the hand is OK, the bike is repaired, and your wife got a good apology, then I'd call it even. If your wife was feeling slighted or uneasy by the driver for any reason, then only you and she can decide if you want a lawyer involved. Maybe this driver has a history of inattentive driving accidents and needs to learn a hard lesson. Maybe she was up all night on a second job so she can pay for her grandma's surgery and suing her ruins her plans. Who knows? My belief is that you be fair (to them and yourself) and you'll sleep better.

 

[Dan Long]

l1tech, not sure what the point of your message was, but it was no help.



DoctorCAD, it's basically as Redfish stated below you... this incident should be on her record, which with the ticket she received, I believe it is now, although I'm not sure exactly what her ticket was for just yet. As for the "pain and suffering", yes, I believe it warrants something. Maybe I should have been clearer when I said that "I don't feel like we should get rich"... I'm not looking for $20K, $50K or $100K and some huge lawsuit that some slightly unsavory attorneys may go after in hopes of padding their own pockets even further, but my wife was struck by a vehicle going 40-50mph due to the carelessness of another person, and she was injured. She's bruised, bumped, scraped, and sore. She had to take time out to go to the urgent care center, she's going to have to take time out to get the bike fixed. This was no fault of her own, and some sort of reparation is due, I just have no idea what a reasonable settlement from the insurance company would be, if they're likely to offer it, and whether I'm likely to need an attorney to even get them to reimburse for the medical bills and bike repairs. Since she wasn't driving her car, she doesn't have our car insurance fighting for us, and I've heard that it can be a nightmare to get the insurance company to cough up anything in this situation.

 

[Bill V]

If you're at all concerned that the driver and/or the driver's insurance aren't going to follow through on medical/repair payments, talk to an attorney NOW.



If you're at all wanting to pursue even a penny of "pain and suffering" or "lost time/wages" reimbursement, talk to an attorney NOW.



Most attorneys will do a free initial consultation, which should give you a decent idea both of what to expect from the process, and whether it will be worth it (financially or time-spent) to do so. And because laws can vary so much from state to state, any advice which would come from anyone on this site will need to be taken with a grain of salt.



Other than that--re-read ncstatewolfpacker's post. It sounds like some very sound advice born from real-world experience.

 

[H D]

While I am certainly no fan of litigation or attorneys, not all attorneys are money-grabbing-bad-people and not all people who use the services of an attorney are trying to work somebody over. The girl that caused all this has an insurance company and their attorneys on her side. I think you'll want someone on yours. Medical, damages, attorney fees and possibly missed time at work (since it doesn't appear your wife is just laying out of work waiting on a free check) are reasonable requests, IMO.

 

[Doctor CAD]

You realize an attorney will take 1/3 of whatever they get in settlement...



Not really worth it for a grand or so.

 

[Dan Long]

ncstatewolfpacker, thanks for the reply, and I must say you're clearly a very forgiving individual, and you also got really lucky in the one accident that was your fault. I've been fortunate to never have an accident in vehicle that mattered to me personally... i had a small accident in a company van years ago, and I got hit by a guy while driving a rental car for work a few months ago, so residual values and perfect repairs haven't ever been a concern.



As for the mentions of potential problems later, my wife just got done at the urgent care center again, as her ankle started bothering her yesterday, and by the time she left work today it was considerably swollen and uncomfortable to stand on. The x-rays looked okay, but they think it may have some infection in the wounds so they gave her a prescription for some antibiotics and orders to keep it elevated as much as possible for a day or two, so she might wind up missing a day of work now depending on how it's doing in the morning.



I have a call in to an acquaintance who has a law firm in town and had helped me with my divorce. He's a very honest and respectable type, and I wouldn't expect him to be the money grabbing type at all, so I'll be curious to hear his opinion tomorrow. I do understand that the standard fee for PI claims is usually 30-40% of the win, and that's acceptable to me if I need his assistance. While it sounds steep, considering that most attorneys won't charge anything if nothing is recouped, they have to make up for the cases they could potentially lose somehow. There are obviously ups and downs to this fee structure for everyone.



Hugh also makes a very good point... the driver has a slew of lawyers working on her side, and is insulated from any real losses by her insurance company. We have nothing, aside from our health insurance likely going after her car insurance for reimbursement of their costs. We're currently out two $100 co-pays to the urgent care center, $20 or so for bandages and gauze, whatever her prescription costs tonight, some damage to her bike and torn clothing, hours of time, and potentially a day or two of work now. Having an attorney on my side sounds like a pretty good idea...

 

[scott degroot]

 

[Robert Caffyn]

OK. Take a bit from each reply. Redfish is right, go after it or let it go. It seems that by reading each of your posts, that this situation is getting bigger with more costs involved. Remember an attorney is gonna take 33.3%(in New Jersey) of everything you get unless you negotiate a fee up front. Got any lawyer friends? You have the right to be present and get to comment on the charges against her. You can try to contact the appropriate court clerk, prosecutor, etc, to see if she has to appear before a Judge. You may be able to see that she has to instead of just paying the fine. She may well have to appear, as there was property damage and medical expenses involved.

If you get a lawyer to handle this, it sometimes shakes up the insurance company into paying any bills(go for a new/better bike) and some small compensation so they don't get in to a court situation.

If it were me, I'd do the lawyer thing(a friend), take my cut and make the ins. co. pay a portion to some bicycle safety group. Just to piss 'em off. But that's the way I am. Glad all are OK, good luck, Bob

 

[Bill V]

You have the right to be present and get to comment on the charges against her.

Did you mean that "his wife" has the right to do all of that? I know nothing about the legalities of it in any state, let alone in NJ--but it would seem that Dan himself, as someone who didn't witness anything and was out of state. Or do you mean that he can still comment on how the accident affected himself, his wife, and family, without actually commenting/witnessing about the accident directly?

 

[Robert Caffyn]

Bill, as far as I know(which isn't much) I meant his wife. Sorry, I misspoke. Bob

 

[Thomas Rogers]

My 2 cents:



If everything (bike repairs, medical bills, etc) are all getting paid for, your certain there will be no longer term injury for your wife, and her "pain and suffering" from the injuries aren't really that bad, then I'd say be thankful and don't feel that you need or should get back more.



The way I see it is that though there are those that like to sue for pain and suffering, and they quote things like the OP said ("could have killed her", "absolutely no fault of her's", etc), but do you really want to be lumped in with them? There but the grace of God says I.



As for the pain and the injuries, the way I see it is you take on a hobby like biking you should expect something might happen. Could have been anything that caused a bike dump. It does happen. Yes, it is negligence of a driver that caused this one.



If you want to sue for "pain and suffering" and to send a punitive message to the driver, than that's up to you. But you have to be able to sleep at night knowing that you did the right thing, that there was true pain, that the driver actually isn't sick to death about this already, so on and so forth.



I know others have said "contact an attorney", and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. But remember, their vested in getting you a settlement and most will work on a percentage basis of that settlement. The only one that usually gets money, clear conscience in this deal will be the lawyer....because they have no conscience.



TJR

 

[Dan Long]

Update on the situtation:



My wife is doing well, and being the tough woman that she is, she refused to stay home from work due to her ankle. The infection cleared up after a few days with the antibiotic.



I spoke with an attorney who I've known a long time and trust. He didn't seem anxious to take the case and go after the driver or her insurance for lots of money. He said if I wanted to, he would handle it for me, but he recommended contacting my auto insurance company as well as the driver's to see what their responses were. He did advise to not let the driver's insurance record my wife's statement at this time, if they asked, just to be on the safe side.



I called my insurance agent and apparently, since Florida is a no fault state, our insurance covers the first $10K of medical bills, regardless of who is at fault. I was surprised by this, and it sort of irritates me that my company pays for damages caused by another, but that's just how it is. I do question, though, and forgot to ask him, had we not had any auto insurance, then I would assume that the driver's insurance would be on the hook for it all? My agent then told me that the driver's insurance would handle any damages to the bike, and was very surprised that we hadn't been contacted by them yet, as it had been almost a week at this point. He advised to go ahead and call them to start the claim for the bike, but that he would take care of our medical claim.



We then called the driver's insurance (Progressive) and informed them of the accident. They had no record of it, so clearly the driver was hoping it was all gonna just go away. They took down the basic info and said we'd be contacted by an adjuster by Monday afternoon, as this was Friday evening. On Saturday my wife took the bike to the shop and got it checked out. It cost about $75 to fix the bent shifter (the mounting bolt was bent), a bent brake caliper and do a basic tune up. There was still some cosmetic damage to the shifter, seat, grip tape and wheel release lever, but we wanted to hear from the insurance company first.



Monday afternoon the adjuster called, asked a few more quick questions and then said he'd like to come by our house on Wednesday to meet with my wife and me. He showed up on time yesterday, we talked a bit about how my wife was doing and about the damages to the bike. He looked it over, we showed him the receipt we had, and we did some quick searching online for the other parts that were damaged to get cost estimates. He then wrote us a check for $275 on the spot, which covered all the parts, the work already done and another $50 for labor. Now that the bike was cleared up, he said we need to "take care of my wife". We discussed the injuries, showed him the pictures she had taken, and he offered to write us a check for $2500 in exchange for a bodily injury release being signed, which simply stated that we wouldn't sue the driver or her insurance at a later date for the accident. It does not, however, prevent us from getting further medical attention if necessary due to the injuries. We both felt that was extremely fair and agreed, he typed up and printed the forms and check, we all signed and he was out the door in less than an hour.



All in all, it was very easy and I'm glad that we didn't have to involve any lawyers. Had her injuries been more severe and more likely to have long term effects, I wouldn't have hesitated though, to be sure we were covered down the road. She will very possibly have a few minor scars to her ankle and knee, as the road rash was pretty deep there, and I don't feel the least bit of guilt accepting their offer. :haveabeer:

 

[Bill V]

Sounds like it worked out as well as could be hoped.



"No fault" is definitely a double-edged sword. I agree with you that it seems unfair that your insurance company should have to cover any part for her wrong doing. As I understand it, the concept of "no fault" is to avoid the cost and litigation of determining/assigning fault for "minor" accidents. (Yes, I realize that to those involved, your wife's accident and others like it are not "minor". But in the legal world, when compared to cases involving death/dismemberment/intentional violence/etc., I'm sure you can see how it would be classified as "minor".) The hope is that even if your insurance company pays for your costs on this particular case, the reduced litigation across all cases will result in all companies paying less. In fact, them paying your costs may be cheaper to them than it would be to litigate to force the other company to pay them.



Whether "no fault" actually works as intended is another discussion, though.



Regardless of it all, I'm glad to hear that your wife is doing well physically, and that you're satisfied with the financial outcome. I'm not surprised with how the claims adjuster treated you. Not only does "taking care of the victim" in that way help them financially as it avoids litigation headaches, but it also keeps their customers happy, and may even convince some non-customers who are involved in accidents with their customers to switch to them in the future. I remember about 20 years ago when I was in an accident which totaled my 18-month-old Acura--an acccident where I was at fault. The adjuster came in, took good care of me, and ended up paying me more for the vehicle than I had paid for it new.

 

[Robert Thomas]

She will very possibly have a few minor scars to her ankle and knee, as the road rash was pretty deep there

Trophies to the "Road Rider" welcome to the club. :haveabeer: