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#1
10-16-2024, 07:01 PM
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What would you do?
I got taken out by another cyclist on the bike path here in NYC yesterday. The woman made the very bad decision to try and enter the bike path but realized at the last moment she couldn’t merge with the bike flow in her lane so she went across into oncoming traffic and crashed head on into me. Luckily we both avoided serious injury but my bike wasn’t as lucky. I’m still assessing the damage and hoping it will end up only being a bent front rotor.
I’ve been in countless close calls but this was my first collision where my bike got damaged. She admitted complete fault (kinda hard not to when she’s on the ground and facing the wrong direction of traffic!) but when I asked her if she’d be willing to give me her contact info in case the bike was seriously damaged, she refused. I decided to just let it go, told her that karma is a bitch and said goodbye. I’ll admit that if it were a guy who ran into me, and he had the same attitude, I would have likely started a fight - but that’s just me being stupid. My question is this - besides my lame passive aggressive comment to her, what can anyone do in that situation? These bikes we ride are expensive! 
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#2
10-16-2024, 07:26 PM
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Nevermind for a moment that bikes are expensive; medical treatment can be massively more expensive!
I think the right move would have been to tell her that she needed to remain at the scene and called the police immediately for a police report to be filed. Treat it just like a car accident. If she was clearly at fault and you had sustained major injuries for example, she could be held responsible for paying for those. Same with your bike. This is just me speculating, but it makes sense to me to treat it like any other vehicular accident, because that's what it was. It sounds like you both walked away from this without major injuries, so that's a huge win, but good food for thought about what to do in this situation.
__________________
http://less-than-epic.blogspot.com/
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#3
10-16-2024, 07:54 PM
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Glad we are not talking injuries...
Reminds me of a situation in the 90s. A kid in the park t-boned my front wheel. I grabbed the kid s she didn't fall [nor did I] and she went on her way. I went to move and saw a taco-ed front not cheap wheel. I watched the kid ride to where her parents where and stepped on the wheel so it would spin with the V brake open. rolled over to speak to them. I intended to have them pay for the wheel and the parents belligerently said to get lost which pi$$ed me off. As we argued about them being responsible for what their kid did, a cop stopped and asked what was up. They got belligerent with him and it started to get out of hand. The wife went and sat in the car crying, the kid was oblivious. The cop was telling them yes, they are responsible for what their kid does. After a few minutes I told the cop forget it. I said that I felt like if my bike was worth more than the car they came in, I could get a new rim and re-lace a wheel. Again, no one hurt...
__________________
This foot tastes terrible! 
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#5
10-16-2024, 08:01 PM
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#6
10-16-2024, 09:03 PM
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Summer of 2023 I'm riding eastbound on the GWB bike path from NJ to NYC, and coming around a blind corner in my lane(!) is a guy on a motorized scooter. We collide head-on. Hard. We both go down. When I manage to get to my feet, I see my bike is totalled. Top tube and down tube are both bent beyond recognition, the fork blades are no longer parallel, and the front wheel is shaped like a Pringles potato chip. I said "You hit me!" and he just says "You hit me!" So I asked for his ID, and amazingly, he gave it to me. I took photos of the front and back of his driver's license. But then I didn't call the cops. Big mistake. Next day I went to the Port Authority police station and filled out a very detailed incident report, including scooter dude's info from his license, and photos of my trashed bike. Also submitted a copy of the incident report to my insurance company. The Good News: My insurance company immediately reimbursed me for the (approximate) cost of a replacement frame & fork. The Bad News: Several months later the Port Authority police told me "there's nothing further we can do" and my insurance company told me "we cannot get reimbursed by scooter dude's insurance company." And they both told me that if I'd stayed at the scene and filled out an incident report at the time of the accident, they would have had more success pursuing a more gratifying resolution. Live and learn.
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#7
10-16-2024, 09:19 PM
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If your bike shows any damage, at the very least, get a cop to write an incident report. If you can use their language it helps: the other person failed to yield, they were travelling against the flow of traffic, etc. Police tickets are coded in NYC (and everywhere). If you speak in words that are in that code, the cops will understand what you are saying.
Always, always, always get contact info. Even if the police don't come, insurance, yours or theirs, may cover the bike. Bikes are typically covered under a homeowner's insurance policy rather than a vehicle policy. In this code, fault is implied in Apparent contributing factors by items 2, 3, 4, 7, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, etc. If you get the cop to circle one of those for the other person, you put yourself on easy street in the future. A cop won't second guess their own judgement when it comes to the courtroom.  from https://www.jcreiterlaw.com/reading-...cident-report/ Last edited by tctyres; 10-16-2024 at 09:24 PM.
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#8
10-17-2024, 08:02 AM
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If she admitted fault then said no to contact info? Take lots of pictures and call the police.....That's what I would have done.
Since she is in the wind, the repairs and anything else is your dime. Even if you find her again and confront her, she will just give you that thousand yard stare..
__________________
Chisholm's Custom Wheels Qui Si Parla Campagnolo
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#9
10-17-2024, 08:06 AM
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#10
10-17-2024, 08:08 AM
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[edit: He probably didn't have vehicle insurance, just homeowner's.] Last edited by Bob Ross; 10-17-2024 at 08:11 AM.
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#11
10-17-2024, 08:15 AM
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What would I do? Less than 500 bucks and no injuries, nothing but replace the parts. I have too many things pulling at my time to mess with it. Besides, it's not like there will be any change in the person's behavior.
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#12
10-17-2024, 11:26 AM
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That sucks. Personal responsibility is gone I guess.
I had a guy learning to ride on his fresh Walmart bike, I mean the guy was learning, suddenly swerve over into my lane on a bike path and bam! Broke both legs of my cheap $54 Chiney carbon fork on my mtn bike (yeh, I learned), and I gave him hell for my 'expensive' carbon fork, yada, yada... He grabbed a $100 bill and thrust it at me, then took off. No injuries or other frame damage on my part, so I made the call of shame and wifey picked me up. The kicker? When I took out the bill, that crisp $100 was actually two $100 bills stuck together!  Why no, I don't feel so bad after all...
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#13
10-17-2024, 12:00 PM
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__________________
Be the Reason Others Succeed
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#14
10-17-2024, 12:05 PM
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I had that happen on the west side pathway. A runner decided to u-turn without looking and I crashed right into them. Sent them flying and bloodied and my dura ace shifters damaged. He agreed to fault and gave me his contact info and paid for the damage. That’s what I’d expect if at fault…since it doesn’t go that way uncertain what to do if they run away.
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#15
10-17-2024, 12:06 PM
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