| Author | Message | ||
     Paul56 |
A mile from home Monday night, slowing from 40 to 30 at an intersection that has a gutter with running water when it rains (pavement wet, rain ended) I got rear ended by a hit and run driver. Clipped the left rear corner, knocked the bike on its right side, I flew up and back, landing more or less flat on my back. Heard the tires sliding, felt the big bang, then nothing. Came to about ten minutes later on my back staring up into a black sky with a lot of emergency personnel looking down at me. They took me to UCI Trauma, spent 2 nights there, came home yesterday. Cracked sternum, very sore lower back and neck. All in all pretty fortunate. All the gear (Joe Rocket Alter Ego 3.0 jacket purchased the day before at LB IMS) did a good job. Huge scrapes on the back of the Shoei RX1000 helmet, hole above right cheek in my Rocket Ballistic pants (NO abrasions on me anywhere except where my eyeglasses dug into my nose and cut it), gloves and boots unharmed. Other than me not having any idea who did it, two "witlesses" told the cop that I laid it down after going through the intersection and she said her investigation (5 years experience!) indicated it was a single vehicle incident involving one party. Even when she was interviewing me as I was coming out of the CT scan and had only been conscious for about 30 minutes I was telling her I was hit from behind. Wife got the bike home from impound ($200 for one night) and a quick glance as I got home yesterday showed impact marks on the left rear and slide marks all over the right side. It really, REALLY pisses me off that an untrained cop is allowed to make an uninformed judgment that I was at fault for what was a felony hit and run. Very grateful for the result considering how it could have ended but also very heated at the bureaucracy. I won't be letting this go. | ||
| Pnw_uly |
Paul - Glad to hear you are (more or less) okay. . . Do whatever you can to fight this - - sure makes mounting a small camera on bike/helmet seem like a good idea. . . Hope you and the Uly are back on the road soon. . . | ||
| Griffmeister |
Glad you're still in one piece. Hope you can get somewhere with the investigation. Good luck. | ||
| Buellerxt |
I'm glad you are okay, relatively speaking, Paul, and hope the bike is okay. That kind of collision is my worst fear; hit from behind at a stop and/or intersection. I agree with you on cops. Many want to avoid doing the proper investigation of accidents and often opt for a simple explanation, right or wrong. Sad. I hope you prevail but the deck is stacked. Good luck. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I'm so sorry. That has to be really hard to go through. In my crash the cops went above and beyond to be on my side (as they should have). I can't even imagine trying to go through it swimming upstream against a non favorable police report. Hopefully the physical evidence makes clear what happened. If you want pictures of a Hepco that had a hard bounce after a Uly doing an epic stoppie hit a moving left turning corolla bars first, let me know and I'll be happy to give you one. These bags seem insanely strong, so if you have visible impact indicators, you REALLY got popped. | ||
| Ronmold |
Wow! Hoping you heal up well. Maybe it was that cop who hit you! | ||
| Rodclement |
Glad you are well, the bike you can always replace. The evidence should clear you but that sucks! Rod | ||
| Hughlysses |
Paul- glad to hear you and the Uly are still intact. Seems like your best argument as to the cause of the accident are your injuries. How the hell could you have cracked your sternum during a low-side? | ||
| Buewulf |
Maybe it was that cop who hit you! Haha! In all seriousness, I am glad you are OK. Go easy on the cops. They are expected to make quick judgments on events they didn't witness. If two people on the scene were telling me that it was a single vehicle accident, I'd be inclined to believe them, too, even if your bike looked like it may have been hit. (No, I'm not a cop.) That said, I would take photos of the bike showing the evidence of the impact and fight it. | ||
| Thejosh |
Dang that sucks. My wife was in a hit and run in her SUV, but the cops said it wasn't a felony any short of the offender coming into the police department and surrendering, there was nothing they could do. Hope you feel better! Sounds like your gear really helped you out on this one. | ||
| Etennuly |
Check with the witnesses if you can. I could be that they told the officer that they came around the corner and saw you laying there with no other cars around. That could have started an assumption. On the other hand, maybe these were the idiots who hit you, and came back to see if you were dead to pick your pockets! Good luck with that, glad to know you will be ok. Awesome thing that they could not kill a 100,000 mile Uly! | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
Sorry to hear about this, but glad you were ok. Totally understand the frustration you must be feeling with the investigation. Had a similar situation many years back with an unfavorable police report that showed me at fault in a car vs. car collision. No witnesses and the original police report depicted me turning left into the other driver. In reality the other driver turned left entering my right of way(sidenote-this is the most common scenario in a car vs. motorcycle crash). In the rainy, foggy winter morning conditions on slick pavement, the initial impact caused the car I was driving to spin around and strike her car, causing a second impact. After receiving the police accident report, I promptly submitted a revised version of said report, including pictures, IIRC, and the other lady agreed that my version was accurate. Her insurance picked up the tab for the repairs and a rental car and the ticket against me was dropped. I was lucky, some people would not be as honest as that lady. Good luck to you in finding speedy resolution! | ||
| Pontlee77 |
I'm glad you're injures are not to big, maybe the best idea if by any chance there is some color marks on your bike from the car, go to a few garages and i'm sure the car must be is repair procedure, also the bike would leave some specific marks on the car, that's my best bet. | ||
| Bike_pilot |
Glad you aren't worse off. I'd focus on healing up and fixing the bike, the cop situation is par for the course and you won't be able to change that. Even if the cops were worth a crap they almost certainly wouldn't locate the hit-and-run driver and even if they did, then what? Without solid witnesses it seems super-unlikely you'd be able to prove anything even if they had insurance and/or assets sufficient to cover the judgment. | ||
| Paul56 |
Thanks to all for the good wishes. I really don't care if the insurance company pays off or not. I don't think the repair cost will be significant. It's a point of pride about the blame assignment. I've been riding (and driving)on the street for over 39 years and have never been in an accident. The only two times I've been on the ground was 39 years ago while turning left through an unseen patch of spilled antifreeze at 10 mph on my CB125 and 30 years later while attempting to get through 50 yards of packed snow in the southern Sierras on my Yamaha 650. I even knew I would go down that time. I will prepare an addendum to the officer's report (was told I could do that) and hopefully get a favorable account from the insurance adjuster. I don't think the officer wants to be shown she could have been wrong. I'd be satisfied if she would look at it as a teachable moment and maybe be a little more thoughtful in the future. Meanwhile I hope to get some pics up of the bike and gear, maybe tomorrow. The latest bad news was- my wife was returning from the pharmacy with my meds and stopped with a group of cars for a firetruck going through the intersection ahead of her with lights and siren on. She heard an impact a little ways behind her and saw a motorcyclist lying in the street a few cars back- looked like he had been rear ended in the slow down. She was almost beside herself with anguish when she got home. I know there's a reckoning coming and I dread it with all my heart. | ||
| Etennuly |
Maybe that same driver is still loose in the neighborhood! You have his MO now. Set a trap. Just ride slow around the neighborhood watching the mirrors,  and stop every once in a while. | ||
| Brucespoint |
1st, Bless Your 100,000 mile Uly, gives me Hope for my 07! And Tell your wife that riding is the stuff of Life, an Excellent Carrot to keep the Spark going! Then, check out this link, accident recorder for the Iphone, search Gizmag, about 5 different versions came up in the search. http://www.gizmag.com/icar-black-box-app-for-iphon e/17724/ Don't own a Iphone myself, but planning on getting a Contour GPS before next riding season. Heal well, dodged tha bullet... this time, gotta say, Your stated record is one of the best I've heard, that sounded plausible, must be a cautious fellah! Keep it up! b. | ||
| Hooper |
Glad you're not hurt worse...did you hit your head to knock you out? And I REALLY hope you weren't cited for "Failure to Control". | ||
| Fordhotline |
Glad to hear you came away ok. Cops are quick to blame motorcyclist for being at fault. Resposable riders get a bum rap from all the idiots on the road. And the officers see mostly those stupid people. Good luck finding those involved! Not surprised they didn't stop. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Hope you tatoo'd that scumsucker's cage. Heal fast. | ||
| Pnw_uly |
Another thing to consider - - any DOT traffic cameras in the area? Even if not on the intersection itself, may be able pinpoint the culprit "in the area" at the time of the incident. Have no idea how to obtain those images from DOT, but may be an opportunity to prove your case if they were present. . . | ||
| Merc16 |
That is a good suggestion, about the cameras. Glad you made through. No matter what, I think you should hold on to that bike. You two have been through a lot! | ||
| Cityxruss |
Well that sucks. I'm glad you're alright. How would an insurance adjuster not total your bike? I've heard they total Buell's quickly. I think Etennuly is right - the 2 witnesses were probably the ones who hit you, and lied to the cops to get away with it. That's my theory at least. I hope it all works out okay in the end. 100K on a Uly is remarkable. | ||
| Ourdee |
See if your insurance co. will investigate. Hire an PI. Call the state police. Talk to the officers boss. |
