If that’s not a cycling adage, it should be, because they do. Just ask Paolo Bettini. I got hit, hooded, and wind-shielded by a non-yielding left turner yesterday. The police declined to cite her, and I feel like she genuinely didn’t see me (thus the lack of brakes), but this will probably result in weeks of insurance hassles.
I am, of course, fine, but the 4.5 pointless hours I spent in the ER after overly-nervous roommates guilted me into going (several hours after the crash) have put me in a righteously foul mood. If the (singular) ER doc had given me some pills, maybe I’d be in a better mood, but as it stands, the instructions to “put ice and bacitracin on it” and “take a few days off the bike” (for no medical reason, I might add) haven’t done much to soothe my ire.
Anyway, just thought I’d give you a heads up just in case I can’t get around to posting for a day or two. Gotta build the new rig, hassle insurers, weasel out of work (there were layoffs this quarter and they some how didn’t cut me lose) and the like. Click here for entertaining photos of the biggest waste of my time in the history of my time being wasted – and keep in mind, I majored in English.
How can they decline to cite her? If she had hit another car they would have!
No point in arguing with a policeman, especially when he’s wrong. That’s what lawyers are for.
I never left the right lane, never exceeded the speed limit, but I was passing cars on the right (traffic was slow). A car in my lane stopped to let the driver that struck me turn left, but I didn’t notice this until it was too late.
I suppose the officer was thinking that maybe the fact I was harder to see in this circumstance was mitigating? I dunno. Don’t ask me to explain the inner workings of a policeman’s mind.
Please tell me you did some damage to the car…. I’ll settle for a hood dent. Cracked or broken windshield would be perfect.
Eh, I’m not sure. I don’t think so, though. I don’t weigh so much these days…