Collisions involving a motor vehicle are one of the unfortunate possibilities of riding your bike on public roadways. In my own case, I had ridden tens of thousands of miles over the past decade without incident. However that all changed last month when I was struck by a car as I rode home from work. When you are involved in a collision, there are key things that you should know and do to protect yourself and ensure that financial responsibility for damage to you or your bike is covered appropriately.
1. Stay Down and In Place after the Crash
Our natural human reaction in the event of a crash is to immediately jump right back up. Adrenaline kicks in, the heart is pounding and our bodies drive us to pop up as if everything is okay. However, presuming you are in no further immediate danger by staying in your present location, what you need to do if you have been knocked off your bike is to stay down and in place until medical help arrives, or at least for a minute or two to take stock of your physical condition and to give yourself or others time to assess for injuries. Should you have broken bones or injuries to your head or spine, getting up and walking around may complicate these injuries and actually make things worse.
2. Seek Medical Treatment
Because of that adrenaline rush and our own human tendency to want to avoid attention and embarrassment, another immediate response when a crash occurs is to brush things off. "I'm okay," we want to say to ourselves and others. However, the cyclist who has been hit by a car or otherwise involved in a crash is not in a position to adequately gauge this.When I was hit, I knew my ankle hurt, but it took x-rays and a full diagnosis by a doctor to show that it was in fact a leg broken in two places. Please allow medical aid to be summoned. You don't have to go on an ambulance ride to the hospital if it is not needed, but at the very least you should be checked out by competent medical personnel.
Another reason for seeking medical care is that sometimes injuries are hidden and may not manifest themselves until later. That means if you say on the scene of the accident, "no, no, I'm okay" and then go home without being looked at, you'll have a much more difficult time being reimbursed for the costs to treat those significant head or back problems that may not fully appear until 24 or 36 hours later.
3. Involve the Police
In addition to medical care, you will want to involve the police in the event of any significant contact between you the cyclist and a motor vehicle. Whether you are injured or not, the police should be aware of any collision involving a bike, if nothing else for the sheer value of noting the cyclist's presence in their jurisdiction via a police report and the fact that a collision with a car or truck has occurred.
Additionally, be aware that when a violation of the traffic laws has taken place, it is the officer's duty to note this via a traffic citation.If you believe the motorist to be at fault, it is certainly your right (and in your interest, too) to ask the responding officer if the motorist is being cited. In some collisions, of course, it is the cyclist who is at fault, so it is entirely possible that you may receive a ticket too.
Philosophically I believe it is also important that appropriate traffic citations are given in order to pin fault and responsibility for where it lies. The motorist who struck me -- a guy coming from the opposite direction who made a left turn straight into me -- was cited by the local PD for "failure to yield the right of way" which I lawfully had as a cyclist travelling on a public roadway. Not only was I satisfied that he was identified as the party at fault in this matter, but such a ticket given to him by the cops will be essential for assigning responsibility in case there is some later dispute or question of who should be covering my medical bills and reimbursing me for my damaged bike.
4. Get Witness Information and Document the Scene
In addition to getting complete contact information for the other driver, including phone number, physical address and insurance policy number, you should be proactive at capturing as many other details of the incident as you can.
In many cases there will be witnesses to the collision. If you are able, get contact information from these people. A name and phone number is sufficient at this time. If you have others riding who were with you, they can help you with this task of gathering witness information in addition to being counted as witnesses themselves.
If you are injured to the extent you are physically unable to do this, the cops and medical people will in all likelihood be involved and on the scene, and it will be the job of the police to get this information to include in their report.
Also, if you are able, either document the scene or have someone do this for you. Using the camera from a mobile phone to take as many photos of the situation as possible is the best way to do this.
What to take photos of:
- your bike, in place where it ended up if separate from you after the collision
- where you also ended up after the incident if knocked from your bike, and again, showing you in place as you ended up after the collision if there is another person who can help you document this
- the other vehicle, in particular focusing on any damage to the vehicle as a result of the collision
- specific photos of any injuries you suffered
- specific photos of any damage caused to your bike
- broad photos of the scene of the incident that convey the nature and type of road where this occurred plus capturing weather and daylight conditions
- any skid marks or other possible indications on the road surface of sudden braking, sharp turns, acceleration or other avoidance manuevers.
- anything else that may tell the story of what happened in this incident that might be helpful later to recreating the situation and help assign responsibility in event of a dispute.
5. After the Incident
In the days and weeks after the incident -- particularly if there were serious injuries as a result and incurred significant medical bills -- it is very important that you keep good records of all interactions related to this matter.
First thing to do is to get a copy of the police report and ensure that it is accurate. Next, get the insurance claim number that has been assigned to the case. It may take some time, a week or more, for this part to get started so even if this doesn't happen immediately, that is generally not a cause for concern. Naturally, keep copies of all bills received and expenses incurred as a result.
If your case is serious enough to involve police, lawyers, medical professoinal and one or more insurance companies, your record keeping will also include taking good notes of every conversation that takes place around this. Jot down the time, date, who you talked to, what they said, etc. Hopefully these will not be needed but in the event of a protracted dispute, these sorts of detailed records will be very helpful. Again, the intent is simply to ensure that if you have been negatively affected by the behavior of others in a way that they should be held responsible for damages to you or your property, that these are in fact covered in the proper manner.
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