Today A Car Hit Me–Intentionally

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  • January 7, 2011 at 5:35 pm #924393
    Tim Kelley
    Participant

    Thanks for the report! Were you hurt? Is the bike okay?

    I’ve found that when I have the right of way at particularly difficult interesections, getting off the bike and walking it through the crosswalk seems to garner less dirty looks and honks than riding it through.

    January 7, 2011 at 5:45 pm #924394
    gregbilling
    Participant

    Did you call the police / get a police report? I know that it isn’t the first thing on your mind after a terrible situation like this but it’s worth it.

    WABA is working with Councilmember Mendelson to hold a hearing about pedestrian and cyclist safety and how MPD helps (or doesn’t) help in enforcing the law. So, it’s important that people are calling the police and that the police are doing their jobs correctly.

    I hope you’re ok.

    January 7, 2011 at 5:57 pm #924395
    Mykeru
    Participant

    Tim,

    When I hit the ground I landed on my elbow, but I wear Six-Six-One elbow/forearm guards. Experience there.

    My bike is anything but fragile. The other day I was carry a box of hunting boots (for camping) on the back when one of the bungees snapped and the cord and hook swung into the back wheel. And then got chewed up and spat out. Over the years I’ve taken my stock Giant Warp DS2 and modified it so it’s basically tough as a mountain bike, fast as a road bike and suitable for pretty much all terrain.

    The thing in question:

    thebeastdownload.jpg

    I agree that getting off the bike gets less honks and dirty looks, but at the same time, it makes me even more vulnerable. I’m not sure which is better. It’s like this: My biking clothes tend, like the bike, to be all black and grey and a lot of florescent yellow. The thing is, that works if drivers are merely inattentive. If they are actually trying to kill me, then camouflage might be a better option.

    January 7, 2011 at 6:05 pm #924396
    Mykeru
    Participant

    Greg,

    Unfortunately, and I know we have to go through process and all, after a point I’ve decided that any interaction with the police, over biking or otherwise, isn’t in my best interests.

    Way back when Alice Swanson was run over in Dupont Circle, I took a video camera to document abuse of the bike lanes. The police didn’t care about cars using the bike lanes, or delivery trucks unloading kegs right in the bike lane. What they were concerned about, of course, was having me present ID for the suspicious activity of videotaping in public. That’s one of about a dozen Terry Stops I’ve gotten for taking pictures.

    At the same time, one cyclist who asked what I was doing told me that once they were hit by a car and, while they are laying in hospital, the police dropped by to write them a citation for failure to yield.

    A lot of my failure to report (and remember, I have nothing, like a license, to report) has to do with my perception of the role of the police these days: When swat teams show up evict people in foreclosure you can pretty much figure out “protect and serve” isn’t on their list of priorities like, oh, traffic revenue and kicking hippies is.

    So, unless it’s absolutely, positively necessary, I don’t talk to the police. Ever. They aren’t there to help me.

    January 7, 2011 at 6:33 pm #924397
    acc
    Participant

    I think maybe it’s time to mount an RPG on your bike.
    Seriously, I am so sorry this happened to you. I hope over the next few days your body doesn’t come up with new injuries.
    I don’t trust motorists. Been hit in a crosswalk by an idiot who stared at me the entire time he glided into me. Then left the scene. Hope you’re ok.

    ann

    January 7, 2011 at 7:24 pm #924398
    CCrew
    Participant

    Yikes. Glad you’re ok. That’s the most important of all. And far from condemning you, I think you handled it fine. Classic case about drivers thinking surrounding themselves in a ton or so of steel makes them superior.

    January 7, 2011 at 8:26 pm #924403
    eminva
    Participant

    Wow, very sorry to hear this. I hope you are okay. We all dread this encounter and I wouldn’t criticize anything you did.

    Love your bike!

    Liz

    January 7, 2011 at 8:40 pm #924404
    Mykeru
    Participant

    @acc 1756 wrote:

    I think maybe it’s time to mount an RPG on your bike.
    Seriously, I am so sorry this happened to you. I hope over the next few days your body doesn’t come up with new injuries.
    I don’t trust motorists. Been hit in a crosswalk by an idiot who stared at me the entire time he glided into me. Then left the scene. Hope you’re ok.

    ann

    Ann…Well, he just didn’t see you…

    Isn’t it appalling how that excuse actually flies? After Alice Swanson was killed in a right hook by a garbage truck, the truck driver was able to say “Well, I didn’t see her” and that was good enough.

    Me, I’m not at all injured. I’m pretty resilient and I wear body armor on my arms.

    One day a couple months ago I was out shopping. On my bike with my Bob Ibex trailer when a guy outside REI in Bailey’s Crossroads saw the Six-Six-One guards I wear and said “That’s a good idea”, then lifted up his arm to show his elbow. It looked like someone took a spoon to the skin and scooped it out. The arm guards not only protect me in a fall, but when herded into a stationary object by some idiot, I’ve been able to use them to slide along and recover nicely, rather than putting out my arms and breaking them, or hitting handlebar-first, which never ends well.

    January 7, 2011 at 8:43 pm #924405
    Mykeru
    Participant

    @CCrew 1757 wrote:

    Yikes. Glad you’re ok. That’s the most important of all. And far from condemning you, I think you handled it fine. Classic case about drivers thinking surrounding themselves in a ton or so of steel makes them superior.

    I’m sure that one can do an entire psychological study of the American psyche related to cars. From doing it in the back seat, to status, to the psychology of tailgaters and people who cause congestion by obsessive lane changing. In fact, I’m sure someone has.

    January 7, 2011 at 8:51 pm #924407
    Mykeru
    Participant

    @eminva 1762 wrote:

    Wow, very sorry to hear this. I hope you are okay. We all dread this encounter and I wouldn’t criticize anything you did.

    Love your bike!

    Liz

    Nice to know I handled it within the tolerance levels of my Scottish-Italian heritage. I was sure someone was going to inflict me with Internet Omniscience.

    Love my bike too, that’s six years of modification, including all Shimano gear sets, including an extra-large third chainring so I can power downhill.

    You see, way back when I was married, my then wife wouldn’t let me buy a high-end bike. So I told her I was going to buy a mid-line bike and then, when anything broke or wore out, I would replace it with the best parts. Grady at Papillon Bikes refers to it as “The Giant with no stock parts left”.

    Of course, my then wife would complain when parts wore out. She would say “Can’t you bike more carefully”, as if that would prevent parts wearing out when I was biking 100 miles a week. It was either her or the bike. I obviously still have the bike.

    And where I moved on Columbia Pike, its now only 50 miles a week to commute. Irony abounds.

    January 7, 2011 at 8:55 pm #924408
    Joe Chapline
    Participant

    @Mykeru 1763 wrote:

    Ann…Well, he just didn’t see you…

    Isn’t it appalling how that excuse actually flies? After Alice Swanson was killed in a right hook by a garbage truck, the truck driver was able to say “Well, I didn’t see her” and that was good enough.

    There was a case a few years ago when a woman killed a cyclist while driving with frost all over her car windows, and I think she was lighting a cigarette. Her defense was that she didn’t see the cyclist. I should check my facts before I post, but I think that was in Maryland, which at the time had a very difficult standard to prove “gross negligence,” which would make it a more serious crime. She had to pay a small fine. There was some movement recently on changing that standard for drivers who injure or kill someone, that may have passed, I’m not sure.

    What happened to you was not negligence, though, that was assault with a deadly weapon. I’m glad you’re not hurt.

    January 7, 2011 at 9:10 pm #924410
    CCrew
    Participant

    @Mykeru 1766 wrote:

    Grady at Papillon Bikes refers to it as “The Giant with no stock parts left”.

    I have a Trek that I can say the same thing about. I hear there’s a 12 step program for it… I’d never make the first 10 days!

    January 7, 2011 at 9:21 pm #924411
    Mykeru
    Participant

    @CCrew 1769 wrote:

    I have a Trek that I can say the same thing about. I hear there’s a 12 step program for it… I’d never make the first 10 days!

    “We admitted we were powerless over upgrading and our lives became unmanageable”?

    January 7, 2011 at 11:10 pm #924413
    Just161
    Participant

    Wow, Mykeru, what a crappy crappy thing. I don’t think you escalated the situation – in fact, I’m impressed you stayed as calm as you did. I’ve reacted much worse in similar situations.

    Something about being behind a windshield makes you forget that the world around you is still full of living, breathing fellow human beings. The willful anger that driving can induce in otherwise normal people is frightening.

    Not sure if it would help, but you could send your letter to DDOT or NPS or someone and see if they could put up a sign or something? Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but we shouldn’t let these kinds of things go completely unreported. At worst, reporting and complaining does nothing. At best, it might help the situation in the future.

    Glad you and bike are okay.

    January 8, 2011 at 1:21 am #924415
    acc
    Participant

    I am glad you are ok and came out of this misadventure in one piece. I am sorry you weren’t supported in your cycling, that stinks on so many levels. Please let us know of any new soreness or injuries surface over the next two days. As a former nurse I can tell you it may not hit you for 48 hours. But you already know that I am sure. Most of all, keep fighting the good fight and look into that RPG thing, maybe a small caliber machine gun mounted turret-style would work.

    Ann

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