<< I wonder how much she had to pay the lawyer? >>


From the article: "They dropped the lawsuit and paid her $2,000—which didn’t come close to covering the $10,000 she owed in hospital and legal fees."

I didn't know bikes had a reverse gear.

Edit: I guess it could've been a fixie. Also, I just started riding with a camera today.

She probably hired a bottom feeder contingency lawyer who charged her 40% to write a letter.

To accept only 2k though is ridiculous. Lawyer did a crappy job. The driver's story that the cyclist backed into her car and caused 4k in damages is out loud laughable. That the insurance company actually adopted that position could be argued as bad faith.

Feel bad for the cyclist. This was not justice.

I was thinking the same thing, it seems like she had a crappy lawyer.

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Matt

A Fly6 on her bike would have disproved the driver

 
Just a PSA to fellow riders.

Your auto insurance can help you if you get hit by a car while riding your bike. Check your policy and state law for details but at least in Idaho your auto medical payments will apply if you are struck by a car while a "pedestrian" the definition of pedestrian includes while on a bicycle.

I always make my cyclist clients carry the max of $25k in medical payments coverage. Even if the other insurance company admists fault they will likely want your company to cover medical then subrogate against them. If they drag their feet on paying out, the hospital still wants to be paid. It is cheap coverage so get it if you don't have it.

Also the uninsured motorist and underinsured motorist bodily injury will help you if you get hit by an uninsured driver, the driver has low insurance limits or they hit you and run away.

The rider in the story likely didn't have auto insurance as a college student at UCLA, but most of us do so check your policy and adjust accordingly.

seeyouincourt wrote:

A Fly6 on her bike would have disproved the driver

I will use this post to revise my thread from last year. Get a camera - front and rear.
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...y%20cameras#p6035268

I use my gopro for every single ride nowadays, hopefully I'll never need it but; Be Prepared

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res, non verba

Agreed - every ride I have both the front and rear cameras + lights going.

I'm curious. What are you that you "always make my cyclists carry" insurance?

Serious question

Your home owner's insurance or even renter insurance often covers such incidents as activities that originate from home. My insurance covered me when I was involved in a crazy bike crash on the Philadelphia River Drives.

Not only that, but everyone should bump there UM coverage to their liability limits. Otherwise it's likely something like $15K


A good write up


https://pvcycling.wordpress.com/...d-motorist-coverage/

I am an insurance agent. I casually race with a local team and sponsor the team. Any of my riding buddies that get insurance from me are highly recommended to have high medical and UM UIM limits.

Here is a write up on it from my website.

https://www.shafferbuckinsurance.com/...with-a-bicycle-crash

Ok. That makes sense. I was a little worried you were going to say coach.

Had a friend get hit about 10 years ago. He's still recovering. Someone told me then about car insurance covering it and the ins and outs of it.

The article is describing a common situation.

The vehicle laws are written in California is such a way that cyclists are almost always going to get screwed in any legal dispute over damages. The best thing to do is to stay on the ground and take an ambulance ride to get everything checked out. Everything. I'm not kidding, and I am not encouraging anyone to make a false legal claim.

In California, the laws governing the roads place the driver in an excellent position to screw you over and claim you swerved right in front of them. The insurance companies have lawyers and will go after you for any damages to their client's car. They will.

The personal injury laws place you in a far better position and will ensure that they won't be able to screw you over so easily. If you are not hurt too badly, you should get some basic medical bills covered and your bike fixed or replaced.

Right when you hit the ground, you are a soccer player.

You're welcome.

Can you explain how you do this with a GoPro? Do you just record in one direction? How long does the battery last?

Interested to hear people's solutions for long rides. I typically ride 2-3 hours, but my camera battery (and SIM card) cant' handle much more than 1 1/2 hours of recording. How do you get the whole ride in if you go longer than an 1 1/2 hours?

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''The enemy isn't conservatism. The enemy isn't liberalism. The enemy is bulls**t.''

—Lars-Erik Nelson

That is a good article . . . This is one I wrote a few years back that is similar to your's: https://daviddaggett.wordpress.com/...-insurance-coverage/

And, here is a playlist of videos covering some of those topics: https://www.youtube.com/...t=PLEC4E3C5E5C2A78BF

Lastly, this story seems a bit bizarre . . . like something is missing; although, I see and hear crazy stories every day!

Best wishes,

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

I ditched GoPro because they were too unreliable to use as dashcams. 4K vs 1080p makes a difference making out license plates but I don't think it's that the primary goal. 4K tremendously increases battery requirements and file size.

I'm using Sonys now and they're roughly comparable: fifty minutes per battery and 75 min per 64 gb MLC microSD card. 4K requires high-speed SD cards and heavy use requires MLC.

You might be able to get 3 hrs in 1080p. My old GoPro Hero2 with extended battery pack could barely do it.

I can swap cards and batteries for my front Sony camera while riding.

There were some super massive extended battery packs for the Hero3/4. I'm not sure what exists today for newer cameras though.

Alternatively, you could use loop mode but in case of an incident you would have to be able to stop recording or hope the battery runs out before it overwrites the video.

I always wonder why civilized countries, you may think, do not adapt what Dutch and Danish did in their law, introducing strict liability, to protect vulnerable road users from more powerful road users. Under this law, in crashes involving vulnerable road users, unless it can be clearly proven that the vulnerable road user was at fault, the more powerful road user is found liable by default. This makes Dutch and Danish drivers more cautious around cyclists and pedestrians and is responsible for their safe roads.
Leaving in the country where the health service is available for those who need it is free of charge is also not a bad idea ;)
And in some cases as a member of national cycling organisation you can get liability cover included in your membership fee.

I do not in any way disagree that this should be the case. It certainly should. But I can guarantee that the part I highlighted in bold is never going to happen. People simply don't think in terms of liability no matter what they are doing. Especially the types of people that would hit a cyclist.

I'm not sure about the laws in different states or countries, but the GoPro is not going to save you from the driver's insurance company in California. The insurance companies here can simply blame you and make up a narrative that places you at fault. That is exactly what happened with the UCLA student and that's what happened to me.

I took this photo from the ground immediately after my accident. The driver was 91-yeas old and was backing away. You can see the skid marks leading up to my bike.



I was told that this proved the driver' claim that I had swerved in front of her when she was trying to get around me. The skid marks were already there, they said, and I was hit on the left side of the lane and landed on the right side. Yep. And that's all they needed to do. The insurance company will simply use your GoPro to build their narrative of your fault in the crash. It's not that difficult. The insurance companies know the laws because they wrote the laws.

Again, any bike crash needs to be handled in the arena of personal injury law. You have good odds there. Stay on the ground and take the ambulance ride, or you could easily be blamed for the crash and held liable for all damages to their car, let alone your bike and your medical.

And again, I am NOT encouraging anyone to make false claims. I wish the laws governing the roads made it possible for bike crashes to be handled in a more equitable and less lawyerly manner. They don't. Unless you live in Copenhagen, stay on the ground.

I have 2 of the basic GoPro Hero (the $130 version) which will run for 2-2.5 hours before the battery dies. For long rides, I use electrical tape to hold a small power bank on the stem for front camera and on the seat post for rear camera. I am able to max out the SD card (at 720p) at about 4.5 hours and the battery is still almost full. If nothing had happened that I needed video at that point, I can easily delete it and then start a new video.