Riding in a century in VA on Saturday I made a legal left turn only to find myself face to face with a pickup truck pulling out of a gas station. I locked it up and went down ending up almost completely under the front of the truck. I pulled myself out from under the truck about the same time the driver was getting to me basically freaking out saying how sorry he was and that he did not see me. I(and my doctor riding partner) checked myself out and other than some missing skin I felt okay. Did a quick check of the bike and everything seemed to be working, so off we went(by the way, I was only at mile 9).
Anyway, when I got home I noticed some bike damage that I had missed. No big deal, but a pretty major scratch on the aerobars and left pedal, and one my left shoe almost has a hole burned through the shoe and the strap.
The police were not called and no report was filed with the ride organizer(yeah, go ahead and call me an idiot, but this was my first experience like this). Do I have any right to request the driver replace any of my damaged equipment. I do have his contact information.
I would call him and ask for his insurance information. Tell him you found damage and his insurance should cover everything. Sounds like you have plenty of witnesses. If he is deemed at fault it will take some some and paperwork but you should get some money to fix your bike or replaced scratched or damaged parts. This happened to me last year and I’m still dealing with some of the medical paperwork. Best news is that you didn’t get seriously hurt.
You have the right to request it but it may be a bit of a stretch without an incident report. In most accidents that I know about the driver can file it on his/her insurance. If you are really impassioned about it, the call the guy and try.
My question is did you actually hit the vehicle or did you lay it down prior. In the only incident I was involved in, I didn’t actually hit the car. I laid it down prior (ultimately saving my life). The police, in that case, deemed the driver stupid but not at fault or liable. Had the car actually hit me or me hit the car then it is different. It is kinda like if you swerve your car to miss someone cutting into traffic and you hit a pole. My understanding of the law is that while the other person caused you to swerve, you are the reason you wrecked.
It would depend on the State, to a degree, but in NC and I bet in most other states that’s wrong. It’s called the “no contact rule” and it very basically holds that you can still be responsible for causing an accident even though no contact was made b/w your car and another car.
every guy i’ve known that got hit by a car got a shiny new bike out of the deal, no joke.
my guess would be if there’s no contact, it’d be up to his honesty on reporting who was at fault (since there’s no police report), and if he did lie would just be considered “no fault” or “equal fault”. if there was contact then yeah definitely i’d try and file a report