BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

That was me. More details later [Edited]

That really sucks, hope nothings broken, and the car stoped. Glad your on your way home

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did you use a u-lock? oh wait wrong topic...

glad to hear you're doing okay given all the circumstances and that it was not worse! also thankful for kind strangers like the witness and paramedic.

SUX.

But it's good to see you can post and are not bashed too badly.

Wow, sounds like you're in decent spirits, but that's a lot to have gone through!

wow, that sucks but glad it wasn't worse - that's certainly a place where you can be travelling pretty fast on a bike.

conventional wisdom says you should ask someone from bike-pgh to delete all the details you just posted and call a lawyer.

Glade you were not hurt more seriously. Plus, I would follow up with the police report in case you need to go after her insurance company. You should be compensated for time off work, etc. (usual not a lawyer disclaimer).

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Thanks guys.

Remove it all. Call Bike-Pgh office in the AM if you can't.

You have no idea what the expenses are yet. G^d forbid next week something develops. Call an attorney and be prudent.

Hey erok, or someone, it was too late for me to remove that first post. You have my permission to do so if you see this.

You guys are right. Thanks.

The only important thing to take from my comments anyway: please be careful at that intersection, whether you're driving or riding.

@pearmask - so sorry! I hope your recovery is prompt.

This may be in some of the messages that have been deleted, but you mentioned the hospital. Did you go by ambulance? Were the police called to the accident scene?

I am trying to document when pedestrian and bicycle accidents are reported as opposed to when they are reportable, as opposed to when they show up in police blotters as an incident. It's a step in the identification and assessment of bike safety metrics.

Any information on police/paramedic attention received at the site would be helpful. Thanks (and again, I am so sorry to hear of this incident. I hope you are feeling better very soon.)

pearmask - really glad you're ok.

I hate that connector, it always freaks me out to DRIVE near it. Biking I try to avoid it. Beechwood could use a nice planted median for most of its length to make it a boulevard and narrow up the lanes. I hate how people use Beechwood (and Forbes there) as a highway.

again - Really glad you're ok.

I always take that connector when I'm coming up Forbes towards Squirrel Hill -- I have to get on Beechwood to get the rest of the way home. I've had too many confrontations at the light, turning left, where drivers just can't wrap their head around the idea that they are BEHIND a bicycle and therefore have to WAIT for me to make the turn, instead of just going ahead, like they want to. I cross over where the bike lane just... ends and then work my way past any cars turning left there onto Forbes. Works pretty well. But I would be very careful coming the other way, nobody's looking for a bike. I'm glad you weren't hurt worse.

@swalfoort:

Yes, police were called. And there was an "incident report" of some kind but not a true accident report or any kind of citation as far as i know. I don't think that's sensitive information so I don't mind reposting it.

And yes I went by ambulance - I lost consciousness briefly and was very confused when I came to, so that was a no-brainer.

glad you're ok!!!

As for the accident report, what we're talking about is what's called a "police report." Did you get one of those? Police Reports are required after a crash when there is A.) a tow and/or B.) someone goes to the hospital. If you didn't get a police report you can call the police and insist that they take one. Read more here:

http://bike-pgh.org/resources/in-a-crash/

My understanding was that there was a police report. Unfortunately I was not functioning enough to have any idea, but my boyfriend says there was. I'm going to call the police department tomorrow to confirm this kind of stuff and figure out what they were told and fill in the details that I wasn't capable of telling them at the time. Thanks for the info, Scott.

@Pear - Thanks. I was not trying to ask an insensitive question (re the police report). Since the first of the year I have been reviewing the daily police blotters to track accidents involving pedestrian and bicycle incidents. I've checked the police blotter for the day of the accident, and there's no record of your incident.

That means nothing other than my self imagined system of using the daily police blotter to try try to track pedestrian and bike accidents, so that we could work towards measuring pedestrian and bicycle safety isn't working.

I am sorry to impose my own purposes/inquiries on your experience. What you went through was horrible. But, yours was the first bike accident I was aware of this year, and the first chance to test the new monitoring system for police reporting.

pear - document everything that you can. if you have bruises, take pics of them -especially if you call a lawyer.

there is a lawyer that advertises on the front of this site that many have used.

i see two attorney names there - marc reiter / marc reisman - any recommendations?

i'm getting a cd of my ct scans showing my poor little brain bleeding. maybe i can get my collarbone xrays too

@swalfoort: i totally dont mind sharing for those purposes! i think thats important. i shared too much before and was rightfully told not to, but beyond the legal reasons, i dont mind sharing for that or just to keep other bike people informed

@Swalfoort, there was a shooting in my mom's neighborhood over the holidays. I personally counted fourteen police cars that responded to the scene that night & I heard from an eye witness that they caught the shooter. When I checked the on-line blotter a few days later all that was listed was an arrest for drug paraphernalia that night within a few blocks of where the shooting occurred. I don’t know how the blotter is created, but I think it’s worthless as a data gathering device. (sorry for straying from topic)

Mr. Reisman represented me after my accident. Highly recommended.

same here

thanks for the recommendation! hopefully this will all go smoothly... we'll see.

Legal/insurance stuff is hardly smooth sailing. It takes a very long time to resolve everything (think year+ of mostly waiting around for others to respond) and even then you might have a couple of loose ends that still aren't tied up. The point of hiring a lawyer is so they deal with most of that stuff for you, and hopefully get a larger settlement for you than if you were to tackle it yourself (or not tackle it at all).

be sure to check out our in a crash page, if you haven't found it already.

http://bike-pgh.org/resources/in-a-crash/

@dwillen: yeah... i figured. i can always dream, right? haha. the part about having someone else's help is the most important thing, since i'm not exactly rolling in free time.

@erok: i did check that out, and it was helpful. thanks!