jaleena
11-10-2004, 05:31 PM
I saw Annie's hit and run story, and that someone mentioned Victim's Comp. I didn't have medical bills (probably should have, but I was too confused until it was too late), but would feel better if some sort of point could be raised, public awareness or driver education or something...there are plenty of helpful things that could be done with the money after I got my $4 back for the box of band-aids I had to buy. ;)
My wreck was definitely less of an accident than hers, but occured five weeks ago, so I don't know if there's anything I can still do. I filed a police report at the time, but since I couldn't provide a license plate number, the officer told me that the only hope was for the guy to turn himself in. It was a common car in its most popular color, so to a point I understand that he was just being honest with me, but I wish there were something that I could do.
The story:
I was staying to the right of the rightmost lane, which was a turn-optional lane. The driver would have hit the car behind me had I not been there, he cut off at least both me and that car while not using a turn signal and speeding. He wound up in front of me, at a diagonal, with about six inches between my front tire and his passenger door, me going about 14mph. Through some combination of miracle and great handling, I managed to balance against his SUV to take the turn with him. I saw him look at me in his rearview mirror, while accelerating, seeming to become more upset that I wouldn't fall under his back tire...the only other outcome I've been able to come up with as a possibility in the hundreds if not thousands of times I've re-played the event in my mind. By the time I was able to separate from his car I was going at least 30mph, and given the distance it took me to break I wasn't even sure how far I'd been carried by him. This vehicle had its license underneath its bumper, so between the terror of the moment, trying to pull over and see what the damage was, and his speeding off, there was no way for me to get the plate...since then I've tried looking at plates on vehicles with this set-up and found that it's very difficult even in good conditions. I don't know if there's any way to try to get that design changed. It turned out that the only damage from that wreck was a 2nd-degree burn on the inside of my left arm from where I was leaning on his car. At the time I was too freaked out and shaking too much to know it was even that bad, so I just got some neosporin on it, it was a couple days later before I was sentient enough to realize that the skin was bubbling and getting rubbed and that I really needed a band-aid, and possibly should have recieved burn treatment when it happened...the spot still doesn't look normal, but at least the itching and sensitivity are finally gone.
I rode another half mile back to my work, where I felt safe waiting for a ride the rest of the way home. I cut back to just commuting, no pleasure rides, for a while until I felt less shakey, and still haven't been back to that intersection.
My wreck was definitely less of an accident than hers, but occured five weeks ago, so I don't know if there's anything I can still do. I filed a police report at the time, but since I couldn't provide a license plate number, the officer told me that the only hope was for the guy to turn himself in. It was a common car in its most popular color, so to a point I understand that he was just being honest with me, but I wish there were something that I could do.
The story:
I was staying to the right of the rightmost lane, which was a turn-optional lane. The driver would have hit the car behind me had I not been there, he cut off at least both me and that car while not using a turn signal and speeding. He wound up in front of me, at a diagonal, with about six inches between my front tire and his passenger door, me going about 14mph. Through some combination of miracle and great handling, I managed to balance against his SUV to take the turn with him. I saw him look at me in his rearview mirror, while accelerating, seeming to become more upset that I wouldn't fall under his back tire...the only other outcome I've been able to come up with as a possibility in the hundreds if not thousands of times I've re-played the event in my mind. By the time I was able to separate from his car I was going at least 30mph, and given the distance it took me to break I wasn't even sure how far I'd been carried by him. This vehicle had its license underneath its bumper, so between the terror of the moment, trying to pull over and see what the damage was, and his speeding off, there was no way for me to get the plate...since then I've tried looking at plates on vehicles with this set-up and found that it's very difficult even in good conditions. I don't know if there's any way to try to get that design changed. It turned out that the only damage from that wreck was a 2nd-degree burn on the inside of my left arm from where I was leaning on his car. At the time I was too freaked out and shaking too much to know it was even that bad, so I just got some neosporin on it, it was a couple days later before I was sentient enough to realize that the skin was bubbling and getting rubbed and that I really needed a band-aid, and possibly should have recieved burn treatment when it happened...the spot still doesn't look normal, but at least the itching and sensitivity are finally gone.
I rode another half mile back to my work, where I felt safe waiting for a ride the rest of the way home. I cut back to just commuting, no pleasure rides, for a while until I felt less shakey, and still haven't been back to that intersection.