My partner was in a collision with a car yesterday. He was riding down a road in the bike lane, a car ahead of him. The car slowed a bit with his left blinker on, so my partner continued forward. The guy then turned right instead and my partner could slow fast enough, resulting in him rear-ending the car and going through the back windshield. He is doing ok- sore with stitches, but ok. Helmet for the win!
All that said, now the driver of the car is asking for his auto insurance and we aren’t sure how to handle this. Yesterday, my partner kept apologizing to the driver because there were kids in the car. So, we aren’t sure if he is being seen as “at fault” (we will be clarifying the situation with the PD this afternoon). To make this situation even more complicated, he has an Evolve GTR, which has top speeds of 22-26mph and is 3000W. In California, E-boards are defined under law as 20mph or less and 1000W max. But these more advanced E-boards dont require insurance, as insurance doesn’t see them as motor vehicles. So is it a motor vehicle for insurance in this case? Does it require us to run it through auto insurance? This is all so crazy to me.
Curious about other people’s experiences. Any input would be great!
That is the fault of the driver, not the rider. Did he record it? If so, he would be able to claim injury due to the fault of the driver. But since its California, I do not know much about their law.
This can be avoided if there was videos of this incident. And if you have witnesses, you can take it to court.
This is very vague. As long as he wasn’t going faster than 20mph it should be fine. Watts doesn’t necessarily matter. You can go as fast as 35mph on 500w motors. But its California so I’m not surprised.
No. Perhaps for California, I’m not sure.
No. It’s not an actual vehicle so it cannot have any.
No video, unfortunately. I told my partner that he needs to start using one; he agreed. There was a witness (I was told) but still waiting on the police report to see what they said. I already advised my partner to say as little as possible to the driver- only that he will follow up after the police report is complete. The driver was upset about that response. The law has such a vague gray zone on these boards. And with my partner having a head injury yesterday, he wasnt explaining anything well to the cops on the scene. He is trying to talk to the cops and make sure it is accurately recorded. Regarding the speed, he does go a bit slower in the downtown area, where he was, but this was a straight stretch right to the ocean and it sounds like he was doing 16-19mph. He does watch cars, but that car signaled left before turning right.
We aren’t trying to get money out of it. His medical will be covered by the VA and he.has sick days at work he can use. Doesn’t feel worth the time involement and cost of an attorney to pursue that. We think he will heal up, but still kinda early to know.
Good. Nowadays, without actual evidence, anyone could try to get away with something. So having videos will save trouble.
I would be too if I’ve failed to turn the way I signaled. Its not up to the person who caused it.
Same for NYC. However, I would had advised that someone else could do the report. Anyone who had head injuries needs time to recover before making any report. Which is best to not say anything until you get a injury lawyer. As b264 stated, that lawyer is to defend you from being accused for property damage, as the driver was trying to do.
No issues. You can have high watts consumption on your motors, but your speed is controlled by you. That’s why its vague.
I hope your partner makes a swift and great recovery. Remind him to expect the unexpected. It’s a crazy world we’re in.
Well, we got lucky. Turns out a store on that street has a camera and recorded the whole thing. Cops said we could request a copy in a week. I shudder to watch my man smash into the back of a car. Gonna be crazy, cool and really hard to watch.
Oh yeah, that makes sense. And yeah, we completely lucked out. PLUS, we found out last night, that the driver admitted to the cops, that he was going to do a U-turn and then didn’t. I dont think he realized the implications of what he said.
dude, I was just going to say, there’s always a camera. Always ALWAYS go back to the scene stand there and look around and you will find a camera. Doesn’t matter how fast you were going in relation to the local regulations the driver of the automobile carries a greater duty of care when operating their vehicle. Get a lawyer and best of luck.
yeah but these are sick days he can’t use for something else. Heaven forbit he has to take time off work in the future for some unrelated illness, where no one is at fault, and suddenly he doesn’t have sick days left because he used them up as a result of this driver’s poor judgement.
