Help me give the bad SUV driver that hit me & my bike some payback

Recently an SUV did an illegally wide right turn from the middle lane
across my path & there was a collision & the bike & I went down.
Luckily by the time of impact I had braked enough that the speed was
low & I was uninjured, perhaps due to the armoured riding suit & the
bike was undamaged except for a cracked turn signal & scratched
cylinder head cover (an advantage of the BMW boxer's cylinders
sticking out).

The SUV driver apologised & paid what I estimated to be the amount of
damages at the time & I thought I'd not even file a police report or
insurance claim but a couple of days afterwards I experienced a brief
loss of power on the freeway that reduced my speed from 65 mph to half
that until it recovered.

The SUV driver is acting skeptical about my post accident mechanical
problems & even claimed on the phone that I hit him which is
technically true but only because he illegally veered across my path.

If anyone has relevant knowledge please let me know what you think
about the following questions :

- A) What could happen if I file the truth & he lies (& I have
witnesses) ?

- B) What could happen if I file the truth & he lies (& I can't get
any witnesses to file) ?
-- C) Then can the cops possibly assign me partial blame just on his
word ?

- D) What is the likelihood of his insurance company (if he has one)
claiming the bike's mechanical problems are not due to the collision ?

My motorcycle insurance carrier is Foremost and I'm wondering if
they're going to support me in this or not help me & raise my rates
despite this not being my fault at all. This happened to me when my
last insurance carrier Recreational Products (glad they're out of the
biz now even though they were cheap) failed to pursue a hit & run
driver that knocked over my parked bike.

I'm hoping that despite anti-motorcycle prejudice that my profile
compared to his will help.

I ride a standard non-sport BMW & am a high income, professional, mid
30's & have never had a motorcycle accident though I due have some
minor traffic violations currently on my record.

The SUV driver is in his mid 20's & his vehicle isn't even registered
in CA.

The way I look at it this guy & any insurance company should be glad
that he didn't kill or injure me.

 

How do you know the problem has anything to do with the collision ?
Sounds kinda like a problem with dirty gas.

If I were this guys lawyer, the first thing I'd ask would be how do
we even know there was a problem, let alone a problem caused by an
accident ? You said it started running fine again, so there's nothing
to look at.

Also, sounds to me like you entered into a verbal contract with
this guy to accept a fixed settlement. I really don't think you're
entitled to anything more.

I think you need to find the source of the problem before you can
figure out what to do about it. Also, don't make this kind of
settlement again if you can't live with the results.

 

(Sam Iam) wrote in message

There you go. You're screwed. Not calling the cops from the scene of
the accident pretty much guarantees that you're going to have an
uphill battle & very likely get squat from anybody.

I see people do this over & over, and it really is tragic, but the
defendant's insurance co surely doesnt want to pay out if they dont
have to, and without a police report *from the scene*, it's pretty
much your word against his.

Good luck..


cds

 

Always carry a camera with you.

 

Sounds like from the tone of the responses so far that there are a lot
of SUV driving lawyers with motorcycles on this board.

In my defense & what I should've written originally was that my
"verbal contract" with the SUV driver was that he would continue to be
on the hook for anything that would come up later.

In any case I don't believe that such a "verbal contract" negates
basic traffic laws if I chose later to file a claim.

As for the guy that said that I should've called the cops from the
scene of the accident I tried that after a prior hit & run on my bike
& the SFPD told me to come in & file a report & they don't come out
unless someone is hurt so I assumed that applied for all accidents.

Next time I will call the cops from the scene & will take a picture
from my camera phone & ask witnesses for contact info regardless of
how minor any damage may appear on the outside.

I had the bike safety checked today & they said the brief loss of
power may've been bad gas or a jarred connection which they all
tightened up & the bike's fine.

This was a good lesson towards any future incident.

 

Actually, what you are getting are the responses of people who have,
as the saying goes, "been there, done that."

Not to worry. The court will protect him.

What you are dealing with here isn't traffic laws, but liability laws.
Sure the guy made an illegal turn causing an accident. Nobody is
likely to dispute that. If it goes to court, however, his attorneys
will want to know how fast you were going, too, and will do their best
to suggest that there was some contributory negligence on your part.

Yeah, they're understaffed. But if they don't come to the scene, and
don't see the wreckage, they won't issue a citation.

Good plan.

So even your mechanic doesn't know for certain that it was a
consequence of the accident. Basically, you've gotten what you're
going to get out of the guy. Any further efforts on your part will be
a waste of your time, and leave you angrier and more frustrated. Sorry
and all that, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Al Moore
DoD 734

 

If you get the urge to try that kind of agreement again, you
probably want to do it only with somebody you already know,
and only after you both know what the damages are.

Open ended agreements are a really bad idea and generally this
kind of agreement with folks you don't know is kinda iffy.

Glad it's ok. Toldja it was probably bad gas.

 

Well, he can file an insurance claim without a police report
(especially if the accident is on private property--- I've known
people who said the cops told them they don't take reports for
fender-benders on private property). I did that once, but then there
was no disagreement over what happened (I was at fault). However, the
law says that you must file with DMV if the accident is over $500
(which these days is pretty much just a scratch, given the corruption
of the auto repair industry/insurance company/fraudulent insured
persons triad).

If you didn't file with DMV within the (3 day?) period, then what are
you going to do now that you didn't do before without screwing
yourself? OTOH- he didn't file either (here is a red flag, even if
there is a verbal agreement, what is to say the other party won't file
with DMV, not telling you, and thereby screwing you in court because
you didn't!), so you're both on equal footing. Be thankful you got
what you got and you are lucky if you get anything else, unless you
can prove beyond a doubt that your problem is related to the accident,
in which case you are relying on his continuing honor to pay you.

Oh yeah, and carry a cheap (how much are the disposable ones now?)
digital camera with you to document such events in the future... just
in case. There are plenty of liars out there.