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This is not my accident, but rather my 75 year old father's. Situation Riding northbound on El Camino Real in #2 lane on a 2005 Vespa ET4. Shoei helmet, light leather jacket (ie. not an MC jacket), khakis, leather shoes. He owns proper gear but refuses to wear it unless it's really cold and we're riding bigger bikes on twisty roads. Perhaps his attitude will change after this; perhaps the motorcycles will all go away- I don't know. The Crash I don't have the police report yet so details are sketchy. Southbound driver runs red left turn light, t-bones car in northbound #1 lane, which is knocked into my dad in #2 lane. Given the area of the crash, I estimate the at fault driver has a 70% chance of being uninsured. I was told by the CHP that another driver was "in major condition". The Aftermath Dislocated femur ball, multiple pelvis fractures. Jacket showed scuffs on the left rear shoulder area, and the helmet had some serious scrapes around the left temple/ear area. He's been in traction for 3 days now, and is on a Dilaudid drip, awaiting orthopedic surgery as I type this. Luckily he's in pretty good shape for his age. Also lucky is that he had no head injuries of any kind that I know of. Doctors estimate that he'll be off his feet for 3 months at least. I'll be getting pictures of the Vespa in the next few days from the Progressive adjuster. Insurance-wise, the Progressive investigator will be piecing together the timeline from the CHP report when it's released. Our policy is comprehensive but the surgery is going to test the limits of the coverage. One of my dad's rich friends from his car club will be recommending a personal injury attorney soon enough, though it may be an exercise in getting blood from a stone. Take Aways I doubt there was much room to avoid this accident, I don't know what could have been done differently. This is another in the litany of stories of riders taken out by left turners. Having ridden this Vespa, I wouldn't put a lot of faith in its ability to pull evasive maneuvers. I'll be looking in to beefing up the hip armor in my gear. I have Tourmaster pants that have soft pads right now, they should be upgraded to at least dual density.
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May 19, 2009 01:48
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Budgie posted:
Ugh, I've done the exact same thing. My problem was entering an inside right bend too hot, and seeing a pile of rocks in the middle of the road. I should have leaned in, but I panicked and straightened up. I threaded the needle through oncoming traffic, which still gives me chills to think about, and ended up on a dirt turnout where I managed to dump the bike by locking the front wheel before heading over the edge and into the trees. I came out dusty but unscathed. I didn't have a curb to contend with though. Get well soon!
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May 19, 2009 01:55
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AnnoyBot posted:This is not my accident, but rather my 75 year old father's. 12 weeks later... My dad has been walking for about a month now. His hip is crooked, but otherwise pinned back together pretty well. He went from wheelchair to crutches to a cane in roughly a week once the doctor signed off. Kids: this is why it's better to weigh 140 lb than 250 lb. The hospital bill was about $250,000. The negligent driver had $15000 of liability coverage, no assets, no license and has already returned to Mexico. My dad's under-insured motorist only went to $50000 and the $15k of the other guy's insurance gets subtracted from that, so he gets exactly $50k, no more. His attorney says it would be a solid $900k case if there were assets available to recover, but there aren't. The big question mark is if the health insurance will try to recover anything from my dad because he was treated at an out of network hospital, and then there is the question of what Medicare will spring for. Regarding the above discussion of police reports: since there was no crime (aside from the unlicensed driver) the CHP took 3-4 weeks to release the complete report. It took almost a week just for the "cover sheet" to be released with basic names and insurance policy numbers.
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Aug 7, 2009 07:51
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Rnr posted:Just want to be sure I understand the gist of it: your dad got injured due to no fault of his own and now owes a hospital $200.000? Not exactly. The bill for services rendered at the (out of network) hospital was 200k. His insurance paid this, but there is some question as to what that insurance will attempt to recover from my dad. He's paid a few grand in copays and whatnot so far. That insurance is in addition to Medicare. We have no idea how Medicare will interact with the final result either, yet. Now- if my dad didn't have health insurance or medicare, he would have a $200k bill from the hospital and a $50k payout from the sum total of Jose Assface's insurance and his own under-insured motorist coverage. That would have left him with a $150k balance to pay. However that scenario didn't happen. Oh- here's the Vespa after the accident: 
AnnoyBot fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Aug 8, 2009 |
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Aug 8, 2009 05:12
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