Parked in a regular parking spot, at the back and across the spot as a bike should be. I watch in horror as this lady begins to reverse park into the spot my bike is in. I gave her the benefit of the doubt hoping she was aiming for one of the empty spots to either side of my bike. However, this was not the case, as she continued to back into my bike and pushed it over.
Damages include:
2 large cracks in my rear fairing
Rash on my Akrapovic carbon fibre exhaust
Rash on my right fairing
Rash on my mirror
Rash on my bar end and brake lever
And my handle bars are no longer straight
2 helmets were secured to the bike at the time, and both are now write offs
She asked if I would respectfully accept cash instead of going through her insurance, but I don't think she realizes how much money she is in for. Although I agreed to accept cash, if I am confronted with any form of hesitation in payment I will be contacting insurance.
Any opinions or insight would be appreciated.
Dave
I have good and bad stories to share with you:
The bad: 1st accident I got into, woman cut me off, I went down. She agreed to pay, said sorry in front of witnesses. 2 hours later she called and changed her mind! I was young and just started riding and was too scared to report it to insurance. I absorbed the cost over the winter.
The good:
1) Woman reversed over my bike across the parking lot. I had just stepped away from it and didn't even get into the store. Turn around bike on its side, messed up, alarm going off, and her getting out of the car to inspect it. When I got to her, she claimed "you parked it that way, I didn't knock it over".
I exploded calling her every name in the book and threatened to f*ck her insurance sooooo bad unless she gave me cash as per my estimate immediately. There was a bank machine in site. She called he husband immediately and he calmed me down over the phone and gave me all his details. He instructed her to pay the maximum the machine would allow (£300). I told him the damage is likely to be £500. He said to bring him the receipt and he would pay the rest. He was true to his word and paid!
2) My wife hit a van. Van driver was upset with her. She called me and handed over the phone. He was not pleased and I promised I would be over right after work to pay him cash. Which I did. He was not thankful, he was expecting it, which was fair of him.
3) Cyclist ran a red in the night in the rain. I couldn't avoid him. I hit him. We both went down. I got up and grabbed him so he couldn't speed away. I threatened to sue him in small claims for causing the accident if he didn't pay. He promised he would pay and begged me not to tell his wife. He was straight up and paid me £1700 in damages in 2 instalments over 2 weeks.
The lesson I learned is that settling up is expected and the man-up thing to do, it is not extra! Nor is it the sweet thing to do. I am not happy if someone settles my costs, I am merely kept from exploding. There is also inconvenience costs and lucky that no one was physically injured. So for me, I don't go soft on them until they pay up in full.
I full on threaten and never show a soft nice side. That being said, in all those cases it was clearly 1 sided and both sides knew it! which is the case with you.
I advise not going soft or being patient. I advise being very angry and intimidating. Because the reality is, if she changes her mind, especially since you didn't report it to the police immediately (i'm assuming) and nor did you to the insurance company, she could easily back out now and you're screwed.
From the off I give them two choices: a) Money as per my estimate immediately (which is hit or miss depending on how good you are at estimating) or b) I screw their insurance.
If they agree on the spot, which is what I did with the cyclist and the lady who knocked over my bike, I make them write a letter on any piece of paper I can find, stating they will pay me with their signature, date and a witness signature. So if they punk out in the future I can take them to small claims for breach of contract.
Now here is the scary part....in the case of the cyclist who ran the red light and caused the accident....I went to report the whole thing to the police station 2 hours later. The cop was busy dealing with shootings in the area, and I waited an hour. When I asked what I could do in small claims, the officer said "nothing, the cyclist didn't do anything wrong". I said "He ran a red light, while cycling on the road and he has to follow the rules of the road, either that or he was jaywalking then (as a pedestrian). Either way you look at it, it's his fault" The cop said "Weeeeeeell, the charge won't stick, it's no big deal to run the red light. You will be lucky to get anything out of the cyclist". This was in the UK by the way.
So go with threats and bluffs and anger and a commitment in writing super fast!
