From: jamie@access.digex.com (James Treworgy)
Subject: Bicycles & liability insurance
Organization: Express Access Public Access UNIX, Greenbelt, Maryland USA
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 19:42:51 GMT

I am posting this for David Harker, which is in reference to bicycles causing
accidents... 
** BEGIN message
  I just read your post on Rec.bicycles regarding the slight chance of
any bike ever damaging a car beyond the car insurance deductible,
and being at fault in the collision.  I'm a bicyclist (Cannondale) but
I also drive...

 A few years ago (while driving) my car was struck (on the front SIDE)
by a bicyclist.  The tubes of his frame put several nice dents in the
top 'corner' of my front fender, where it bends sideways to meet
the hood surface.  His body hit my side mirror on driver's door, which
(being a Toyota) is hinged, and flexed backwards, saving the bicyclist
a bad injury, but punching another nice dent, this time in my driver's
door.  Neither of us was moving fast, and he was OK.  Fixing the 3 dents
cost $550, and my deductible was $250, which I was NOT reimbursed for.
(and my ins. company fought for me w/ his, too).

He was at fault (admitted it) and caused serious damage to my car.
He was  a minor - the parents freaked (at me) at first, but when they
saw my car, knew their son had struck me, and not vice versa.
Even so, they fought hard to keep me from collecting my deductible from
their home-owner's policy, which supposedly covers this under their
liability coverage (or so my agent said).  So my agent dropped it (after
they mentioned 'lawsuit' to him ...  'our son was hurt - how dare you!'.

PS - I was beginning to accelerate from a stop, after the light turned
green, when hit.  He was crossing the street, failed to make it before
lights changed.  A bus next to me (also stopped at light) kept us from
seeing each other until just before impact.  The bus driver had _real_
nice view of it all, was great witness. (biker crossed in front of bus, then
hit me as I began to pull ahead of the very slow bus).

Kind of scary experience, since I often bike in traffic...
** END message

Yes, things like this happen.  But I think that the incidence of accidents
caused by bicycles is low enough that mandatory liability insurance
shouldn't be required... where do you draw the line? For example a friend
of mine was playing frisbee in the street and ran into a parked car.  He
caused a pretty substantial dent.  He was not a driver, so therefore
uninsured, and didn't have any money. I am not even sure auto insurance
would cover this type of thing.  But anyway the person whose car he
ran into got screwed because he had no way to pay for it and she
couldn't get any money out of him short of an expensive lawsuit which would
not have been worth it.  I don't think that cyclists should be required
to have mandatory insurance any more than pedestrians should.. certainly
someone is going to take a loss here and there, but that's life.  You can't
expect to have every possible situation covered for unless you live in a
communist society.
-- 
James A. Treworgy    "And it all would be so crystal clear, if it wasn't for
jamie@digex.com         the foam..."          (jamie@sun.astro.wesleyan.edu)