Anything Goes

Re: Got sideswiped! Newspaper update page 8

mlarivie — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 04:27:04 GMT

Just remember if your on the warrior and you catch him on the road, kick his fuckin mirror off!

Re: Got sideswiped! Newspaper update page 8

Arizona Warrior — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:12:09 GMT

Its official. You are back in the saddle!

Ken (A.K.A. Big Shasta):

Ultimate closure....I just finished a 16 mile ride, the first since 9-1-2007 (the day I got hit).

Going to take some getting used to with the new ergonomic limitations but it was an awesome ride. It all feels like history now.

Be safe out there and please be courteous to cyclists.....they deserve some road too.

Re: Got sideswiped! Newspaper update page 8

Bill Moore — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:32:50 GMT

Great to hear you can get back on the cycle. I just started doing this recently and riding on the road scares the crap outta me. I was riding down a short stretch recently and was in a valley with a brigde overhead. Some genious decided to come up behind me with a train horn and blow it. I almost swerved out in front of him. Keep getting better brother.

Re: Got sideswiped! Newspaper update page 8

jabo — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:22:46 GMT

I am glad it has worked out in a way that has your approval. My prayer is now that you have no further problems with the physical impairments afflicted on you and that your surgical proceedures never have to be repeated. Take care my friend, glad you have a good report.

Re: Got sideswiped! Newspaper update page 8

southboundchicken — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:47:41 GMT

OldMan:

Glad to hear it Ken. It's been a long journey for you. Sure glad it is, for the most part, behind you now.

+1 when life tries to knock you down you pick yourself up, flip it the bird then keep on trucking dude good going ken

Re: Got sideswiped! Newspaper update page 8

OldMan — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:29:53 GMT

Glad to hear it Ken. It's been a long journey for you. Sure glad it is, for the most part, behind you now.

Re: Got sideswiped! Newspaper update page 8

Ken (A.K.A. Big Shasta) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:13:18 GMT

Ultimate closure....I just finished a 16 mile ride, the first since 9-1-2007 (the day I got hit).

Going to take some getting used to with the new ergonomic limitations but it was an awesome ride. It all feels like history now.

Be safe out there and please be courteous to cyclists.....they deserve some road too.

Re: Got sideswiped! Newspaper update page 8

OldMan — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:36:08 GMT

I missed this last week. Congrats of having it finally settled and thanks for the info on insurance. Good luck to you in the future.

Re: Got sideswiped! Newspaper update page 8

Ken (A.K.A. Big Shasta) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:58:44 GMT

One final thought about insurance that I should have included.

Having enough coverage protects you on both sides....meaning if you are at fault, a person can't come after your assets until they have damages that are over the total coverage on both sides. If you have 25K coverage and so do they, it's easy for an accident with injuries (even if they aren't that serious) to exceed 50K. If they have to sue you for another 100K then they can....they might not be able to collect 100K from you if you don't have it but they can get a fat judgement against you for the rest of your life.

Re: Got sideswiped! Newspaper update page 8

southboundchicken — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:25:18 GMT

ken, glad you were able to find some closure although you will live with this the rest of your life i'm just glad to know that you were able to reach an acceptable settlement (or as acceptable and reasonable as you could expect). thanks for sharing this ordeal with the rest of us and its surely given me some "food for thought" in terms of insurance coverage. good luck on your bike ride dude you deserve it

Re: Got sideswiped! Newspaper update page 8

54warrior — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:48:35 GMT

Glad its working out for you. Thanks for the information on the insurance, I'm gonna have to check into that.

Re: Got sideswiped! Newspaper update page 8

06_warrior — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 01:35:44 GMT

You will be able to ride your bike again and over come. I have a bad leg and i ride my trek mountain bike and have over come my limitations. The only time you fail is when you give up. Glad you finally got some $$$ to ease your financial burdens. Although $$$ can never replace your pain or loss at least it can help. Glad to hear the out come.

Re: Got sideswiped! Newspaper update page 8

garnerwarrior — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 01:01:46 GMT

Glad to see that this long ordeal has come to an end ,and this end was agreeable to you! You have been thru a lot and I hope the $$$$$$ in some way help ease your pain and suffering. But i'm willing to bet you would have been just as happy to have had this never happened. Don't know how much $ you got and am not asking, but if you have any future problems that money won't go as far as it seems now. OH wait The Pres. is going to reform health care and you and I are going to be well taking care of. (WAKE up Dorothy you are not in Kansas anymore) back on topic . I hope you never have any more problems and all your future rides are memorable for other things. Take care Ken and enjoy the Payday you have earned it!

OH 1 other thing ---- I still say we throw this low life a Good Ol Fashioned AZZ whuppin Party , So he can experience some of the pain and suffering you had to

Re: Got sideswiped! Newspaper update page 8

Ken (A.K.A. Big Shasta) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:14:24 GMT

Well, this is finally behind me. It's been quite some time since the accident:

677 days, 10 hours, 25 minutes Or 1 year, 10 months, 8 days, 10 hours, 25 minutes

But we signed the final settlement on Friday 7-17-09. We were prepared to go to court and sue my insurance company for a decent settlement when they came forward with a fair settlement offer. I was patient and was even willing to stick it out as long as needed to get what I felt was right. I was never trying to get a huge paycheck, just a fair amount for what I will live with for the rest of my life and for what me and my family have been through to date.

The lessons I learned are:

1. Make sure you have enough car insurance coverage. The basic amounts required by law are grossly inadequate A car accident is a car accident regardless if you're riding a bike and get hit by a car or you're crossing the street and get hit or driving your car. It protects you in more ways than you think. I would have been in a horrible position if I hadn't have changed my coverage from 25,000/50,000 unstacked to 300,000/500,000 stacked about 6 months before I got hit. Had I not changed it, the max coverage for this accident would have been 100,000 coverage the guy that hit me had and the 25,000 I had.....not very much for any accident that required surgery and left me with permanent injuries. Because I had changed it, there was 100,000 worth of coverage from his ins company and 900,000 dollars worth of uninsured/underinsured coverage from mine (I had 3 insured vehicles with STACKED coverage which means the 300,000 is multiplied by 3). My attorney told me 90% of the people he talks to have way more injuries than coverage, thankfully I was the opposite.

2. Get a good attorney (not an ambulance chaser) who is fair and reasonable (mine was awesome). The typical fee charged by a personal injury attorney is 33.3% for an out of court settlement and 50% if they go to court. My attorney was willing to negotiate those rates due to the clear fault of the other party and the fact that there was plenty of coverage (points I strongly presented).

3. I have a permanent limitation to my arm and will require yearly X-rays/examinations by my orthopedic surgeon to be sure the metal implant is still seated tightly. I’m also told I could require another surgery due to the typical life of my implant being ~10 years. My health insurance provider paid all my medical bills (minus normal copay) as they were incurred with the understanding that they would get reimbursed in the end for ANYTHING they paid out. This comes out of any settlement dollars before you see anything. Also, once a settlement is reached, your insurance company will not cover any other costs related to the injured area. The annual medical exams and future surgery WILL come out of my pocket 100%. This also includes re-injury unless it can be proven that the “re-injury” would have occurred with or without the prior injury (probably not an easy fight).

4. Be patient and let the system churn slowly. It probably would have been another year if we had waited it out and went to court but thankfully we didn't have to. The other parties are counting on your impatience and will drag their feet hoping you will take one of the first few offers. The first offer I received didn’t even pay the medical costs let alone any real settlement or future medical costs.

5. Document everything. I have a huge binder with every phone call conversation, newspaper clipping, medical bill I ever received. I developed spreadsheets with lost wages, total out of pocket medical costs, and insurance company medical payments. My attorney was very impressed with my organization when he needed information.

Hopefully those points will help anyone (God forbid) that finds themself in a simi;lar situation.

After hanging in my garage for a long time, my Trek road bike came down off the wall today and is going to be looked over by a local bike mechanic and I will attempt to ride again possibly this weekend. It will probably be tough with the limitations of my arm but my aero bars will be a big help. It's hard to explain, the feeling is close to motorcycling and probably only the road cyclists will understand but I've got to get back out there.
Thanks to my RSWarrior family for the prayers, well wishes and encouragement throughout. It's a good feeling to have that support.

Re: Got sideswiped! Newspaper update page 8

Terry — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:06:21 GMT

OldMan:
Terry, did you read the earlier posts? They IDd the guy, took him to court and he was convicted.

I sped read the whole post and my dumb@$$ got side tracked and posted that....either way...let me know lol....we can still go kick his @$$