Car-head: New York victim of hit-and-run calls 911, gets ticket for not having a bell on his bike.
My friend Joy sent me this under the subject heading “it’s not just Tucson.”
The victim has had little luck getting the police to act, even though he has the vehicle’s license number and its registered owner. But so far the driver’s insurance has failed to pay the cyclist’s medical bills and the police department is interested only in securing a conviction against the cyclist for the missing bell. They don’t seem to be bothered by the fact he was run down by a van and the motorist then fled the scene. A classic case of car-head.
The cyclist, of course, now regrets ever calling the police in the first place, telling a reporter “I can’t give you an example where the police have helped the situation in any cycling incident I know of.”
Unfortunately, this story sounds all-too familiar. I recently served a subpoena on the City of Tucson to get the phone number of a hit and run driver who called 911 and then fled the scene. As in the New York story, the police here completely failed to follow up, stonewalled us on getting the driver’s phone number, will not reveal the driver’s name to us (hence the lawsuit and subpoena), and then had the audacity to tell us (in response to our internal affairs complaint) that the Tucson Police Department is “committed to providing excellent service.”
Sounds like things aren’t any better in New York.
–Erik Ryberg
December 17th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Speaking of New York – have you seen the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TNTq3nhuh0
These guys video themselves “stealing” their own bike again and again with bolt-cutters, hacksaw, grinder, etc. in full daytime view of a streetful of witnesses – even cops. Amazing!
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:55 am
[...] I’ve written about “carhead,” the bias we often encounter that favors motorists over cyclists. [...]