On the way home from work I got off 280 towards 19th Ave and took Alemany since the may road seemed pretty heavily trafficked. I came to a stop sign. Pulled away normally and legally, wasn't even speeding which is an easy thing to do on this bike. I was in the lane 2 (the right or slow lane) and suddenly a woman comes flying out of the parking lot near Hollywood Video.
I tried to swerve but there wasn't enough room, so I braked.... unfortunately a little too hard. I managed to prevent myself from hitting her, but I went high side; the bike flipped and hit the back and flipped again before sliding down the road on it's left side.
Now, I have been riding for about a year. That's not the longest of times but it's not exactly a short period either. I was riding an old beat up 1980 Suzuki GS750E before getting the Ninja. I think the biggest problem, outside of the lady shooting out in front of me without warning or even slowing entering the road, was that the old bike performed so differently under breaking pressure than the new bike.
I suffered a fractured right should bone near the rotator cup and some road rash to my knees and waistline. The road rash is mostly healed now and the sling is off my right arm (although it still hurts enough to use). I am now in a position to start dealing with the aftermath.
The San Francisco police department sucks when it comes to making a police report available to you or your insurance company. As of this post (the 10th of September, 2007) my insurance company has still not received word from SFPD regarding my accident report. I wait on bated breath because unless the woman is found to be at fault, I will have to pay nearly $7,000 dollars out of pocket to fix the bike. This is $7,000 dollars I don't have mind you. I have some but not nearly enough.
This brings me to my next biggest mistake. If your local bike dealership tells you your loan company doesn't require full coverage insurance, you ignore them and get it anyway. I purchased a GAP insurance policy which I misunderstood would cover the remaining loan amount owed when a bike is totaled. My loan company doesn't require that I have full coverage so I got liability only (I WILL NEVER MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN). Here are the two problems with that scenario in my case:
- GAP insurance covers *only* the difference that your Full Coverage Insurance company will not cover in the event that your bike is totaled. Full Coverage Insurance is not required in conjunction with a GAP insurance policy.
- In the event you don't have full coverage (and here's the part I didn't know), GAP only covers the amount that your hypothetical full coverage insurance party wouldn't cover. So if, for example, your insurance company would cover $7,000 dollars and your loan was $10,000 then GAP should cover the missing $3,000. If my bike is totalled they would cover the hypothetical $3,000 dollar amount leaving me to pay the remaining $7,000 out of pocket (the part my missing full coverage insurance wouldn't cover).
- My bike's value according to the services that are used by GAP is roughly $7,450, the damage to my bike is roughly $6880. Therefore my bike is not totaled and GAP will do nothing for me.
I will be screwed. I can muster maybe half of what I owe right now. If she is found to be not at fault and with insurance, then I need to decide if legal counsel or counting pennies is the best approach.
I really don't know where to turn. I am not the type to beg, but if anybody wants to help donate to my cause, this would be one time when I wouldn't turn you down. I have ashamedly setup a PayPal donation link for this as well. I doubt I will see much come from it but....
I am really at a loss. Have any of you experienced a similar situation? Do you have any advice that you can share? If you do, please let me know how it worked out for you? Were you found at fault? What were the circumstances?
