On Jan 15th, my daughter borrowed by RSTD to go for a relaxing ride. Little did either of us know that it wouldn't be very relaxing thanks to a 15 yo boy driving without a drivers license or permit. He ran a light and hit her head on at 40 mph in the middle of an intersection. She came off the bike, hit his windshield and broke it and then went over the car and ended up laying face down in the middle of a very busy intersection. She was wearing leathers, but no helmet. Thankfully, she is fine...though it took the ER $25,000 in medical bills to decide that. And thankfully there were witnesses willing to go on record to say that she had the green and the 15 yo had run the light, and the 4 boys in the car were all lying and saying it was her fault while they were putting her in the ambulance. Grrr! The cop said that with out the witnesses, they would have ticketed my daughter as there were 4 boys in the car and it would have been their word against hers, but the 3rd party witnesses confirmed my dd's story. I guess that my daughter just kept telling everyone that it wasn't her fault and that she needed to get the bike cause it was her mom's. LOL The officer felt it was important enough to tell me that there was nothing my dd could have done...she had no where to go and couldn't have avoided the accident in their opinion. The eyewitnesses also agreed. The other driver got 3 tickets for inattentive driving, failure to yield and driving without a license. I hope they cancel his parents insurance too, as not only did he lie to the officers that night, but they also refused to cooperate with the insurance companies and haven't done anything since the accident to try to get the situation settled. I'm thinking we'll end up in court. My dd was only in the ER for 3 hours, they did CTs on her body and xrays and sent her home with Tylenol and told her to go back to normal activity. The doctor didn't do a head CT, which shocked me when I found out a few days later, and we ended up having to argue with the dr.s to get one as she was having dizziness and head aches. She did injure her right hand/thumb, but that is better now, and she's seeing a chiropractor for whiplash, but all in all, she was very lucky and walked away with no permanent injuries. My bike did not fair so well. She was totalled....broke both the front forks, moved the tank back 2 inches and bent the mounting bolts, and put the tire back into the radiator. Really, she held up pretty well considering the hit she took, and the fact that my dd is OK I attribute at least partially to how well the bike was made. Oh, it totalled out the Toyota Camry that the kid was driving, which comforts me a bit anyway...well, it gives me some personal satisfaction at least. So, State Farm (the other car's insurance) has admitted fault and we're now waiting for dd's medical treatments to be finished so we can talk settlement, but my insurance has paid for the loss of my bike. So, now I'm shopping for another RSTD or perhaps a Venture. Anyone have any suggestions or bikes for sale?
