Hit & Run

Yesterday while at work and moving from one spot to another on my route, I was sitting at the traffic light at a busy corner near a popular shopping mall. This street has a bike-only lane. In that lane was a woman on her bicycle. As the light changed to green, she proceeded to cross the intersection. A Mercedes in the car lane to her left decided to make a right turn and the driver did exactly that. While I watched in some horror, the Mercedes made the turn and struck the bicycle rider, knocking her to the ground; and then the Mercedes continued on as if nothing had happened.

I stopped my van beside the sprawled biker and, as she was rising, I decided instead of stopping to follow the Mercedes and get her tag number and get her to pull over if I could get her attention. I yelled through my open window at the biker: “Wait here, I’ll be right back!”

I was able to get behind the Mercedes and flashed my lights and blew my horn until she stopped. I pulled up beside her and informed her that she’d just hit a bicycle rider. The woman driving said, “Well I certainly didn’t feel anything.” I yelled at her that I was sure she didn’t feel anything but that she needed to return to the scene of the accident. She just rolled up her window and accelerated away

I went back to the corner, and saw that the woman on the bike had turned back down the street to ride it back. She was obviously not too injured to ride (she was wearing full protective gear, no dummy she). I waited until she stopped at another red light and pulled up beside her bike lane and got her attention and told her that I’d gotten the tag number of the woman who had struck her. Pulling over I wrote down the tag number for her and gave it to her and told her that she really needed to report the incident as she might discover later that she’d been injured. She told me that she’d think about it.

In the meantime, I called in to report it to the Police, but was informed that since I wasn’t the person who had been hit, it was basically none of my business and that if the biker wanted to file a hit and run report then they’d look into it. I asked the Police if they wanted the tag number of the hit and run driver and again they told me that since I wasn’t the person who’d been struck, it was basically none of my business and none of theirs.

Alas.