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Not Sharing the Road …
As I was riding along Route 28 in Rockville several Sundays ago, I was hit in the back wheel by a driver. The driver obviously wasn’t paying attention and skidded and was about to come to a complete stop just before she hit me. I lunged forward when I got hit but didn’t get knocked off my bike, and amazingly there was no damage to the wheel. The driver was totally unapologetic and if anything was annoyed that I was there getting in her way. Since it was a busy intersection, I asked her to meet me past the intersection so we could exchange information. Well, guess what? She took off!
An unapologetic driver taking off on me was the right combination of factors to report the incident to the local police as a hit-and-run. Luckily the driver behind her saw the whole thing, wrote down the license plate number and gave it to me. I need to mention here that the driver had a temporary license plate on her car. I called the Montgomery County Police and reported the incident. The indignity of getting hit by an arrogant driver was about to be made worse. The officer told me that they can’t trace temporary license plates back to a specific driver. I asked if he was going to file a report, and he said that he “could” if I made the request for it but it probably wouldn’t lead to anything.
I didn’t get hurt. I didn’t even have any damage to my bike. But I consider hit-and-run to be a serious offense, and according to the law, it IS a serious offense. Now that I think about it, I probably should’ve filed the report just to press the issue with the police officer and so that I would have something on the record. If I had suffered serious physical injury as a result of the collision or had been killed, would the officer been a bit more determined to find the offender? This is just a wild guess but if a Montgomery County Police Officer had been injured or just struck by a hit-and-run driver, I get the feeling that somehow, they would track down the owner of the vehicle if all they had was the temporary tag number.
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October 30th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
You should still take that information directly to the police station and report the officer’s lack of concern chief of police.
This type of law enforcement officer is not the type the public needs on the street.
It is your right, and your obligation in my opinion, to report him.
I have on several occasion, when I saw officers not upholding their job, asked specifically to talk to the chief of police and stated my concern.
Remember, we as citizens hire the police to do a job for us, and they are obligated to os, not the other way around.
November 4th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Please go back and file the Hit and Run report. You were not injured (we can be thankful for that) but the next person to encounter this drive counld be killed and this officer (like many) need to be educated on how to prevent future collisions.
November 6th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Good Grief! As an LAB official, you must file a report and take being a cyclist seriously, as well as teaching both the officer and the hit and run motorist a lesson.
This is a “teachable moment.”
Make sure you get in touch directly with the officer who tried to blow you off, and his/her superior officer.
Make sure your account gets into a written report.
Follow up a month later to see if you’ve made the slightest impression on the culture.
if we act invisible and unimportant, we will quickly become that way.
sincerely,
Michael McGettigan
Trophy Bikes Philadelphia
LCI #320
November 6th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
A few years ago, a motorist ran a police ’safety’ road check and almost hit 2 officers. When they caught him, he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. The weapon in this case was his car. No one was hurt, and there wasn’t any property damage. Yet he was charged with a felony.
I reminded the police chief about this when I was harassed on the road. “Does someone have to be hurt before you’ll be proactive?” I asked. That got them moving.
November 9th, 2007 at 11:39 am
I would like the name and contact information for the person who wrote this report.
November 9th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
I have encountered, as many others who ride to work regularly, the utter disdain which the driver of a car holds for the bicyclist “in the way.” I’d like to apologize that you suffered whatever shock and horror you must have felt, and hope that whoever hit you and then left turns themselves in.
November 13th, 2007 at 12:13 am
File a report. Make them officially say no.
A few years ago I was bit by a dog while riding. The dog had bit 4 other people, but no one took it to criminal court. Had one of them done so, I wouldn’t have gotten bitten.
Luckily, I was on active duty so I had no bills or lost wages. Had I, I would have gone after the other people, in civil court, for contributory negligence. Legally, I don’t know how I would have done. Morally, they did play a role in my attack.