Accident Report
 

Howdy all, I was in a minor injury accident and here's a report on how it went.

I'm a daily commuter, ride a DL 1000 from Tijuana to N. San Diego (40 mi.). The bike is essential to move through the line entering the US. I also have ridden to Panama and back.

I was entering Mexico in the afternoon slowly threading my way w/ generous lane space. I was well over the lane line gingerly "lane splitting." There can be a big back up to enter Mexico as well as exiting the US.

A car lane changed directly into me. He saw an open hole and didn't look at all behind him. I was moving through traffic that was moving at 2mph, stop and go and I was moving at 10mph.

I swerved left and the left front bumper hit me in the mid section rider position. This pushed me into the midddle of my lane. There was a truck in front of me and apparently I had enough control of the bike to swere back right to avoid hitting the vehicle in front of me. I don't rember the actual collision. The front of my bike clipped the back right of the truck in front of me. The collision basically cleaned all the plastic off the strom w/ cluster. The bike's frame, forks ect were unaffected.

I find myself on the tarmec with a very sore left foot. Notice that the car that hit me is stopped at the position of where he struck me or about 2' into the lane I was riding in. I also noted the B.C. plates on the car.

I sat up and took my helmet of and just kind of looked around. Only one person asked how I was, he was a fellow rider. My foot had a little blood and it hurt. I decided to stay put and call 911. The driver stayed put and never moved out of lane position or talked to me untill the Paramedics arrived.

The Paramedics came and bundled me up neck brace and so on. I told them I was good, that only my foot was injured. The CHP came moments later and he took my statment while I was strapped on gurney in the ambulance.

En route to the hospital I overherd one of the Paramedics talking to the hospital and he said that I was going into a TRAMUA center. Immediatly I said verry loudly tht I AM NOT A TRAMUA CASE!!! I only have a hurt foot! He replied that it was the doctors decision and he could do nothing.

I have no Med. Ins. ( bad economy ) and only carried basic liability on the bike.

Upon arriving at the hospital, a much longer ride, to UC San Diego Hillcrest hospital. They brought me in to the tramua bay, put me on the x-ray table and started shooting film and doing sonograms on my abdomen. I was dumfounded and started talking with them explaining that I only had a hurt foot. Of course they kept up with there "treatments,' and told me they have to do this. My impatience and frustration finally came to a head and I loudly explained to an attending Doctor that this was WRONG, this is why I CAN"T AFFORD INSURANCE due to this excessive and unneceary treatment. I could just see the numbers adding up and not knowing if the Mexican driver had purchased insurance !!!

Ok so I'm steamed, they finish all ther 20 or something xrays, sonomigram and then finally attended to my injury. My toe was crushed. The tip of my big toe had split open like a hot dog. Ok no big deal, they remove the nail and sucher it up. Great, wow they can actually do a benificial treatment around here!!!

All finished up I was moved up to a bay and told I was to remain for overnight. I removed the dam neck brace, the nurse is barking at me. I continue and proceed to get out of the bed and walk out. OOPS, ONE TINY PROBLEM!! They cut my cloths off me except for my MC suit. The pants were removed on seen and they went with the bike.

Ok long discussion enables me to get some used cloths and get the hell out. My toe hurts allot but there no way I'm going to stay at this &$'&% place.

Days past for the police report to be released so I can get the others parties informtion. I failed to do so as I stayed put on the road.

I get the repot it faults the other party and has his informtion AND he did have a turist insurance policy!

The hospital bill comes in at a total w/ ambulance of $32,000.00 !
I'm having luke warm results in getting in contact with the other's party INS. Co.

Ok, to sum this up.............

Total Time to settle claim 3 mos and counting. Have sighned settlement, no complete settlemen check. Insurance agrees to 8k property and 30k medical, 2k short of my bills.

Print out of hospital charges show's over 10k in duplicate charges. I negotiate on the advice of my Insurance agent instead of the other insurance company. I successfully had the 10k charges removed and got their standard 30% discount for uninsured. This brought the hospital / attending physicians bill down to 11k. I could not negoiate w/ the ambulance bill @ $1500.

Many, many hours of my efforts made this accident pay out. It was hard to talk to the others insurance company and my agent really helped allot w/ great advise on how to handle this. It could have easly been a BUST if I didn't do all the work.

What I wish I had done now that I have been through this kinda thing is:
The medical was over the top. I was railroaded. Just say NO !!!!!!
Do not accept to recive treatment YOU KNOW is unnecary!!! It's your right !!

I came out ahead by $17,000. But what a ride! LOL :funmeterno:

Wow - quite a story. Glad to hear your injuries weren't worse. I guess this goes to point out the importance of medical insurance while travelling in some areas - especially the US...!

Blimey, last crash I had in the UK when a van knocked me off and broke my collar bone cost £28. Which my insurance paid.

I love the NHS!

Hey Robo, glad you came out of your accident OK, (mostly). I fully feel your frustration with the medical community here in the US. I've been through much the same. When they find out you have no insuranece, they really put the screws to you. I guess the insurance co.'s wouldn't stand for it. A trip to the ER will easily be 10-20k$ (or more), for anything. Its a business.(Monopoly)

Anyway glad it worked out for you. How's your bike?

There's usually two sides to every story. I knew a guy in Moscow who got in a car accident, said he felt fine, didn't let the Russian ambulance take him to the hospital. Turns out he had a ruptured spleen and soon died. I guess the US doctors had seen (or at least read about) some cases like this and figured that they knew better than you about what they should and should not check.

There are indeed two sides to every story. The fact is, you didn't have to accept the ambulance ride, and you could have refused medical treatment at any point.

This is one of the problems with our society. We want it both ways. Had the hospital done what you wanted, and missed a potential life threatening injury, they would have been liable for negligence should you have died from something they should have detected with their scans.

The ambulance needs your permission to transport you, otherwise it's kidnapping. Medical personal need your permission (either implied if you are incompetent, or expressed if you are competent) to do anything to you, or it's assault.

As for the other persons idea that hospitals perform extra tests if they find out you are uninsured, that's just laughable. Fact is that most uninsured patients never pay their medical bills. So ya, I'm sure when the hospital finds out your uninsured, they rush you to all kinds of stuff they know they won't get paid for. Get real.