cycling
17. Oktober, 00:57 Uhr
Hello everyone,
So i was recently in an accident about 3 weeks ago. I live in Chicago and a Valet driver hit me in someone else's car. I was at the crosswalk heading south. He was coming North on a one way and heading pretty fast. He took the turn west and almost hit two pedestrians at the opposite corner from me. He stopped and clearly saw we had the white cross walk stick figure, giving us the right away. Seeing him stopped i then pedaled, assuming, he would let the pedestrians he almost hit go. He then quickly accelerates while continuing to stare at them and hits me directly in the middle of the crosswalk without ever looking forward. All i saw was the side of his head and ear as his bumper approached me.
I told him I am fine but that he was going to need to repair my bike. He said he would. So I did not file a police report at the scene, did file one a few days later after he started giving me the run around.
He said he would fix my bike, I got an estimate for two double walled rims to be fixed and my handle bars to be tapped again. I got an estimate for $220. He laughed and said this was ridiculous. So i allowed him to pick the bike shop. He dodged my texts for a few days, I went and spoke with him and he said he would meet me at this shop north of the city and that his phone had broke. I traveled 50 minutes north of the city to this shop, where he said he would meet me. He never showed up. His shop said they would fix the damages for closer to 190-200. I have both estimates in writing. I then confronted the man who hit me and said I wanted to take a photo of his license and the insurance information in order to file a police report. He would not give me his license.
I spoke with the owner of the valet company and he said he did not want to be involved and that the individual who hit me would take care of it. He only offered to pay me $60, then $70 and finally when the boss spoke with him he said he would pay me $100. The bike has at least $200 in damages. I am not settling for that. So i want to take him to small claims court. But its impossible to get any answers when I call into small claims court. So its sounding like I will have to pay $130 to begin my motion and take this guy to court. I will have to wait several months before I even get to court and then I have no idea how the judge will call it. I do not want to spend $130 and then potentially not get atleast $330 back for my bike damages and court fees. Not to mention i may have to take a couple hours off work in order to go into the court in person, since it is only open 830-430, I work a 9-5.
I filed my police report. Ultimately the cop said because he failed to give me his license, this falls under the umbrella of failing to file a report, which falls in the category of a hit and run. Does anyone know if I will definitely win this case if I take him to small claims court? I don't want to spend $130 to only then have the judge decide he only owes me $200 for my bike. I would have been better just taking the $100 he is offering.
Basically my question is, how do I handle this? If I take him to court and he is found guilty, will the valet company then be charged with a hit and run on their record? Is there anyway I could convince the valet owner to just pay me for my damages, opposed to him dealing with a hit and run? Or if I take this individual to court will I definitely get my $330 ($200-bike damages and $130-court fees) back?
Does anyone have advice on how to handle this? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.
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