Hitting others and being hit as a driver

Over the years I have had numerous incidents of being hit by other cars periodically. When I drove a taxi it was something the company took care of as there was never an incident where I was found to be at fault. The only time I ever actually hit a person was one night in the Haight Ashberry neighborhood, carrying a passenger, who yelled, before I saw a man on a bicycle cruise in front of me into an intersection. I hit the man square on, he flew high in the intersection and both bike and man came down hard. I slammed on the brakes and instantly requested assistance from the dispatcher (code blue, I need an ambulence and the police). I was in shock, my passenger left to find another cab and I sat on the curb and burst into tears. Emergency personel arrived quickly and a policeman came over and kicked my foot saying, "what are you crying for, everyone says it wasn't your fault". I was startled and said I didn't like hurting people, but was confused as to what happened. I was told witnesses saw the man on the bike eating a burritto as looked away from me while he ran a stop sign, thus driving into my path. The officer told me to come to the station the next day so they could give me a statement to give to the insurance company to absolve me of responsiblity.

Later I was hit so hard from behind as I sat at a stop sign that I was shoved half way across the intersection. The drunk who hit me had demolished the front of his car and his face was bloody. I was in shock and got the necessary information but so dazed that when he drove away in the amazingly still running car, I had not had the presence of mind to call for the police, which I should have. In this case, the taxi comp…

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Over the years I have had numerous incidents of being hit by other cars periodically. When I drove a taxi it was something the company took care of as there was never an incident where I was found to be at fault. The only time I ever actually hit a person was one night in the Haight Ashberry neighborhood, carrying a passenger, who yelled, before I saw a man on a bicycle cruise in front of me into an intersection. I hit the man square on, he flew high in the intersection and both bike and man came down hard. I slammed on the brakes and instantly requested assistance from the dispatcher (code blue, I need an ambulence and the police). I was in shock, my passenger left to find another cab and I sat on the curb and burst into tears. Emergency personel arrived quickly and a policeman came over and kicked my foot saying, "what are you crying for, everyone says it wasn't your fault". I was startled and said I didn't like hurting people, but was confused as to what happened. I was told witnesses saw the man on the bike eating a burritto as looked away from me while he ran a stop sign, thus driving into my path. The officer told me to come to the station the next day so they could give me a statement to give to the insurance company to absolve me of responsiblity.

Later I was hit so hard from behind as I sat at a stop sign that I was shoved half way across the intersection. The drunk who hit me had demolished the front of his car and his face was bloody. I was in shock and got the necessary information but so dazed that when he drove away in the amazingly still running car, I had not had the presence of mind to call for the police, which I should have. In this case, the taxi company took care of everything, except me. I had a serious case of whiplash and any claim of mine I had to deal with by myself. Eventually I hired a lawyer, the insurance company insisted their insured had done nothing wrong as there was only the damage to the cab as indication of the nature of the accident, and they had been having trouble finding their insured. My lawyer suggested I pay to hire a detective to locate the driver, I reluctantly agreed and within a couple of days was informed that he had been found. He had been shot dead on Market Street in San Francisco and the insurance company quickly settled.

A few months ago, now driving for Lyft, I was hit by a police car in an apparently distracted driving moment, but of course the police are NEVER at fault and they concocted a scenario to blame me for making an inappropriate turn. This took a contingent of about eight squad cars to make sure the officer was not under attack. I was actually avoiding two other police cars who were attending to police buisness, but that was beside the point to them.

What is relevant is that I had get my fender fixed from the damage the police car caused. My insurance paid for the damage but not for the inconvenience or time off necessary to deal with the repair and I was out the  $500 deductable and the lost wages. Typically I don't work on Monday and Tuesday and thus I try to take care of as much business on those days as possible. Every time I have ever had to deal with a fender bender it has taken the body shop five days to do a bumper/fender replacement, so I usually lose a minimum of two work days in the mix. Other than the situaltion with the police, I have been successful on two occasions getting compensated for lost wages. THe insurance company has respected my claims and I submit to them a copy of the record of my earnings to demonstrate what my likely earnings would be if I had not been inconvenienced.

I am not so sure how it will play out with a more current incident, where a man hit my car while I was stopped, with my foot on the brake and he tried to parallel park in a space too small. He reeked of pot smoke when we finally exchanged information and his insurance company claim is that I hit him coming around a corner, which could not have happened in the narrow alley where we were both driving. My insurance company is covering the repair, minus my $500 deductable of course, and I will be missing days of work this week, hopefully no more than two. If the company cannot finish the repairs by the end of the day on Friday then I will have to wait until Monday to get the car and I will lose an entire weeks income, plus have to try to get my insurance company to press his company to pay not only my deductable, but also the lost wages.

My next question will be how I am to pay the rent on time.

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