Accident Report

March 3, 2010 (Wednesday), Accident

Since my last race on February 21, I experienced a pain in my left knee. At first I thought it was just due to the pressure drop in the weather, since I had fractured that knee in 1994 and it usually aches when a low pressure system moves in. However, from Monday through Saturday I could barely walk and riding was only slightly better. I theorized that I had experimented with raising my saddle height either too far and/or too fast and lowered it back to where it was a couple of weeks ago. I began taking some Ibuprofen and that helped enough to start some mild training again, although I abstained from anything too intense in fear of aggravating the condition. Noel had left on Sunday for a business trip to Vegas and would be back Thursday night.

I do almost all my riding on a half mile strip of road that has wide bike lanes on both sides and little traffic since it tees at one end. I had chosen this section of road as the safest to ride on that was within 3 miles of my home. Even though the distance is short, safety is a higher priority. The road has a center lane as well, so that even wide vehicles have no excuse to pass closely. Only two intersections exist, both on the West bound side. Having a circuitous ride allows me to time my laps and I also have markers at various distances for doing sprint and short TT (e.g. 500m) practice, always on the East bound side with no intersections. I have to do U-turns at either end, but I'm constantly vigilant for traffic so as not to get in their way. An RV park has an entrance on this street, which is the biggest hazard, as people will turn into it while totally ignoring my existence, coming from either direction. There is only one other street to monitor for side traffic, but it has an extremely small amount of traffic. As an extra safety precaution, I'll usually often ride right on the bike lane line and pull over just as a car comes from behind, just to make sure I give myself maximum clearance in case they're one of those miscreants that likes to play the game of seeing how close they can pass me to scare me (where they don't care about invading the bike lane in the process), even though Arizona has a 3 foot passing law. The bike lane is wide, smooth and usually fairly clean. With sidewalks on both sides, I would often find recreational cyclists riding there (which is legal in Arizona) rather than on the bike path. So I would stop them and ask why, since the bike lane was ours and seemed so safe? They replied that they were still too scared to ride that close to the cars and have had friends hit on other bike lanes. Also I would educate drivers who used the lane illegally as a parking lane to either chat on a cell phone or have a bite to eat. I wanted to make the bike lanes for bikes only, just like the signs say right next to it, so the all cyclists could ride safely. In my mind, these lanes were my domain.

My course highlighted in blue.

So today I was doing some mild 3 mile time trials to condition myself to hard efforts, in order to be better prepared in races when attacks occurred. With two criteriums coming up this weekend, I wanted to have at least some strength to be there for the finish. After the first time trial, I did a one mile rest and went for another one. It was just before 4 p.m. and the weather was perfect: sunny, 70, and no wind. I had passed the RV park entrance and was about 300 feet from finishing the 3 laps and wanted to finish with some real hurt, so I concentrated on pedaling with more effort in an attempt to get the fastest lap of the day. I looked down to my computer to see that I should easily accomplish that and I was feeling pretty good. Two seconds later I look back up to view the road ahead where I would need to do my U-turn and my time would be taken. All of a sudden, a car was swooping in front of me, sideswiping me from the left! Apparently she was coming from the opposite direction and decided to pull a fast U-turn, completely going to the far curb and blocking nearly my entire bike lane, which I saw shrink down to about 6 inches wide. I had no time to hit the brakes and slammed into the angled car with my left side, breaking my collar bone in the process, and then fell onto the curb with my left rib. My helmet never touched the ground. I found myself laying on my left side, with my feet towards the West. I rolled over on my back to to my right side and saw my bike up on the sidewalk next to me, laying on it's right side, front wheel pointing North. I rolled back onto my back and looked down the road to see that the driver had stopped. I suffered road rash on my left hip, left shin, left elbow, left upper arm, and left knuckles. Also my left calf was disabled, which left me unable to walk. If I had raised my head just one second earlier, I may have been able to hop the bike up onto the sidewalk, although it would have been tricky at a 150 rpm pedaling speed on a fixed gear. Apparently it also takes about two seconds for a car to quickly do a U-turn and she timed it just right.

Amazingly, in about a minute, a police car arrived from behind with it's lights flashing. The driver of the vehicle had already run back to me, saying how sorry she was. The cop had called the paramedics and I asked if he was calling an ambulance, because I wanted to first assess if that was necessary and wanted to stop him. He quickly took my statement. Within what seemed like only 5 minutes (the fire station is a half mile away) I was surrounded by a team of firemen and ambulance people who rolled my onto a board, strapped down tight, locked my head, and loaded into an ambulance. As they put me on the board and again when they were picking me up, I said "Hold On where are we going?" and then as we started rolling towards the ambulance, I again said, "Wait a minute, I don't know if I want an ambulance ride". But there I was, stuck facing the ceiling of the inside of the ambulance. At one point my left calf was screaming in pain and I was shaking, trying to find a way to stop it, but I was all strapped up. I started twisting and trying to free my leg, but no one gave me any attention. I yelled in agony to please release my legs so that I could shake off the pain, which when released I was able to shake it out and quickly stop the pain. They released my right arm to take my pulse (72) and blood pressure (103). I complained several times that I was worried about what was going to happen to my bike and who was going to pay for this expensive trip, since I don't have medical insurance (another long story). The paramedics told me that the cop would take the bike to the police station where it would be secure and the driver's insurance would cover my expenses, so no worries.

However, the woman (age 33) told the cop (when asked for her registration), that it wasn't her car and she didn't have the registration information or any insurance of her own. So the paramedics told me that the car owner's insurance would cover the costs.

So I told them that I guess it was OK to take me to the hospital. Then they asked me if I wanted the cop to take my bike to the police station or the hospital. They said that if it went to the police station, that it would be locked up outside in the bike rack. HELL NO, there won't be much left of my bike when I finally get there to try to retrieve it, so I said it's going to the hospital with me. I had neglected to bring my cell phone with me and with Noel out of town anyway, I was going to be in a pickle to get home as well; probably a taxi (I think there's ONE in Casa Grande).

Then the cop hands me the accident report form and points out the the owner of the car has no insurance. So I said, "Well then, who's going to pay for this trip and the hospital costs" and a paramedic said "I guess you are". They were in a hurry to get me to the hospital and I kept saying, "Hold on, I don't think I can afford this". Several of them said that if I don't have insurance, I could get Access insurance at the hospital to cover it, but could not give me any details of this mysterious option (I later learned it was AHCCCS where a family income can not exceed $1215/mo to qualify, which is less than my mortgage). I also told the cop that there wasn't enough information on the form, only the driver and owner's information, not even my name. He said that I could go to the station in seven days and get the full report using the incident number at the top of the form. The form didn't even have my info to prove that I was the victim and no description of the accident was included. Yet the officer refused to give me anything more in writing or verbally.

I was trying to assess my medical situation, but it was very difficult with only my right arm free to move, straps covering the whole rest of my body and my head placed in a brace and locked down. I kept feeling my left rib to determine if it was severely broken, possibly fractured, or just bruised. I could feel my collar bone slipping around where it had broken previously, so I was pretty sure that it had gone again for the third time. One paramedic said about ten times that if my rib was broken and punctured my lung that I could die so I must go to the hospital. My decision was starting to become more influenced by the resistance to the hard sell tactics I was experiencing, hearing untruths, scare tactics, and pressure for a quick decision.

The paramedics became more irritable as I started to finally come out of my shock and had a better evaluation of my situation. They complained that they couldn't wait here all day and that all I've done is complain and say that I don't believe them. Hmm, they told me my bike would be secure with the police; not true. They told me the car's owner would cover my expenses; not true. They told me the hospital had insurance that covered me if nothing else would, not true. They told me that if indeed I had a broken collar bone, that I needed to go to the hospital. Gee, the last two times I broke my collar bone, they took x-rays and said "Yup, you broke your collar bone. Here's some pain pills and a sling and don't use that arm for the next 6 weeks.". I've still got old pain pills and can make a sling myself, so I didn't really see the "need" to go to the hospital, so I said "let me out". The cop called me a knuckle head in a disparaging tone of voice.

The paramedics roughly released the straps, putting more pain in my collar bone in the process and I groaned in agony with no apology from the paramedic when I mentioned that I had a hurt collar bone. I then had to manage by myself to roll out of the cart and squiggle my way to the back of the ambulance while carrying my helmet in my left arm (yes the injured one). The deck is pretty high and with my left calf unable to sustain any pressure, it was going to be a trick to figure out how to get down to the road. I eventually sat on the deck, using my right arm to hold onto the gurney, to get my right leg to the bumper. This then allowed me to get my butt onto the bumper and put my feet on the ground. The paramedics and several police watched, almost as if this was a test to prove that I didn't need to go to the hospital.

I asked where my bike was and it was leaning up against the ambulance; someone brought it over to me and I was surprised that it appeared functional. I could then use it as my crutch to work my way out of the center of the roadway and extremely slowly make my way to the curb again. The paramedics, fire trucks, ambulance, and all but one of the cops immediately took off.

So here I was standing at the side of the road, all by myself. My cell phone was at home, but Noel wasn't available to pick me up anyway. I was unable to walk, but could limp along with my bike at about 0.1 mph and was about 1.7 miles from home. A motorcycle cop was talking to the owner of the car (who somehow mysteriously was present, even though he was not in the car when the accident happened) and the driver. I felt pretty abandoned and alone. My right leg began to shake and I feared if I sat down that I might not make it back up.

The car owner came over and asked if there was anything he could do. I said that a lift home would sure be nice. He said "what about the bike" and I said that in no way was it being left behind, but that the wheels pop off pretty easily if he could then take it with us. So he took my disassembled bike and put it into the back seat of the sedan while the female driver walked over to retrieve the rear view mirror I had torn off the car with my shoulder or rib. They then both got in the car, but the cop on the motorcycle did not leave until I was done. Since the bicycle was my crutch, I now had no way to walk; I could probably get down on my knees and crawl on one hand (still carrying my helmet in the other), but I was hoping I would not be subjected to that indignity. The driver got back out and I asked if he could please back up for me, as he was only 60 feet ahead, an ambitious distance for me at the time. He backed up to about 8 feet and popped open the passenger door, but I was still stuck; it's not like I wanted to hop on one leg with a freshly broken collar bone. I yelled through the open passenger door for him to please back up all the way, which he finally did and I now had a ride back home (although in a vehicle that was still being operated illegally without insurance). The cop who had been sitting on his motorcycle watching from fifteen feet behind me, then went on his merry way.

Once home, I did not mind so much having to crawl on my knees to get into the house, haul my bike into the garage, and make my way inside. Once I got my cycling shoes off, I discovered that I could heel and toe on my right foot to slowly get around while upright. First task was to shut up the cat with some food. I called Noel and my Dad to inform them of the news. I then cleaned up my road rash. Good thing my legs are strong, so that I can do one legged rises from a seated position to get back up. The leg, ribs, and collar bone still hurt at 7:30. A coworker of Noel's that is a licensed nurse, Michelle, came over at 8 to check up on me. The rib is just bruised, the collar bone is definitely broken. She confirmed that there was nothing the hospital could have done. She recommended Ibuprofen and ice packs for the collar bone and calf.


Time tracking of ride	Distance tracking of ride	GPS tracking of ride

I do have Accident Insurance (with a $500 deductible) which would have covered me for this if it had been more serious. I could have taken the ride and the hospital visit and blown $500, but that's still more money than I'd like to throw away just to satisfy the medical personnel to feel like they've accomplished something and squeezed some income out of the insurance industry.

It amazes me that you constantly hear motorists complaining about scofflaw cyclists, yet motorists are even more guilty. I stop at every stop sign and see maybe 1% of motorists do the same. How many motorists actually obey the speed limit, ETC. And here you have two motorists, the driver and the owner of the car, operating illegally without insurance, at my expense. Not to mention the moving violation of blocking the entire bike lane when it was occupied and then side-swiping me.

I just have to wonder, if I were not a cyclist, but a pedestrian or another motorist, if I would have been given more respect by my "helpers". It's amazing that during this whole episode, the people that I should have been most angry at were the only ones that offered me any compassion. The owner of the car was the only person to say "Is there anything I can do for you" and then backed that up by giving me a ride home.

On the plus side, there was very little damage to the bike (my favorite racing bike). A minor scuff on the right side top of the saddle that does not make it unusable, was the worst of it. Wheels are still ridable if just a few mm out of true. Other scratches were so minor that they could have occurred from just leaning up against a brick wall. My shoes no longer look brand new with scrapes on the left side, but they are still functional. The clothing suffered small holes in the bib shorts and long sleeve jersey that was a birthday present from Belgium.

By 10 pm I was able to put pressure on the left leg and be mobile again. Michelle said that it may have just been a Charley Horse.

The races coming up the next weekend are out and very likely the rest of the criterium season. I may be able to find some form by the State Championships in May. I'll need to get some time on the trainer to keep my legs active, as if I just quit training, they will scream in pain for several weeks time.

Updates:

Did a records check on the vehicle owner:

1/2/07

Running a stop sign.
No insurance.

Setup payment plan.
Fined several times for non-payment.
Eventually sent to collections.

Thus even if I took him to court and won, I'd likely never see any return.

The driver's last records show:

6/25/08	Driving without license. Failure to appear in court.	Fined several times for non-payment. Eventually sent to collections.
1/15/04	Driving without license. Driving without insurance. Suspended license plate. Child restraint violation.	Fined several times for non-payment. Eventually forfeited bond.
12/3/2003	Driving without license.	Fined several times for non-payment. Eventually sent to collections.

So it would probably be another waste of time trying to sue her. With this record, it's probably difficult and expensive for her to get insurance. And why should she bother, since there is no cost if an accident occurs if she has no assets. She probably won't lose a dime over this incident as her history indicates she'll never pay her fines.

This time she was charged with:

A.R.S. 28-701A "Failure to control to avoid collision without serious injury" ($252 fine, driving school eligible)

A.R.S. 28-4135A "No Mandatory Insurance" ($967 for a first violation or no 28-4135 violations within the last 24 months)

The owner of the car was given no citation for allowing his car to be operated without registration or insurance (and the officer watched us drive away in a car known to have no insurance).

Her case was filed in Casa Grande Municipal court, Case number M-1142-TR-2010000666 She was only charged with "No Mandatory Insurance" according to the court records, never penalized for hitting another vehicle (me). Although she pled guilty and was fined, she never paid or showed up in court and as of January 13, 2012 the court was still mailing out collection letters after 15 additional fees and never collecting a dime; that was their last effort before giving up completely. Then in 2016 she seems to have been given a suspension which was lifted when she agreed to a payment plan, which she defaulted on 7/19/16, and then was suspended again on 8/10/16; this won't really matter as she will just continue to drive with her suspended license, knowing there will never be any repercussions for doing so.

Toni Renee Lewis (born 11/1976) has had additional problems with the courts:
4/2/2008 Drive with suspended license (eventually sent to collections and the court gave up by 2/25/2012)
8/30/2010 Drive with No insurance & no license (eventually sent to collections 13 months later)
6/24/2011 Drive with Suspended license (eventually sent to collections 16 months later)
9/27/2012 Shop lifting (failed to appear, subsequent array of fines up to 11/13/2014 with no money paid)
2/4/2013 Drive with Suspended license (after failing to appear, she finally had a warrant issued)
7/29/2013 False report to Law enforcement and Disorderly Conduct/Language/Gesture (a restitution lien was issued on 11/13/14 and she still has not had to pay anything).
6/3/2015 Assault - Touched to Injure. Guilty plea, Anger management ordered, disorderly conduct, failure to appear, sent to collections 8/4/16
3/1/16 Drive with license suspended, no mandatory insurance, plate suspended. After numerous failures to appear and no payments, sent to collections 7/22/16

Recuperation
31 hours after the event, I was able to do a half hour ride on the bike on the trainer. Had to stay in Zone 1 as heavy breathing would hurt the rib cage. I've been able to continue this each day afterwards. However, much of the ride is in a sitting up position.

Third day: torso area began feeling like I was wearing a tight girdle with marbles underneath. Movement became cautiously slow. New left groin pain limits movement in left leg and also slows me down.

I have had to sleep only on my back in a semi-upright position, so I now have constant back pain as well, where I can feel spasms running up and down. Also developed a stabbing pain in the left side of the back too.

Fifth day: collar bone began to ache even more, even without movement.

Sixth day: had my first sneeze. I felt and heard the rib go pop (along with a lot of pain), so it's most likely cracked. Of course it still aches constantly. Research indicates that doctors also do nothing for this but to prescribe pain pills. I was able to do my ride on the trainer using the handlebars for the entire ride and increase the tempo to Zone 2. I have had improvement in speed of mobility. No more support pillows in bed.

Seventh day (Wed): finally able to move around at normal speed. Torso still beat up. Went to the police station for a copy of the report: not ready yet.

Eighth day: I was able to put almost full down pressure on the handle bars with the left hand while riding. Back and ribs are the most painful and the limiter for normal activity. I washed my cycling clothing and discovered tears in the back side of the jersey, right where my back gets a stabbing pain.

Ninth day: did 2 short bike rides on the road to take the car in for some maintenance; realized that neck was stiff which slowed down the ability to look quickly for traffic.

Tenth day: still takes 10 minutes to agonizingly get out of bed due to pain in cracked rib. Had Michelle check extreme calcification at break and performing range of motion actions indicated no other problems; however this caused muscle overuse strain and much muscle pain for the rest of the day and following week.

Eleventh day: shoulder even more painful. Rib still very painful. Neck still stiff. Due to increased pain in shoulder and clavical, skipped trainer ride. Sleep was often disturbed by pain and slept half the time in the recliner.

Twelfth day: morning was painful, but after doing some one armed yard work to loosen up (got the front lawn mowed), felt fairly good in the afternoon. Back to riding trainer.

Day 14: Picked up a copy of the police report. The officer had never asked me my speed, but put in 15 mph for myself and the driver. I thought it strange that he could just fabricate a number, rather than putting in unknown; or ask me and I could have told him 23.4 mph. He also mentions that he took my report inside the ambulance, however I gave my report to the first officer on the scene in the first few minutes while laying on the street who must have passed that information on to him. He published the driver's version that she came along side me, startled me, crossed into the bike lane slightly, and knocked me off my bicycle. He did not include my statement that she only left 6 inches of bike lane free and that I rammed hard into the side of her vehicle that was completely blocking my line of travel. He also stated that my bicycle was laying in the bike path, when it was entirely on the adjacent sidewalk. He categorized my injury as Possible Injury, when in fact it was an Incapacitating Injury (Any injury, other than a fatal injury, which prevents the injured person from walking, driving or normally continuing the activities the person was capable of performing before the injury occurred. Often defined as “needing help from the scene.”), which will incorrectly reflect in future accident studies. The first page of the report states that the vehicle was a 1998 Dodge, but the officer's narrative describes the same license plate to belong to a 2006 Chevy. Knit picky, but I thought officers were trained to be observant and was surprised at the inaccuracies and disappointed that he made the severity look lighter than it actually was, but not surprised.

Day 15: first day that I felt that recovery was finally happening and I was not suffering all the time. My Dad said that he'd like to see X-rays of the situation and would spring for the bill, so we went to Urgent Care and took some pictures (under $500). I told the doctor that I had broken my collar bone and rib and he said that the only way to know for sure was with an X-ray. I replied, that if I can feel the collar bone parts moving around with my other hand, that I have a pretty good idea that it is indeed broken, to which he simply smiled and could not reply with a counter. Also when I sneeze, I can feel and hear the rib and clavical go pop; thus creating a critical reaction to stop any future sneezing along with the accompanying severe pain.


Clavical break (sheared through 1980 break)		Rib break (17 mm overlap) Rib 6

I almost wish we hadn't gone, as the pictures make it look much worse than what I had imagined. The clavical didn't do just a simple perpendicular break, but sheared through my first break from 1980 which had healed with a huge growth around it. The rib was not just a crack, but a severe overlap of 17 mm, fortunately not protruding outwardly or inwardly; it will most likely never heal, but just grow scar tissue around it to hold it in place. The radiology report indicates that the 4th and 5th ribs (above rib 6) are likely to have non-displaced fractures.

Day 18: my good friend Rick got me to go out on a ride on the road with him, driving me to a safe course to ride together. I could finally do some accelerations with good resistance, however with no pulling ability on the arms. The ribs were a limiter when I got to breathing hard, feeling like someone was pinching me around the rib cage. I quit at 45 minutes to make sure I didn't over do anything, but it was a good move to ride outside. It still takes me 10 torturous minutes to get out of bed.

3 weeks: Finally starting to feel normal, but still constrained by the still healing bones. I went for my first ride on the road by myself. I was a bit nervous and even more distrustful of driver's than usual. It was eery riding past the scene of the accident. I still can not pull on the bars due to the clavical and I can't get down into the drops due to the ribs. Looking behind me for traffic was difficult due to the still sore neck and torso that didn't like twisting. My biggest pain came just after leaving the last stop sign on my way home; I had come to a complete stop, waiting one second, and then proceeded. However, an SUV came up from behind, only slowed down for the stop sign and then started to turn right, which would have caused her to run over me. Since she had to stop to avoid a collision, she honked her horn as a complaint and I flipped her the bird too suddenly and tensed up muscles that didn't appreciate it. At least it hurt less than getting run over.

6 months: The shoulder hurts constantly, I have trouble raising my arm above my head, and I have not been able to do any weight work. The rib occasionally gives me a stabbing pain like I'm having a heart attack, often when I first start my ride. The knee gives me a limp most every morning and sometimes the pain clips short the duration of my attempts to do a daily ride. I've developed cramping sensations in my legs that are present 24 hours a day. Sometimes the cramps hurt too much during a ride and I have to stop. I have to be careful not to give my legs a good stretch; sometimes they've woken me from sleep with a severe Charlie horse in my calf that I had to pound out with my fist. I can't use my calves to get out of the recliner without them cramping. The ham strings and quads are just as bad. A later X-ray of the knee showed it to be broken and a specialist said that it would never heal and the only way to fix it would be to replace it down the road when it begins to fail (this has turned out to be a long term problem that has given me the most pain and disability 5 years later). All of these problems have not only made life painful, but are a major hindrance to try to find a way to get back to racing form, which didn't fully happen until 2012.

6 years: The shoulder problems dissipated after about 4 years. The rib occasionally give me a stabbing pain, but it is infrequent. The left knee is problematic in that every step has to be carefully considered so as not to put any twisting motion on it while pressure is on it. Although the knee occasionally produces stabbing pains (like a fork under the knee cap), the pains are not consistent enough to consider knee replacement (the only solution).

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