Columbia bike rider gets hit with SUV, ticket

Pretty dismal story and link to digg.com comments at bottom:

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6128719

(Columbia) February 22, 2007 - A Columbia bicycle rider got hit by an SUV
- then he got slammed with a ticket.

Tannie Dandridge is limping, in pain, still not sure how he ended up
getting dragged up Harden Street under an SUV, "I just, I thought I was
dead. Everything turned red and black underneath the vehicle."

The morning of January fifth, Dandridge was riding his bicycle to work in
Five Points. He says he was in the crosswalk on Slighs Avenue, when a Ford
Explorer making a turn on a red light pulled out and ran over him. "I'm
not sure if I was snagged at some point, but I was definitely rolled and I
could feel things breaking and popping and moving in the wrong direction."

"It's just painful to think about."

Bleeding and still stunned by what had happened, Dandridge says he managed
to get up, walk over to the driver and ask for a ride to the hospital.
Columbia police showed up a short time later, and it was then Dandridge
says they added insult to his injuries.

It came in the form of a ticket and a fine. He was fined $232.50 for
failing to yield right of way, with the charge misspelled by the officer.
"They said we're giving you a ticket, failure to yield right of way, $232.
And I laughed. I went, 'You're kidding right?'"

A police report says the bike hit the SUV at 15 miles an hour, though
damage to the vehicle was estimated at only $50.

Dandridge on the other hand, suffered far more. "My left arm was broken.
They had to do surgery on it to put it back together. My left ear was
nearly ripped off - scar here across my eye. My right shoulder is
dislocated, the ACL joint."

Dandridge says he's run up huge medical bills and has no insurance. He
hasn't worked since the accident and says he, his wife and daughters are
close to getting evicted. And Dandridge says police charged him based
solely on the SUV driver's version of events, "If they had asked me, I
would have told them what happened."

A Columbia police spokeswoman says an officer did speak with Dandridge
before he went in for X-rays. His attorney said if the light was indeed
red, anyone in the crosswalk would have the right of way, whether riding a
bike or on foot.

Dandridge was scheduled to appear in court Friday morning and could have
paid his fine. Instead, he has asked for a jury trial.


I found this on Digg and there is a long discussion he

http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Dude_Ri...s_Him_A_Ticket

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 09:14:35 GMT, Noel
wrote:

Pretty dismal story and link to digg.com comments at bottom:

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6128719

(Columbia) February 22, 2007 - A Columbia bicycle rider got hit by an SUV
- then he got slammed with a ticket.

Tannie Dandridge is limping, in pain, still not sure how he ended up
getting dragged up Harden Street under an SUV, "I just, I thought I was
dead. Everything turned red and black underneath the vehicle."

The morning of January fifth, Dandridge was riding his bicycle to work in
Five Points. He says he was in the crosswalk on Slighs Avenue, when a Ford
Explorer making a turn on a red light pulled out and ran over him. "I'm
not sure if I was snagged at some point, but I was definitely rolled and I
could feel things breaking and popping and moving in the wrong direction."

"It's just painful to think about."

Bleeding and still stunned by what had happened, Dandridge says he managed
to get up, walk over to the driver and ask for a ride to the hospital.
Columbia police showed up a short time later, and it was then Dandridge
says they added insult to his injuries.

It came in the form of a ticket and a fine. He was fined $232.50 for
failing to yield right of way, with the charge misspelled by the officer.
"They said we're giving you a ticket, failure to yield right of way, $232.
And I laughed. I went, 'You're kidding right?'"

A police report says the bike hit the SUV at 15 miles an hour, though
damage to the vehicle was estimated at only $50.

Dandridge on the other hand, suffered far more. "My left arm was broken.
They had to do surgery on it to put it back together. My left ear was
nearly ripped off - scar here across my eye. My right shoulder is
dislocated, the ACL joint."

Dandridge says he's run up huge medical bills and has no insurance. He
hasn't worked since the accident and says he, his wife and daughters are
close to getting evicted. And Dandridge says police charged him based
solely on the SUV driver's version of events, "If they had asked me, I
would have told them what happened."

A Columbia police spokeswoman says an officer did speak with Dandridge
before he went in for X-rays. His attorney said if the light was indeed
red, anyone in the crosswalk would have the right of way, whether riding a
bike or on foot.

Dandridge was scheduled to appear in court Friday morning and could have
paid his fine. Instead, he has asked for a jury trial.


I found this on Digg and there is a long discussion he

http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Dude_Ri...s_Him_A_Ticket





Yet another case where the proper response (make drivers of motor-cars
automatically at fault in such collisions) is wanted.

Noel said the following on 24/02/2007 09:14:

Dandridge says he's run up huge medical bills and has no insurance.

Suddenly makes you realise that although our NHS may not be brilliant,
at least we have it.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

Paul Boyd wrote on 24/02/2007 09:35 +0100:
Noel said the following on 24/02/2007 09:14:

Dandridge says he's run up huge medical bills and has no insurance.

Suddenly makes you realise that although our NHS may not be brilliant,
at least we have it.


Take with a pinch of salt. There is Medicaid in the US for the poor and
hospitals are legally obliged to provide emergency medical treatment
regardless of ability to pay. OTOH if you can afford insurance but don't
have it you will be expected to pay. IME, if you don't have insurance
for the non-emergency stuff they won't let you ring up huge bills though.

Having said that, the ready availability of the NHS is nice to have.

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicaidGenInfo/
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/EMTALA/

--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 09:35:13 +0000, Paul Boyd wrote:

Noel said the following on 24/02/2007 09:14:

Dandridge says he's run up huge medical bills and has no insurance.

Suddenly makes you realise that although our NHS may not be brilliant, at
least we have it.

Remember too to get your 'European Health Insurance Card' if you travel in
Europe:

http://www.dh.gov.uk/PolicyAndGuidan...795&chk=Q14Cn7

Costs issues aside, it helped immensely with paperwork in Spain last
summer when my 8 yr old dived head first into 18" of water...

Cheers

Tony Raven wrote:
Paul Boyd wrote on 24/02/2007 09:35 +0100:
Noel said the following on 24/02/2007 09:14:

Dandridge says he's run up huge medical bills and has no insurance.

Suddenly makes you realise that although our NHS may not be
brilliant, at least we have it.

Take with a pinch of salt. There is Medicaid in the US for the poor
and hospitals are legally obliged to provide emergency medical
treatment regardless of ability to pay. OTOH if you can afford
insurance but don't have it you will be expected to pay. IME, if you
don't have insurance for the non-emergency stuff they won't
let you ring up huge bills though.

Yes, but it's very easy (in the US) to be in a hard place.

1) Too 'well off' to get medicare, but you have no health insurance from
your job. And buying insurance directly is *extremely* expensive.
Thankfully, I personally have never had to make the choice between
insurance for my family, or food for my family.
2) You have health insurance, but you are 'under-insured'.
i.e., Your insurance stops paying at a certain point, your
insurance only pays 75-80% of necessary treatments.
3) Screw-ups: The insurance company say they will pay, but don't. This
theoretically should never happen, but it does. I know of number of
people who have gotten shafted with ten of thousands of dollars in
bills this way.

There is a reason roughly half the bankruptcies in the US are caused by
medical bills.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6895896/

--
Dane Buson -
"Life is cheap. It's the accessories that kill you."

Dane Buson wrote on 24/02/2007 17:50 +0100:

There is a reason roughly half the bankruptcies in the US are caused by
medical bills.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6895896/


"three other factors were counted as medical-related triggers for
bankruptcies: births, deaths and pathological gambling addiction." ;-)

--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

in message , Tony Raven
') wrote:

Paul Boyd wrote on 24/02/2007 09:35 +0100:
Noel said the following on 24/02/2007 09:14:

Dandridge says he's run up huge medical bills and has no insurance.

Suddenly makes you realise that although our NHS may not be brilliant,
at least we have it.


Take with a pinch of salt. There is Medicaid in the US for the poor and
hospitals are legally obliged to provide emergency medical treatment
regardless of ability to pay.

Yup, they are. Given the choice, though, you'd prefer a charity hospital in
rural India - you'd get better medical treatment and a better standard of
care. Hospitals in the US regularly dump seriously ill but penniless
patients on the street - literally on the street, not even on the
sidewalk.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/02/09....ap/index.html

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; killing [afghan|iraqi] civilians is not 'justice'

Simon Brooke wrote on 24/02/2007 21:08 +0100:

Yup, they are. Given the choice, though, you'd prefer a charity hospital in
rural India - you'd get better medical treatment and a better standard of
care. Hospitals in the US regularly dump seriously ill but penniless
patients on the street - literally on the street, not even on the
sidewalk.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/02/09....ap/index.html


I get my information from having worked extensively in the past with US
hospitals rather than anecdotes in the paper. If you form your opinions
from the papers, the NHS is far worse:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...1/ai_n14686002

--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

wrote:

Yet another case where the proper response (make drivers of motor-cars
automatically at fault in such collisions) is wanted.

US traffic law permits vehicle operators to make a right turn on a red
light after stopping and ensuring that there is no cross traffic. ISTM
that the cyclist was using the sidewalk and crossing the street against
a red light, which puts him in the wrong.

Yet another case where cycling on the sidewalk/pavement and ignoring
traffic signals got a cyclist in trouble.

mark