UPDATE: 09/28/2012
As per Brady Polansky’s blog: http://blog.bradypolansky.com/2012/09/car-hits-child-on-bike-geico-denies.html GEICO has come back and offered to pay half of the damages to his son’s bike.
Since they are negotiating, to me it’s becoming a ‘He said/She said’ type thing and since GEICO has now responded ‘we should step away’ and let them work this out. From the sound of it, GEICO is being responsive to Brady and they are just working out the ‘details’. Also a shout out to the folks from Bicycles Inc. in Arlington who have offered to take a look at the bike to see if they could help.
Unless something drastically changes this will be the last message on this. Feel free to stay up to date on Brady’s blog at the link above!
Original Story:
Every once in a while you run across the story that leaves you shaking your head.
This craziness is happening to Brady, a fellow cyclist who happens to be a father, locally in the DFW metroplex. We contacted GEICO through 4 different channels (including Facebook and social media) for comment and to get their side of the story but so far just crickets…
As soon as they respond I will update this post but remember, as of now we only have one side of the story.
For now, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below and make sure you share it with your friends.
Let’s help get this resolved!!!!
This story is reprinted here with permission from Brady’s Blog:
Car Hits Child on Bike, GEICO Denies Claim!
By Brady Polansky
Picture this in your mind… A backpack-clad child is riding his bike to school on a designated “Safe Routes to School” multi-purpose trail on school property. He notices a car pull up to a stop sign, which intersects the trail. He sees the driver look right at him, then look to the left toward oncoming traffic.
As the kid crosses in front of the car (there was no stop sign on the trail), it suddenly accelerates and cranks the wheel to the right. The bicycle’s pedal was bent under by the impact with the license plate and the bike was thrown half-way into the first lane of the 7 lane divided road. The child was thrown onto the hood of the car with such force that he bounced all the way to the windshield then he fell off the car. The kid’s head hit so hard it split his helmet!
The driver of the car gets out, throws the kid his business card then jumps back into his car to flee the scene. Witnesses had to stop him from leaving. They were not sure why he was in such a hurry to leave. It’s a good thing the police and EMS arrived within a minute or two.
After a thorough once-over by the paramedics, they were pleased to report that the child is understandably seriously shaken; yet fortunately, no injuries were apparent. A sigh of relief could be heard from the ever-growing crowd that was gathering.
The driver told the police he saw the child approaching, yet he never looked back to see where the kid was before he took off from the stop sign. He went on to say he wasn’t a bad guy and he never meant for this to happen. He repeatedly said to the cops he would take care of the damage. He didn’t want to tarnish his good reputation. He wanted to keep his insurance company out of this.
The child is on the #2 cross-country team in the nation and takes his training seriously. So as you would image, his bicycle was not inexpensive, with a replacement cost of about $1,500. The helmet is worth about another $150, as is the speedometer. With this estimate in hand, the driver decides to turn the claim into his insurance company, GEICO.
Without getting a statement from the kid or reading the police report, GEICO immediately denies the claim. To add insult to injury, the driver of the car is now demanding the child to pay for the damage to the car!
The basis of GEICO’s denial and the driver’s request for payment is thier interpretation of State law which says the child should have been riding on the 45mph- 7 lane divided road, and not on the school’s multi-purpose trail, which bikes are permitted to be on per city ordinance. According, the child was clearly at-fault because he was more than 50% negligent, in their opinion. Furthermore GEICO, says if you want to ride your bicycle on the sidewalk you must only travel in the same direction as the cars on the road!
The actual quote from the GEICO claims rep was, “The (driver) would have had the right of way because (the child on the sidewalk) was riding the opposite direction of traffic (on the divided roadway).”
The child doesn’t have the resources to pay for both his bike and the damage to the car.
Do you think the kid should raise money to pay for car and bike, or raise money to fight GEICO in court?
PS. I can never replace my son, and I could not be any happier that he was not seriously injured. However, who would ever image both the driver and GEICO could steep to such a despicable lows. Who wants to stand up with Kyle and me and fight the driver and GEICO?
P.S.S. If you believe GEICO was irresponsible in how they handled this claim, please send an email to the Texas Department of Insurance at ConsumerProtection@tdi.state.tx.us (reference GEICO Claim #0452598921010017)
Here is the police report (We edited out the names):
Southlake DPS/Carroll ISD
Information Report
From the office of:
Ofc. Brian F
Criminal Investigation Division
School Resource Officer
Southlake DPS/Carroll ISD
Regarding:
Auto/Ped accident occurring on September 19th, 2012 at 1501 West FM 1709 at Southlake Carroll ISD Senior High School involving a Mr. S and CSHS student Kyle P.
Narrative:
On September 19th, 2012 at approximately 0800 hours, I, Officer Brian F was contacted by CSHS radio that there had been an accident involving a student on a bike and a parent in car. The accident had occurred on the front (North) side of the building at the western most exit of CSHS onto West FM 1709. There is a stop sign at the exit onto West FM 1709. According to the student, Kyle P., he was riding his bike down the sidewalk heading west and was attempting to cross the west exit when he was struck by the white Honda that had been stopped at the exit. The driver of the white vehicle was a Mr. s. Mr. S had just dropped his child off at the school and was attempting to leave CSHS and was waiting for the east bound traffic to clear so he could pull out onto West FM 1709. In my opinion, both Mr. S and Kyle P assumed that the other would stop and both pulled forward. Mr. S told me that the majority of his attention was diverted to the west as he waited at the stop sign for the east bound traffic to clear so he could pull out.
I interviewed Kyle P. on scene and he told me that he was not injured but I called for Southlake Medics anyway to have him checked out. We also had CSHS Nurse K. check Kyle out as well. He was cleared by Southlake Medics after he assured them that he was physically okay. Southlake Traffic Officers arrived and after talking with those involved decided to not issue a citation and to not write a CR-3 report. Mr. S stated to me several times that he would be happy to replace the front wheel on Kyles bike or even the entire bike depending on the damage. Mr. S told me that he would like to take care of things family to family without getting insurance involved. Due to the totality of the circumstances, a CR-3 Accident report was not made by the Traffic Officers. Once again, both the driver and the bike rider claimed to have no injuries, Mr. S stated he would prefer to take care of things between the families.
According to the Southlake Bicycle/Pedestrian System Master Plan Redraft of 2001, the sidewalks along Southlake Boulevard from Peytonville and on east to SH 114 are to be multi-use sidewalks and bicycles are allowed. This includes the sidewalks directly in front of the Senior High School where Kyle was riding. Throughout the city of Southlake, everywhere you see new construction they are making the sidewalks wider to make as much of the city as possible bicycle/runner/walker friendly. Kyle was not breaking any law regarding riding on the sidewalk. As well, just the day prior to the accident, Kyle was asked to ride down that sidewalk just to the east side of that west exit and to walk his bike in from there. Many of the students on bikes were riding to the east exit and then riding through the parking lot which we felt dangerous.
Regardless of any laws Geico thinks are being broken causing Geico to not want to replace Kyles helmet and bike, Mr. S stated multiple times that he wanted to replace the damaged items and just keep it between the families.
END OF REPORT
