Ken45

Reviving an old thread now that we are done with the lawyers. My wife had a very rough six months of recovery. Pain, oxygen 24/hrs a day, many trips to doctors and therapy. She still has shoulder pain at times. But otherwise is finally doing fairly well. I had knee surgery last spring and I'm doing okay. We didn't know if we could ride again but it had been our greatest joy. Last spring we bought a new trike. We put less than 3000 miles on it last year, 1/3rd of our normal riding. It just wasn't all that enjoyable, too many memories of the crash, too much fear of it happening again. IDK if we will ever be able to enjoy riding like we used to. It also gets uncomfortable riding for more than an hour. We will give the trike another try this year but if we can't enjoy it better, we will sell the trike. Insurance companies: Her insurance company's (Safeco) adjuster was a real piece of work. Denial, wrong information, stalling, etc. Lies. When they finally made an offer for the trike, it was $15,000 less that what we paid for it 2 years earlier. I had documentation of comparable replacement costs but they just ignored that. I finally turned it over to my insurance company (State Farm) who paid off under the "uninsured/underinsured" coverage. They did a more honest evaluation, paying attention to the details and cut a check for $8000 more than the Safeco offer. Turns out, Safeco/Liberty Mutual/Ohio Casualty is all the same company. We had our $3000/year farm policy with Ohio Casualty. I cancelled it and found a new company and a new agent. Lawyers: We went with Elk & Elk, a large firm. Our lawyer was Craig McLaughlin. He seemed to be knowledgeable and we feel he got us a reasonable settlement. Communication was via phone and email. Ken

They are very nice bikes, sweet handling.

jdonn, Intersections I have been hyper alert on. That's one of the reasons we mostly ride rural areas, to avoid heavy traffic. Heck, it's not that I hope to "come out on top", just to come out somewhat fair instead of taking a major loss. Bubba, thanks for the thread reference, I'll check it. Ken

I had looked last week and it was not online then. Thanks. But I think it is wrong for the state to post people's cell phone numbers. OTOH, it does help the insurance companies to make contact. Ken

What you have said coincides with my (unknowledgeable) thinking. How would they work for 2UP? What if an airbag slowed us down and we did hit the car instead of going over it? A million unknowns or variables in each accident. Cars are an unknown too but more of a closed system, especially with a seat belt. Thanks, Ken

And so the police (OSHP in this case) posts my cell phone number? Gee thanks guys.

Oh yeah, I've gotten some postal mail and today even text messages from lawyers (oh joy! How did they get my cell phone number?) However, I don't want to just grab any lawyer that says "hire me" and I also wonder if we will come out worse after a lawyer takes his cut. If they get 30% of a ten percent bigger settlement, that's a bigger loss for us. We do have a local lawyer we have used on real estate and wills but he seems like maybe a too nice of a guy (LOL) and besides, I have a suspicion he probably at least knows the other driver since they are both long time residents in the same small community. I know a couple of lawyers that relatives have used and I'll probably be contacting one of them as soon as I get done running to medical offices with my wife. If anyone has any suggestions on how to select a decent lawyer, I would appreciate if you would PM me. Thanks, Ken

Thanks. Well "okay" is relative, I'm still worried about my wife's ultimate recovery. But now the S*** is beginning. Turns out, State Farm (MY insurance) has taken it upon themselves to move the trike to a salvage yard without my permission or anything. All I did with State Farm is to notify them, not make a claim. Oh, they also mentioned "actual cash value", which means if we have to rely on them, I'm sure we will lose big time (the trike was bought new.) Now I just get a call from the doctor's office wanting OUR "auto insurance" for their billing. I don't know about other companies, but State Farm does not provide "medical claims" on motorcycle insurance..... (Is that standard in Ohio for mc insurance not to include medical claims?) We may be forced to get a lawyer real fast..... Ken

FYI, my wife came home from the hospital Friday and is improving although it will be quite a while until she is fully recovered. She is saying that she definitely wants to ride again. I don't know, we will have to see. BTW, I finally got a chance to inspect our gear. My jacket looks fine except for some blood. Her jacket has a hole in one shoulder. I don't know, we were very, very fortunate. Ken

So far all I have from OSHP is her name. No address, no insurance company info. Hopefully she has good coverage. Then there is our uninsured motorist coverage. (I actually noticed on the Nighthawk, I pay more for uninsured motorist than I do for $1m liability....) As for us riding again, that will be a difficult future decision. If I ride solo, I will be leaving her home to worry about me. If we ride 2up, then of course I have to worry about hurting her.... OTOH, riding has been our biggest joy these last few years. As to my experience, I first started riding in 1985. I had about 60,000 accident free miles until Saturday. About 34,000 of those miles have been the last two years. The trike just turned over 17,000 miles. Ken p.s. here is a photo of the top of my helmet

I have thought it over a thousand times and I just cannot think of anything I could have done different than staying home. We both loved to ride. State trooper said my reaction time was good and he said that I handled it right. I agree with you, I'm constantly watching what I do and try to learn from everything I do, to do better. But about the only thing that would have saved us here was if I was doing 25 mph and that would probably have upset other drivers, LOL. Some of my first thoughts (and even before this) was wondering if more lights or a different color would have helped. But she admitted she did see us. Visibility won't help there.

That has crossed my mind although I want to find out if they actually do much good. Although it would have made zero difference in this case (state trooper agrees), I would also probably want ABS. FWIW, I got out of motorcycles in 2002 and started riding horses. Even including this wreck, motorcycles have been safer for both of us than horses! Ken

The state trooper agreed that the trike was better in this situation than 2 a two wheeler. It stayed very stable until after we were ejected. I feel that the size and the front of the Goldwing also provided some protection. I think most of my cuts and scrapes were from the left handlebar and maybe the GPS mount (the GPS was turned over but still attached, it was on a clutch reservoir mount.) We were extremely fortunate that there was nothing on the other side of the car, just flat blacktop, no guard rails, telephone poles, or other vehicles. We were also lucky that the car didn't roll back over us. After the crash, it was uncontrolled and rolled back into the parking lot where it struck a truck. If we had been laying in it's path, well, that would have been even worse. Yesterday my wife asked if we were going to get another trike. I don't know yet, it's too early to think about that. But we really loved that bike and she loved riding it. We put 4000 miles on it in the last month. Ken

It was the base level Goldwing. We bought the trike new off the showroom floor, it was the only one they had (and was expensive enough!) I wonder how well the airbags work and if they would have made a difference in our case. FWIW, Honda makes four levels: L1 - audio/comfort, L2 - Navi (previous options + substandard GPS and XM radio), L3 - previous options plus ABS brakes, L4 - previous options + airbag. Ken

If any of you were involved in the traffic tie up Saturday afternoon on US 52 between Aberdeen and Manchester, here are the details. It was my wife and I. A car pulled out of the parking lot at Moyer's Winery, making a left hand turn in front of us. She told OSHP that she saw us but "they didn't stop". She is 82, is being charged with the accident and OSHP is going to recommend that her license be revoked. According to the trooper, she had not been drinking. We were on our 2009 Goldwing Trike. I didn't have much time to react and there was nothing to do except lock up the brakes and watch the distance close. 99' of skid marks before impact. I hit the car dead center and I went over the top of the vehicle and hit the pavement violently. My wife tried holding onto the arm rest, doesn't remember anything else and ended up about 40' beyond me. When I got to her, she was unconscious and bleeding. I am past EMT/VFD. I raised her head enough for her to breath (she was nose down in a pool of blood) and I supporter her until EMS arrived. She started to regain consciousness within a minute. She was airflighted to University Hospital in Cincinnati (Level 1 Trauma Center) and is doing well with several fractures (ribs, scapula, collar bone), a few cuts and lots of bruises, but nothing critical. She was moved out of ICU to a regular floor on Monday. I was taken to the Maysville hospital, checked over and released. I'm still pretty stiff and sore. We both had on full face helmets. Hers did come off, maybe it was too loose of a fit? But I'm sure it still protected her initially. My helmet has some deep scrapes on the top. I'm sure I would not have done well without it. We also had on mesh jackets and she had on new leather chaps. The trike is totaled. But I think it did a good job of protecting us from worse damage. The car we hit is in pretty bad shape too. The trooper, who is a bike rider, said I did as good as could be done and my reaction time was good. He feels that the trike was safer than a 2 wheeler. Manchester and West Union EMS responded quickly with good personnel. Thanks guys! Ken