My parked motorcycle was knocked over by a truck - next steps?

[J_C_K]

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Decided to take advantage of the nice weather we've been having and took my bike to work, parking it in a designated motorcycle spot beside another bike.

Long story short; I came out from work to discover my bike being parked much.....MUCH closer to the other bike than I remembered it being. To the point where it would have been impossible to park as such without getting off the bike and guiding it in from the side.

After a few moments of confusion (me staring at the bikes wondering how in the hell I managed this terrible of a park job, second guessing both my memory and ability to function in an under-caffeinated state), I noticed some broken glass on the ground.

At this point, the driver of the other motorcycle introduced themselves - turns out it's because someone managed to smash their vehicle into my motorcycle causing a domino effect - knocking it over onto (as in, fully on top of) the adjacent bike.

They mentioned that a witness left notes on both of our motorcycles describing the vehicle that caused the accident along with some other information (including plate number). They along with some good samaritans managed to get both bikes upright (hence them being parked so close together).

We have photos of the accident scene. The note left behind by the witness mentioned that they reported the crappy driver to 911.

Was wondering if anyone has dealt with a situation like this - I think a police report is in order on my end? I (thankfully) have limited experience with dealing with this sort of nonsense, but would definitely like the culpable driver to face repercussions.

Any advice on how to proceed would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Dutchie]

That sucks to hear. I had an incident last summer where somebody hit my truck ($3,500 damage) while inside grabbing a sandwich in a shopping plaza. A lady waited for me with a picture of the car and plate that hit my truck and drove away. 1 week and 2 meetings with the police later (having to meet them at the scene) and they said "we've done all we can, this stuff happens, you have to go through your own insurance". The report was made and then nothing done with it.
Unless its revenue generating, the police force doesn't follow up with anything unfortunately.

 

[Evoex]

Decided to take advantage of the nice weather we've been having and took my bike to work, parking it in a designated motorcycle spot beside another bike.

Long story short; I came out from work to discover my bike being parked much.....MUCH closer to the other bike than I remembered it being. To the point where it would have been impossible to park as such without getting off the bike and guiding it in from the side.

After a few moments of confusion (me staring at the bikes wondering how in the hell I managed this terrible of a park job, second guessing both my memory and ability to function in an under-caffeinated state), I noticed some broken glass on the ground.

At this point, the driver of the other motorcycle introduced themselves - turns out it's because someone managed to smash their vehicle into my motorcycle causing a domino effect - knocking it over onto (as in, fully on top of) the adjacent bike.

They mentioned that a witness left notes on both of our motorcycles describing the vehicle that caused the accident along with some other information (including plate number). They along with some good samaritans managed to get both bikes upright (hence them being parked so close together).

We have photos of the accident scene. The note left behind by the witness mentioned that they reported the crappy driver to 911.

Was wondering if anyone has dealt with a situation like this - I think a police report is in order on my end? I (thankfully) have limited experience with dealing with this sort of nonsense, but would definitely like the culpable driver to face repercussions.

Any advice on how to proceed would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Hopefully you took pictures of the scene, report it to insurance. Depending on your coverage this is covered and should be deemed a not at fault situation. You'll have a claim but no hit to your insurance record.

Oh I read again and noted your wish to pursue police/legal action. At most you`re probably looking at a 'failure to remain' charge on the driver. You're probably going to have an uphill battle with this one.

 

[GreyGhost]

Sorry to hear, that sucks.

If nobody is in the hospital, expect nothing from the police beyond an incident number to provide your insurance company. Most police in Canada have completely given up on property crime.

Hopefully witness left a phone number. Sometimes insurance company likes to talk to the witness to confirm the story. Hopefully insurance company is reasonable and processes this as a comp claim instead of an at-fault crash (that's often their default position unless you can prove otherwise).

If your helmet was on the bike, you can probably get a new helmet as part of the claim. You don't know if it got damaged in the fall.

 

[Scuba Steve]

Decided to take advantage of the nice weather we've been having and took my bike to work, parking it in a designated motorcycle spot beside another bike.

Long story short; I came out from work to discover my bike being parked much.....MUCH closer to the other bike than I remembered it being. To the point where it would have been impossible to park as such without getting off the bike and guiding it in from the side.

After a few moments of confusion (me staring at the bikes wondering how in the hell I managed this terrible of a park job, second guessing both my memory and ability to function in an under-caffeinated state), I noticed some broken glass on the ground.

At this point, the driver of the other motorcycle introduced themselves - turns out it's because someone managed to smash their vehicle into my motorcycle causing a domino effect - knocking it over onto (as in, fully on top of) the adjacent bike.

They mentioned that a witness left notes on both of our motorcycles describing the vehicle that caused the accident along with some other information (including plate number). They along with some good samaritans managed to get both bikes upright (hence them being parked so close together).

We have photos of the accident scene. The note left behind by the witness mentioned that they reported the crappy driver to 911.

Was wondering if anyone has dealt with a situation like this - I think a police report is in order on my end? I (thankfully) have limited experience with dealing with this sort of nonsense, but would definitely like the culpable driver to face repercussions.

Any advice on how to proceed would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Make your insurance claim the police don't care and won't do anything.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[sburns]

Ah that sucks. I've had my other bike knocked over by drivers, no real damage. After that I try to park far enough away from other vehicles to avoid anything like that again.

You didn't mention any damage. Is it worth the aggravation to jump through the hoops with little to no outcome?

 

[GreyGhost]

Ah that sucks. I've had my other bike knocked over by drivers, no real damage. After that I try to park far enough away from other vehicles to avoid anything like that again.

You didn't mention any damage. Is it worth the aggravation to jump through the hoops with little to no outcome?

The chance of no damage in bike stacking is really low. A few dents/cracked panels gets to thousands of dollars quickly. If you have a KLR, it's character. If you have an otherwise unblemished bike, that significantly impacts resale value (and for some owners would drive them nuts) if unfixed.

 

[wolfpack27616]

The chance of no damage in bike stacking is really low. A few dents/cracked panels gets to thousands of dollars quickly. If you have a KLR, it's character. If you have a otherwise unblemished bike, that significantly impacts resale value (and for some owners would drive them nuts) if unfixed.

This happened to me

Same situation as OP, and it happened in Nov 2019, and downtown TO outside my office. I came out after work at 9 pm ET and found the bike sideways. It was clear someone had hit the bike (The Vulcan is heavy enough not to tip over easily). I had an international travel next morning, and decided not to involve insurance/report to collision center.

The damage seemed minor, fender scraped, Windshield scratched, Lower windshield broke, Highway peg dented, Hand deflector scratched- it all added up to apprximately 2k worth of damage to get fixed.

Every time i used to see those blemishes, I used to regret not reporting to insurance. When i sold the bike this week, I was offered 600$ less by the dealer citing these blemishes/scrapes.

 

[oioioi]

Sucks to hear about the mishap.
As others have stated, you are fighting an uphill battle with 0.000001% chance that the Poilce dept will be helpfull.

I have 2nd hand experince in a similar situation from both sides and not not effort or resultion front he police.

My parents car sustained some damage in a parking lot cused by another driver that drove off. Witness wrote up a note descuiprbing what happened with her info as well as descriptoin and licence plate of the other driver.

We filed it with police and didnt hear about it for several weeks. Eventually they called us with the phone number of the other driver. Turns out that the number was invalid. The police officer confirmed that it was invalid but "that was the number the other driver provided when we visited him at his house". It was actually a different PD that visited him as he was in a differernt juristitoin. The incident occured and was filed in Peel.
The officer pretty much said, we have done all that we can. They did not issue a "vail to remain" but educated him on exchanging proper info with other driver when incidents like this occur. They told us to take it up with the insurance.
Thankfully the car was leased and the dealer "forgave" the damage as my parents were signiing into another lease with them.

Also from the the other side of the coin... I know of a sutuation where someones car made contact with another parked car. No obvious damage so the person drove off.
A few days later, an officer showed up at the house. No one was home but rang the video door bell. No commincation with the officer but they could be seen on the video.
Since no one answered the door, they left the business card and never came back.
Incident was swept under the rug.


Even if the Police do "try to help", the most they will provide is a phone number. They will not release names and or address.


These sitation suck and often have to be dealth with out of pocket.

Best of luck @J_C_K . Hopefully the damage is not too bad.

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