Fair Lawsuit: Ambulance Runs Over Man on Bicycle, Proceeds to Charge Him $1,800 for The Ride to The Hospital
Oregon Live - An Oregon cyclist who was struck by an ambulance that made a right turn into him — fracturing his nose and leaving him with scrapes and other injuries across his body — has filed a $997,000 lawsuit against the ambulance provider after it scooped him up, drove him to the hospital and then billed him for the service, according to the suit.
Attorney Travis Mayor says the ambulance provider — Columbia River Fire & Rescue — sent his client, 71-year-old William Hoesch, a $1,862 bill for the ambulance ride. That’s among about $47,000 in medical expenses that Hoesch has racked up so far and another $50,000 of medical costs he expects in the future, the suit states.
I think we can all agree that cyclists are scary. Whether they're pumping testicle full of steroids to cheat their way to 7 consecutive Tour de France victories, jumping 14 school busses in the name of evil, or disobeying the rules of traffic because, "Well I'm only riding a bike. Of course you should treat me as if I were an actual car, despite the fact that I'm only going 15 mph down a 35 mph road. But if I'm at a red light, and I don't see any cars coming, I mean... do you really expect me to just wait there? Just me on my little ol' pedal bike? And by the way, if you so much as clip me with your mirror as I blow through a 4-way stop, I'll go soaring through the window of a bakery and you'll be on trail for manslaughter."
Look, I don't feel good about saying that. I'm not a fucking monster. The last thing I want is for somebody to get hurt. It's not like I'm driving around out there looking to pick off cyclists one-by-one. But 2-wheeled, seatbelt-less vehicles with zero exterior protection picking and choosing when the laws of the road should apply to them, weaving in and out of Cybertrucks is a disaster waiting to happen.
So given the cyclist is not carrying $45 worth of Door Dash en route to my door step (in which case I expect him/her to lay their life on the line and disobey any and all laws even if it means leaving a trail of chaos and destruction in their wake so that my hibachi arrives in a timely manner) I'm in general anti-bikes on road. What we need is WAY more bike lanes. But how many bike lanes can we really build? Or I guess they could just ride on the sidewalk. But I have beef with sidewalk bikers too. Especially in bigger cities. When I'm walking down a busy sidewalk in New York and some bike comes zooming by expecting everyone to get out of his way. That's fucking dangerous too. Sidewalks are for walking. But it's not like we can just ban bikes. We really need some sort of bike reform in this country. The way it is now, there's not nearly enough clarity when it comes to bike laws.
But I digress. Sorry for the rambling. Regardless, I am also staunchly against the idea of a man running me over with a 5-ton vehicle Liz Gonzales style (regardless of my mode of transportation) then charging me $1,862 for the pleasure. The fact that EMT's and police officers will try and force people into ambulances at all is ridiculous. Obviously it's necessary in some cases. But in my opinion, for non-life threatening emergencies, they should really be trained to warn the injured person of the potential costs up front, and encourage them to call an Uber if the ambulance is not medically necessary. I know they don't technically "force" people into ambulances, but they sure do strong arm people into it. And they DEFINITELY don't bring up the price of the trip.
That being said, in the world of bag chasing, being struck by an ambulance is like hitting the jackpot. And in this case, William Hoesch has a responsibility to take Columbia River & Fire Rescue for all they're worth. You can't let them get away with this infinite money making scheme of, Find Biker > Run Over Biker > Drive Biker to Hospital > Charge Biker Thousands of Dollars > Repeat.
No. We can't allow that to happen. I hope Will gets every penny of that $997,000 lawsuit.