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Video: Car Hits Motorcyclist Who Tells Driver To Stop Texting
A motorcyclist says a driver in West Hollywood crashed into him shortly after he yelled at the driver to stop using his phone—and he has the shocking incident caught on video.
Samuel Ayres recently uploaded the video on YouTube, which can be seen below, showing the crash he says took place on March 26. In the clip, which was recorded off of a camera on his helmet, you can see the motorcyclist waiting at a red light at the intersection of La Cienega and Santa Monica boulevards. He looks at a driver in a black BMW convertible next to him, and says, "Put down your fucking phone when you're in your car." Ayres claims that the driver was texting and chatting on his phone.
A driver honks at the motorcyclist before he makes a left turn onto Santa Monica Boulevard. At the 0:34-minute mark, a car comes up through the center lane next to Ayres and hits him. Ayres gets knocked down to the ground and falls off of his motorcycle. The driver speeds away.
"I was fully in the left lane the entire time," Ayres told RideApart.com, a motorcycle enthusiast blog. "When the driver started getting really aggressive with me, I definitely slowed down to give myself extra reaction time (there wasn't enough traffic to really get away from him right there). I was going probably about 30mph or so... slowed down from maybe 40-ish?"
Ayres has since launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for his medical bills, and on his DonationTo page, he's also detailed his experience and what has happened since. He says he suffered a severe concussion that has affected his memory, two hairline fractures in his left shoulder, and a broken foot.
"Because the driver is currently under criminal investigation, I will be unable to go after him or his insurance for any sort of compensation for quite a while," Ayres writes. He adds that he is personally fully-insured and is not trying to scam people into paying his medical bills. While the owner of the BMW has been identified, the owner was not the driver during the crash, according to Ayres. The suspected driver has apparently lawyered up, and since he's under investigation, Ayres says he's unable to get any information about his insurance to file claims against him. He's in negotiations with the car owner's insurance company, but says that won't cover all his expenses that he gained from the crash.
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LAist contacted LAPD about the incident, but they declined to give comment.
[h/t: Reddit]
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