Indestructible V8: Hit by a Car Today

[existensil]

I have a quick tale about how I was ran over on my EUC today, how gear saved my ass, and how the V8 still works somehow.

I was crossing the street at a crosswalk. It's a busy intersection so I waited for my signal. As the walk sign came on I noticed a Honda Accord slowing down in the right turn lane right in front of me. He appeared to be stopping and I had the right of way, so I entered the crosswalk. His real intent was to make a right on the red without fully stopping and his gaze was fixed on the oncoming newly-green-lit traffic to see if he could beat it. Instead of stopping, he sped up as he hit me, hitting me at somewhere between 10/15mph I think.

I remember him accelerating towards me, and I remember crawling back to the sidewalk from the middle of the street. In between those it's a little fuzzy, but I think I flipped onto his hood and then rolled off the drivers side. I remember landing face first.

I was wearing more gear than I usually do: A textile motorcycle riding jacket with shoulder, elbow, and back protection, a full face helmet, wrist guards, and gloves. I think they all helped keep me from suffering any broken bones. I have some scratches on my legs and bruises all over (shoulder, ribs, back, etc) but nothing is broken. I went to the ER just to make sure. Wear your gear, kids. It really works. I will be more diligent about it myself after today. The full face, in particular, clearly saved me from being a lot less pretty after today.

The V8 had only it's protective cover on. It was insufficient.

The thread title is a little misleading. The V8 suffered some significant destruction. Even a couple internal wires were severed. However, it still turns on and appears to work fine, which I find incredible. It was probably 15-20 yards from where I was hit when I looked for it after crawling out of the street. It clearly had gotten caught under the Accord and dragged for a while.

Anyone know what those severed wires I provided a pic of are for? I'll probably solder them before trying to charge it just to be safe.

Any advice for things I should inspect? Ordering new inner and outer shells (or, really, the guy who hit me is) to start. Replacing those should give me a good chance to take more of it apart and check for additional damage.

No backup wheel, so I'm done with EUCing for at least a few days. That's really the worst part about the whole ordeal.

[meepmeepmayer]

Wow, glad you're ok. I find that story less harmless than you make it sound.

"EUCs are dangerous" my ass. As usual, it's the cars that are the problem Protective gear saved you from serious injury.

I wouldn't necessarily repair your V8, unless you are sure everything is 110% ok, otherwise that's dangerous. It looks really bad. Don't have an accident after the accident. Think of EUCs like planes, you wouldn't handwave if someone hit your plane and just keep flying it after soldering a few wires and some some new paint. Let the guilty party replace your V8 with a new one (or give you the full amount of money it cost and put that towards a better wheel, this is your chance) as well as replace all your other damaged gear (at least the helmet if it has possibly been impacted, that's what the manufacturers always say), if only for the cosmetic damage (those pedals look a little scratched).

Also I sure hope you got the police involved.

V8 is sturdy indeed.

[existensil]

There is a police report and everything. It was phenomenal how quick emergency vehicles showed up. Couldn't have been more than 2 or 3 minutes before a fire truck, then an ambulance, then a few cops.

I'm testing it and taking it more apart tomorrow and will decide if it's repairable. I want a better wheel, but I also want this wheel (to teach others with, for low speed maneuvering, etc). If I can confidently repair it I'll let the guy who hit me off with a long parts bill. I know I'm letting him off super easy. I'm looking forward to understanding better how the V8 is built.

I already budgeted the MSuper X. Just hope my ewheels preorder gets called soon, since I might be wheel-less :-)

[meepmeepmayer]

Good to hear Some people are too nonchalant with this kind of stuff and let others off too easily. That helps noone in the long run. No need to be vindictive or anything, just don't be a pushover.

I still think: just get a new V8, one loose cable or emectrical component later on and boom. You can still tinker with the old one and maybe restore it to a training/loaner wheel.

[who_the]

@existensil Very glad you are OK and that the authorities are involved. I was involved in a hit-and-run about a month ago and the car took off, after breaking my wrist and causing an open dislocation of my right pinky finger. Open dislocation is where, umm, the bone sticks out through the skin. Yeah.

On the bright side you're gonna love that MSX!

[Marty Backe]

Wow. What a story. And just a few hours ago I got stuck watching a bunch of cars-hit-pedestrians in the video that @LanghamP posted (see below). The video really does make you want to be super defensive, even when resting on the sidewalk away from traffic.

I see the scenario that befell you just about every day that I take a ride into town. Seems like 80% of drivers look at the oncoming traffic (looking left) and don't bother looking right (what happened to you). Actually I'm really amazed how often people do this. Even if a car is stopped, I will not ride in front of it unless our eyes lock - sometimes I've stood to the side of a car for a minute waiting for them to turn and look my way (sometimes they never do).

Glad you're OK. I assume the driver was ticketed? Feel free to tear into your wheel for learning, but please, don't bother ever trying to use it again. Why risk it? I'm with @meepmeepmayer on this one. Hopefully that guys insurance will recover the cost of the wheel and you can apply it to another wheel.

BTW, everyone needs to have at least one backup wheel. Hopefully you've learned your lesson 

 

[existensil]

I try to make eye contact, usually. I assumed since it was a red light and he was decelerating I was good. I'll be more patient in the future for sure.

That video is scary as shit. I was already thinking about what would happen if I wasn't on the EUC and was just a pedestrian who got pulled under the car instead of flipping up over it, all with no gear.

I hope some CCTV footage or something surfaces of my accident. I would like to slow it down and be a little less fuzzy about what happened.

@who_the That sounds extremely painful. Hope your pinky is doing better now. Guessing it must still be healing.

[meepmeepmayer]

@who_the 

@Marty Backe Not sure if watching such videos is healthy or one's just getting worked up with little benefit. I'm not watching that.

14 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

BTW, everyone needs to have at least one backup wheel. Hopefully you've learned your lesson 

 This really is true. One may not think it, "Ah I can just wait til it is repaired if anything happens"... but once it happens to you, you know how true this is. Instant withdrawal symptoms like restlessness and browsing dealer websites, looking at shiny new expensive models. It's bad.

[Marty Backe]

5 minutes ago, meepmeepmayer said:

@who_the 

@Marty Backe Not sure if watching such videos is healthy or one's just getting worked up with little benefit. I'm not watching that.

 This really is true. One may not think it, "Ah I can just wait til it is repaired if anything happens"... but once it happens to you, you know how true this is. Instant withdrawal symptoms like restlessness and browsing dealer websites, looking at shiny new expensive models. It's bad.

I was super hesitant to watch it myself. Fortunately it's not gory and the resolution isn't great. But it certainly heightens my desire to be even more defensive than I already am. 90+ percent of the people hit in this video are just plain stupid and did it to themselves. But there were quite a few people that were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This really is a good video to look at for a little bit, to really focus yourself on being defensive in your riding. I think so anyway.

[Thai-lad]

8 hours ago, existensil said:

There is a police report and everything. It was phenomenal how quick emergency vehicles showed up. Couldn't have been more than 2 or 3 minutes before a fire truck, then an ambulance, then a few cops.

I'm testing it and taking it more apart tomorrow and will decide if it's repairable. I want a better wheel, but I also want this wheel (to teach others with, for low speed maneuvering, etc). If I can confidently repair it I'll let the guy who hit me off with a long parts bill. I know I'm letting him off super easy. I'm looking forward to understanding better how the V8 is built.

I already budgeted the MSuper X. Just hope my ewheels preorder gets called soon, since I might be wheel-less :-)

This is the kind of impact that can turn a battery pack into a ticking time bomb.  Just one hidden cell in the pack getting damaged and the whole thing could go up in flames at some future date.  Replacing the pack plus repairs probably more than the cost of a new wheel. 

[LanghamP]

It's notable he had <minor> injuries. In contrast, if he had been hit by a light truck (more than half of vehicles on the road, and about 85% of new vehicles sold) then he would have had an astonishing 4 times likely chance of being killed. In this case he got tossed over the hood but in a collision with an SUV he would simply have been punched through at chest height then overrun.

As odd as it sounds, I do not think pedestrians should cross within crosswalks at intersections due to several reasons. Intersections often widen making the time to cross a contested area increase. The number of directions cars come from increases.

As a pedestrian at an intersection typically you'd have to look left then right then left then right whereas if you cross in the middle of the street the street is both narrower and death is only coming from two directions.

[Brandon Cohen]

10 hours ago, existensil said:

His real intent was to make a right on the red without fully stopping and his gaze was fixed on the oncoming newly-green-lit traffic to see if he could beat it.

I'm so sick of people doing this. My family has almost been hit countless times. I watched a lady walking her dog move just quick enough to get away from a driver like this. Ugh people suck.

 

Glad you're okay. I wouldn't let him off easy, otherwise he may do it again for lack of consequences. :/

8 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

And just a few hours ago I got stuck watching a bunch of cars-hit-pedestrians in the video that @LanghamP posted (see below)

WOW. Does no one look both ways? Cars and pedestrians alike. So focused on their own stuff.

[LanghamP]

1 hour ago, Brandon Cohen said:

WOW. Does no one look both ways? Cars and pedestrians alike. So focused on their own stuff.

A number of cities have enacted fines for distracted walking, that is, when a pedestrian is hit and killed the police show up and start handing out tickets to pedestrians if they are too old, too slow, or unable to be seen because they are too short. Meanwhile car radios, black paint, and bullhorn fronts are allowed in cars despite the lack of "driver collides with pedestrian, driver sent to hospital" situations.

You must understand that pedestrians and bicyclists acting legally in traffic are now being illegalized; have you ever noticed that whenever a bicyclist is run over by a driver the first question is, "was he wearing a helmet?" Methinks whenever a driver is killed or injured we should ask the same question, and if the driver was not then he, the driver, somehow was asking for it.

 

[existensil]

@LanghamP In many ways being a pedestrian has been "illegalized". This was a very deliberate and coordinated effort spearheaded by auto manufacturers to redefine how roads work to help them sell their product. This happened before hardly any of use were born. There are documentaries on this effort. Articles like this one give a quick overview: https://www.vox.com/2015/1/15/7551873/jaywalking-history

You seem to be conveying that it is getting worse. I don't think that is true. Smartphones have brought about the passage of distracted walking laws and maybe those are abused in places. But, cities around the world are getting more and more walk-able and bike friendly. I love watching my car commuting neighbors get angry on Nextdoor as Denver removes more car lanes and replaces them with buffered bike lanes. So, at least I think there is hope and things are heading in the right direction, however slowly. Maybe there are parts of the world I'm not aware of where things are getting much worse?

[FreeRide]

Great to hear you are OK.  As for the V8, it probably cheaper for the driver just to pay for a new one.  You can still keep the old one.  It's very hard to tell if a PCB is cracked and it might not show any issue until the right stresses are present and/or the right temperature.  Worse the batteries, it is not possible to tell if the internal structure of a battery was damaged, fortunately it seems in your case with the battery inside the wheel, if there is no physical damage to the pack you might be OK.  Shock though can damage the batteries internally without much evidence on the outside.  The Li Cylindrical cells are better than many types of cells, but still.

Take your time evaluating the wheel.  Wear all your gear if you get back on it.

[LanghamP]

2 hours ago, existensil said:

@LanghamP 

You seem to be conveying that it is getting worse. I don't think that is true. Maybe there are parts of the world I'm not aware of where things are getting much worse?

That would be the USA, as pedestrian and bicycle deaths have seen a dramatic rise of about 50%, but be mindful for population growth.

Walker deaths go up by 50% since 2009. https://www.freep.com/story/news/2018/05/08/pedestrian-deaths-skyrocket-suvs-share-blame/585379002/

https://www.npr.org/2017/03/30/522085503/2016-saw-a-record-increase-in-pedestrian-deaths

Two big factors; distracted driving and SUVs that hit the chest (if an adult) or the head (if an adult).

Interestingly, if you dig deeper into who dies as a pedestrian then it is the very young and the very old who usually does, not a demographic that uses cellphones a lot. A good analogy is fines on people who forget to wear their bullet-resistant vest and then got shot.

https://www.cityofmontclair.org/residents/attention-pedestrians

Presumably, just crossing a legal crosswalk then getting killed while in possession of a cell phone constitutes distracted walking. It's a way of making walking entirely illegal.

A lot of bicyclist ride on the sidewalk because the drivers are going fast on the road and there aren't bicycle lanes. A lot of pedestrians avoid the sidewalk because driveways cut across the sidewalk rendering it not quite a sidewalk.

The best birthday present I could ever get is for gas prices to rise above ten bucks per gallon. 20 would be much better. Mind you I have a car that I use a lot, but that's because I need to transverse these arterials roads of death.

[Marcglider]

One of our fellow members was hit by a car recently.... he has chosen not to tell his story right now so I will not go into details but he was hit without seeing the car... he woke up in the ambulance not even knowing he was hit by a car and does not have much recollection of what happened. He was only wearing wrist guards if that I think, he got about 18 stitches in his face, dislocated his shoulder and as of a few days ago, said he was scheduled to have surgery but did not elaborate on the specifics... one more story to reinforce the importance of wearing safety gear 

[Marty Backe]

6 minutes ago, Marcglider said:

One of our fellow members was hit by a car recently.... he has chosen not to tell his story right now so I will not go into details but he was hit without seeing the car... he woke up in the ambulance not even knowing he was hit by a car and does not have much recollection of what happened. He was only wearing wrist guards if that I think, he got about 18 stitches in his face, dislocated his shoulder and as of a few days ago, said he was scheduled to have surgery but did not elaborate on the specifics... one more story to reinforce the importance of wearing safety gear 

Wow. Too bad some people don't want to relate their stories. We all learn so much from the experience. If nothing else, the stories reinforce our need to ride safely. Did they at least 'get' the car that hit him?

Hopefully he recovers and rides another day.

[Marcglider]

4 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

Wow. Too bad some people don't want to relate their stories. We all learn so much from the experience. If nothing else, the stories reinforce our need to ride safely. Did they at least 'get' the car that hit him?

Hopefully he recovers and rides another day.

I spoke with him once a few days after and the rest was a single text 2 days ago... he found out sometime after that there was a police report, he has a friend at the PD who was going to find out the details... when I asked if it was a hit and run, he did not know any details at that time and I have no further details on anything but a required surgery from the text. After some time goes by, I will guess he will post details... it has been about 2 months now that I am fully geared up, wrist, elbows, knees, and full face helmet, I DO NOT ride without them... Ever. This is not because something happened, but just in case it does.

[LanghamP]

8 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

Wow. Too bad some people don't want to relate their stories. We all learn so much from the experience. If nothing else, the stories reinforce our need to ride safely. Did they at least 'get' the car that hit him?

Hopefully he recovers and rides another day.

I think there isn't much use getting the car unless it's one of those semi self driving Teslas. When we say "he got hit by a car" it's akin to saying "this person was shot by a gun."

No one arrests and charges the gun.

A person driving a car hit another person driving an EUC. Somehow as a culture we seem treat cars as these acts of God going down the road when, in reality, it is drivers not exercising due care.

[Marty Backe]

27 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

I think there isn't much use getting the car unless it's one of those semi self driving Teslas. When we say "he got hit by a car" it's akin to saying "this person was shot by a gun."

No one arrests and charges the gun.

A person driving a car hit another person driving an EUC. Somehow as a culture we seem treat cars as these acts of God going down the road when, in reality, it is drivers not exercising due care.

I would think that most people on planet Earth understand my comment "Did they at least 'get' the car that hit him?" as asking if they got the person driving the car. Lets not be too literal when reading the comments in this Forum 

[litewave]

Glad you were wearing the extra gear and full-face helmet. That Demon helmet really lived up to the brand's slogan: "Demon Saves"!

I tend to agree with @LanghamP about crossing in the middle of the street versus intersections, where I feel most vulnerable and least liklely to be seen. I always try to make eye contact and be waved on by the driver, but some drivers will just ignore you even if you shout at them and demand acknowledgement. Even if they do make eye contact, it doesn't guarantee that the their brain and muscle reflexes are connected.

As a result, I will always ride around the rear of the lead vehicle (or two) on smaller side streets, and avoid rush-hour traffic, especially in the evening.

 

[LanghamP]

2 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

I would think that most people on planet Earth understand my comment "Did they at least 'get' the car that hit him?" as asking if they got the person driving the car. Lets not be too literal when reading the comments in this Forum 

It's not that I doubt your understanding.

It's the usage of language where it's only cars that do the maiming and the killing. Consider:

--the baseball bat bludgeoned the man.

--the knife stabbed the man to death.

--the ashtray knocked the man out.

--the gun shot the man.

--the car hit the man.

All the above are the same yet one sounds about right while the others sound perverse.

It should be, "the driver hit the EUC rider" because it is indeed the driver and not the car that is doing the damage. Yet somehow our car culture has permeated even outstanding citzens such as @Marty Backe and @Marcglider into using such perverse language.

Don't do it! Don't let Goebbels and Ford shape our language in such a way that we blame autos while absolving drivers.

One way you can tell that you're part of a minority is by estimating the degree of lethality a majority holds over a minority; in this case it must be thousands to one, as the 3000-6000 pound metal encases driver is rarely injured in fatal collisions with pedestrians and bicyclists.

[LanghamP]

I was reminded of this when I read this article.

https://road.cc/content/news/251211-community-order-careless-driver-who-drove-make-delivery-following-fatal

Was the bicyclist wearing a helmet?

[existensil]

There is more damage to the inner plastics and such than expected. Going to have the driver pay me what I paid for the V8 and put it towards an upgrade. I'm starting to feel a lot less sure about being able to repair this unit.

Maybe I'll take a stab at a repair at some point and keep it around for doing stunts with. Might be nice to have a backup that I really don't care what happens to.