Ambulance hits cyclist, rushes him to hospital, then sticks him with $1,800 bill
Ambulance hits cyclist, rushes him to hospital, then sticks him with $1,800 bill
The cyclist, who suffered a broken nose, was initially treated at the scene by the ambulance driver.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.bestiver.se/post/93717
This is one of the most American things I've ever read.
If America the legal battle will cost the EMS a huge part of their budget.
Not even close. Notice the date it was posted.
That made me swell with a sliver of American pride. Which is a pretty remarkable achievement this week.
Is this fuck cars or fuck the us?
Show of hands, who pays for ambulances regardless of why?
My intention is definitely "fuck cars." The fucked-up thing here is that even ambulance drivers, who should know better more so than almost anybody, are incompetently right-hooking cyclists. Billing him for it is merely the icing on the shit-cake.
So your alternative would be that ambulances should no longer use cars? From my perspective all kind of emergency services such as fire department, law enforcement, ambulances should be the very last cars we get rid of as a society. They have to be fast and they need to transport a lot of stuff and people.
Ahhh okay, but you’re not trying to argue that paramedics should be on bicycles or taking public transit! That was the thing that puzzled me.
I think we could avoid a lot of the issues with pedestrians and cyclists getting hit by motor vehicles by getting rid of stroads and properly designing cities to separate streets and roads.
I will always opt for a Lyft or Uber, unless I am actively dying from something that could kill me in 30 minutes or less, like a massive severed artery or something like that.
They are just as fast, and if I start literally dying in the hospital waiting room, they will most likely pay attention.
The only way it makes sense to take an ambulance to a hospital is if you literally have no other option, or if you are so seriously injured you've already lost consciousness or are mostly paralyzed.
You can call an ambulance, paramedics arrive, stabilize you, and then refuse to get in the ambulance.
This costs you nothing.
Then you just bite on your wallet and take an Uber or Lyft, which costs 10 to 20 dollars.
Get in the ambulance? 1 to 3 thousand dollars, for a shitty version of the care you'll recieve in the hospital anyway, can't avoid those costs.
Bikes: a transportation vehicle with health benefits. Ambulance: a transportation vehicle for the unwell.
Bikes are the natural enemy of the ambulance. A war between the bike clan and the ambulance clan is on the horizon.
Solution: Ambulance bikes.
(A show like Top Gear but for bicycles could be pretty awesome.)
Like brothers and sisters
That's an interesting business strategy, I'll give 'em that
Like firemen setting fire to extinguish.
This is America
Don't catch you slippin' now
Seriously, don’t slip. It will both literally and metaphorically cost you an arm and a leg in the states.
Ambulance in my area
A new way to make money! Much easier than waiting for someone to need an ambulance!
Infinite money hack!
GDP📈
It's called a 'for profit business', look it up, people!
Sounds like a pretty straightforward lawsuit
Your honor.......he hit me!
Nuh-uh!
Yeah huh!!!
He started it!!!
No I didn't!!!
Moooooom!!!!!
Your mom has been dead for 32 years......you're 81
And I'm still bike riding the mean streets of NYC!
Yeah, and getting billed for your bad driving.
The bad driver was the one not getting billed.
they couldve gotten way more than $1,800 if they hit a few more cyclists on the way. theres plenty of room in the back of an ambulance
Maybe playing devil's advocate here, but if it was the ambulance's fault then the ambulance company's insurance should be paying for all of the medical bills, including the ambulance ride. And the bill for the ambulance ride pays the EMS workers salaries and the vehicle maintenance.
The amount of profiteering in the medical industry is obscene, but I'm not sure this is an example of it...
I'm not a lawyer, but it strikes me that this could be exactly what is happening. The ambulance company's insurance wouldn't pay the hospital directly, they aren't health insurance. So instead, the cyclist's health insurance footed the initial bill. Then they went after the cyclist for his deductible/copay/whatnot. Now he has to get the money from the ambulance company. If this was vehicle on vehicle violence, he would have gone to his auto insurance, who would have in turn went after the ambulance company's insurance, but he might not have auto insurance or auto insurance might not be willing to get involved because he wasn't driving. So he has to go direct to the company. Wouldn't be shocking if the company pushed off any non-legal petitions from him because he doesn't have the name weight of an insurance company with lawyers on retainer, so now he is seeking a legal remedy. Insurance doesn't just work always, there is often a degree of negotiating and litigation involved in these exchanges, especially if one party disagrees with another on matters of liability
How the fuck is this "fuck cars" content? I hate cars as much as everyone here, but I don't think we can replace ambulances with bikes
You, kind sir, deserve a reward.
Bravo!
The point of an ambulance is to get to the hospital as fast as possible, while have other people keeping the person stable. They also need to not leave the person exposed to all the various debris that is thrown up by fast moving vehicles. This is an awful idea.
It is "fuck cars" content because 1. the lack of proper bike infrastructure is what led to the crash, and 2. making road victims have to hire lawyers just to get their medical bills paid.
Meanwhile in Russia(and pretty much rest of Europe): citizems get full healthcare and even foreigners get some of it. For free.
This is what happens if any foreigner for example breaks bone in Russia:
- Emergency, including emergency specialized, medical care is provided to foreign citizens in case of sickness, accident, trauma, poisining and other cases requireing emergency treatment. Such medical treatment provided by state and municipal healthcare organizations is free of charge.
Oh lol, America is now officially worse than Russia. Well that didn't take long.
America is a third world country with a Gucci belt.
This also feels like a good fit for Not The Onion.
Pro gamer move
He was on a bike... it wasn't worth abandoning the car
Trumps america, not 1,800 3,000! It would be communism otherwise!
Sue them for 1 million. Profit.
Look at the picture in the article and read the story. The biker was trying to ride past the ambulance near the curb as the ambulance was turning.
The biker felt entitled to do whatever he wanted instead of waiting his turn and got himself ran over.
It's called a right-hook. Cars pass bicycles, then turn right immediately in front of them, causing the cyclist to hit the car. Quite a few cyclists have been killed this way.
Car brain drivers then blame the cyclist.
"Hoesch estimated to police that he was going 5 mph to 10 mph and said he didn’t think the ambulance was going to turn in front of him."
-So he's illegally passing on the right at an intersection and making assumptions. -Wouldn't have a case with me on jury.
The ambulance was making an illegal turn across traffic.
Um what? From the article you posted
"he and the ambulance were traveling the same direction"
"The ambulance attempted to make a right turn onto another street"
They were both traveling on the right side of the road of (based on the supplied pictures from the articles) a two way, single lane each way street, and the ambulance turned right and didn't cross any traffic, thus the Ambulance didn't make a illegal turn.
The Ambulance should be at fault, and the Fire and Rescue should be covering charges as the ambulance driver wasn't being well aware enough to make the turn, but at the same time Hoesch, The cyclists, also should have given way.
I'm all for less cars on the road, but don't go throwing information that isn't true, please.
