A friend (thanks Matt!) shared a story with me today that I felt some of you would appreciate. It’s about justice being served thanks to a GPS unit…
A few weeks ago, professional cyclist Ryan Sabga got hit by a car while on a training ride in Denver. Sabga was legally crossing the street when a woman sped into the intersection without looking in front of her. Sabga came away relatively unscathed and the woman stayed at the scene until police arrived. Both parties gave their version of the story, and Sabga realized the woman was not telling the truth about how it happened.
Here’s an excerpt from a blog post by Sabga on his team’s website:
“.. what was a simple accident and a case of a motorist not seeing a cyclist was becoming something worse. The police officer said that without proof that I came from the stop sign and not from the Starbucks, he couldn’t write her a citation and without a citation I probably would not be able to get the damage to my bike repaired.”
Without witnesses, the police officer said there was nothing else he could do. Sabga was “really disappointed” by the whole situation.
But then, he realized his Garmin GPS unit had been on his bike the whole time. He went home and downloaded the file and sure enough,
“… the full telemetry of my ride came up, including a map and running time stamp of my ride. Clear as day, you could see where I stopped at the stop sign, where I got hit by the car, and where my bike came to rest… you could see the speeds, the stops, and even where my heart rate spiked as she hit me…All of it was on there.”
Once he notified the insurance, everything fell into place, “Within a day, the driver’s insurance took responsibility for the accident and I was able to get my bike fixed.”
I don’t ride with a GPS unit and I never would have imagined they could come into play in situations like this. Perhaps this will usher in a whole new marketing campaign for GPS makers who can tout the units as bicycle black box recorders.
Has anyone else had a similar experience? Read the full account of Sabga’s story here.