9mo ago

Ambulance hits Oregon cyclist, rushes him to hospital, then sticks him with $1,800 bill, lawsuit says

www.oregonlive.com

The cyclist, who suffered a broken nose, was initially treated at the scene by the ambulance driver.

18 comments

That's a great business model. Create the demand for your supply yourself. Wtf, this system is so fucked.
- ~~Broken window~~ dead bicyclist economics.
Create demand
Provide supply
Economics 101
Simple supply and demand, If there isn’t enough demand for the current supply producers they will seek new avenues of demand, this includes, artificially increasing demand. If the government would just deregulate the medical industry both sides would be forced to compete and then the man hit by an ambulance would have a choice of which ambulance that hit him to take.
Business is business.
CRAPITALISM!
I really need to get a camera for when I bike. I try to be cognizant of drivers doing that when I ride. It has not happened a lot, but once is too often.
It was also the cyclists fault. Illegally trying to pass an ambulance along a curb. Now the old guy wants a million bucks for riding his bike around like an entitled asshole and failing at it.
- Is riding in the bike lane illegal? Do you not understand how bike lanes work?
- I don't know if he was riding around like an entitled asshole, but it does seem the rider was technically at fault. The ambulance driver should have been watching for exactly this situation though too. It doesn't seem like it should have happened if either party was paying attention.
  
  You don't typically check the curb side for oncoming traffic from behind you when making a right turn. A pedestrian would have been noticed before getting up to the intersection. A biker coming up from behind and illegally trying to go around an ambulance wouldn't be.
Sounds reasonable. Blind spot makes it easy to run over cyclists when doing a right turn. "Attention, Angles morts".
And it sounds reasonable each party writes a bill. Can be offset in court.
And btw an ambulance ride in Germany is like 500€ to 1000€. For once something that's not 10x as expensive as in other parts of the world.
- Since health insurance is mandatory, the ride is basically capped at 10€ though
This makes perfect sense. The city will have insurance for accidents. They bill him, he sues, the city refers it to their insurer and the insurance pays the suit and costs.
It only sounds ridiculous on the surface.
- Imo having lawsuits as a normal expected step in the healthcare system is ridiculous in depth, not just on the surface.
  The victim might get compensated in the end, but having to go through lawsuits is just stupid.
  
  Its also necessary. Americans made this shitstorm of a litigious society themselves.
  They paid for their insurance, why wouldnt they use it and protect themselves?
- If part of the process is someone suing, I think it is ridiculous.

18 comments