Local Woman Hit by Bus (Part 1)

November 4, 2008, was a historic day that every American remembers because we elected our first Black president. For me, that date became unforgettable for an entirely different reason: I got hit by a bus.

When recounting the tale, I usually tell people next that it wasn’t quite as dramatic as it sounds. But this doesn’t suggest it wasn’t dangerous, traumatic, and damaging. It’s more so that I know what people picture when they imagine a person hit by a bus is way more gruesome than the aftermath of my experience. I can see this assumption flash across their faces in the moment between stating that a bus hit me and then explaining that it could have been much worse.

And it’s true – it could have been MUCH worse. I’m pretty much the luckiest unlucky (or most unlucky lucky?) person I know in many ways, with this accident being the exclamation point on that sentiment. Not only did I stand up on my own two feet within moments of the incident, but I managed to escape the situation without a single broken bone or requiring stitches. Aside from some road rash abrasions in a few places, I wasn’t even bleeding. I mean, seriously — what are the chances?!

Nonetheless, I required a lengthy recovery before I could resume my normal life. Even to this day, fifteen years later, I must maintain my body carefully and diligently to keep it functioning without pain. Truth be told, the emotional and financial trauma was probably even more harmful and difficult to recover from than the physical impact.

Folks always have a lot of questions about the experience. Atop addressing the usual wonderings, this new series of posts offers me a chance to reflect on everything I’ve navigated, learned, and had to heal from since becoming the “Local Woman Hit by Bus” (as the caption under my face read when I appeared on a local news broadcast).

This first post covers some of the basics, with more to come. If there’s anything in particular that you’re curious about, feel free to drop me a line using the form on the Contact tab or email  hello@hezhub.com.

The odds of getting hit by a bus are 495,000 to 1.

How on earth did I manage to get hit by a bus?

Your guess is as good as mine! I have no idea how the driver failed to see me. Here’s how it went down:

I was in Downtown Pittsburgh, smoking my ritualistic post-work cigarette en route to my bus stop a few blocks away. The side of the intersection on Fifth and Liberty Avenues that I was on has a three-lane road to cross, so it’s relatively wide with a small cement divider between the right turn lane and the two others. Of note is that there was (and, I believe, still is) no walk signal there; pedestrians instead follow the cues of the traffic signal and thus possess the right of way on green.

When I arrived at this intersection, which I had crossed countless times while working downtown, the light was green. It was an unseasonably warm fall day, so the late lunch crowd was especially thick that day. There were two clusters of folks already midway across the intersection, approaching that cement divider, and I was vaguely aware of another group following me at a short distance as I reached the curb.

I 100% saw Port Authority Transit’s (PAT, now called Pittsburgh Regional Transit) 500 Highland Park bus approaching when I entered the intersection. Regardless of whether it was signaling, which I don’t recall, I took that bus frequently enough to know it was turning left onto Fifth. So, I registered its presence and that it was heading in my direction, but I gave it no thought because I was part of a series of people with the signal and right of way crossing the intersection. It was beyond evident that it would have to wait to make its turn.

I was about one-third of the way across when my attention returned to this bus because I noticed it had entered “the box” of the intersection. It was diagonal to me, still facing straight, and hadn’t begun to make the turn, but it wasn’t slowing down much, which I guess unconsciously struck me as odd. But I kept walking without hesitation or concern because I had the right of way and was in the midst of on an ongoing flow of pedestrians. The driver surely saw all of us there, right?

Maybe three or four paces later, I got another unconscious twinge that something wasn’t right. In my peripheral vision, the bus had begun to turn its wheels and shift its orientation to make the turn. The glance I gave it informed me that it still hadn’t slowed down the way it ought to have if it planned to come to a stop before the crosswalk. That was the moment I realized something was terribly wrong.

I began to pick up the pace then, and my next two or three steps were swift. But not quick enough, as the next thing I knew, I was impacted on my left side and knocked several feet up the road, landing hard on my ass, followed by my right hip, shoulder, and finally, the side of my head.

Going back to that lucky/unlucky thing I mentioned, although I wasn’t able to clear the bus in the moments of rushing out of its way once I registered the danger, it was only by the good fortune of that increased speed that I was able to clear being hit by the metal bus rack mounted on the front of the bus. I instead got far enough into the intersection that the bus struck me on its far-left side near the headlight, directly in front of where the driver sits. Aside from the front bumper, the surface was flat there. I could be mistaken, I suppose, but I’ve always assumed that getting hit by the protruding bike rack would have done immeasurably more harm.

Another fortunate thing is that even though the driver apparently didn’t see me while preparing for the turn, he must have caught visibility at some point before the collision. I assume this because otherwise, I wouldn’t have been HIT by a bus. I would have been RUN OVER by a bus. The chances of surviving becoming a human speed bump seem far slimmer.

Did I receive a massive sum of money from the bus company?

Definitely not! At first, the lawyer I worked with didn’t even think I had any legal standing to sue because my auto insurance was only a limited tort policy. For folks unfamiliar with Pennsylvania tort laws, they allow insurance companies to offer two types of coverage with varied rights for policyholders to sue other drivers for compensation in the case of an accident. When I chose this policy as a new Pennsylvania resident, I didn’t understand everything I sacrificed in my limited tort selection. All I knew then was that I was a broke service industry worker, and this option was significantly cheaper. My short-sighted twenty-something self considered the choice a no-brainer.

“Limited Tort” Option–The laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania give you the right to choose a form of insurance that limits your right and the right of members of your household to seek financial compensation for injuries caused by other drivers. Under this form of insurance, you and other household members covered under this policy may seek recovery for all medical and other out-of-pocket expenses, but not for pain and suffering or other nonmonetary damages unless the injuries suffered fall within the definition of “serious injury” as set forth in the policy or unless one of several other exceptions noted in the policy applies.

Title 75, § 1705.  Election of tort options.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: why the heck did a pedestrian accident go to my auto insurance? Yes, it’s still confusing to me too. But apparently, it’s because the commonwealth requires every auto insurance policy include mandatory bodily injury liability coverage, which is extended even in the case of pedestrian accident. My lawyer explained the practice as being established as a protection for policyholders should they ever be hit by an uninsured driver.

Despite the positive motivator, in my situation, it turned out that this arrangement really screwed me over. It was a relief to have the bills going to Geico instead of me in the year or so following the accident, since they weren’t going to PAT unless PAT agreed to accept responsibility. But in the long run, my limited tort status meant that PAT didn’t consider me a serious legal threat. Thus, they had zero interest in offering a settlement because they expected my lawyer to have difficulty taking the case to court.

Eventually, my lawyer found one successful personal injury lawsuit in the state that set a precedent for a pedestrian to receive more compensation than limited tort would have allowed. Between discovering that ground to stand on and finally getting a proper diagnosis of my accident-related disc herniations, which were costing more money to treat all the time, the lawyer finally felt confident enough to move the case forward more aggressively.

PAT’s legal team still refused to settle, but they suddenly changed their tune and extended an offer shortly after we arrived at court for the hearing. Because my lawyer took such a hefty chunk of the payout, I actually repressed the memory of how much the check PAT issued was before legal fees. I only saw about $14,000 myself — a pittance compared to the time I missed from work, the out-of-pocket expenses I incurred, and the years of physical and emotional trauma up until then and still to come.

Even though I recognize money isn’t the most important thing in life, I’m honestly still doing inner work to release my anger about this part of the experience, especially since dealing with them throughout the years following the accident was so awful. It’s the principle of the matter, because fuck them.