Ran over by the Police

I live in Memphis TN. Last night I was riding downtown to deliver something to the place I work. I was cruising at about 35 or 40 miles an hour in the left hand lane of a four land city street. In front of me was police car parked on the side of the road. I saw him begin to pull out on the street and figured, as I'm sure most of us would, that he was an attentive officer and was aware of his surroundings and, as such, had seen the singe, glaring headlight of my bike.
I watched as he pulled into his lane and with confidence that only comes when you know people fear you, he whips, unannounced, without blinker or lights, into a U turn. This is only about 20 or so yards ahead of me. Now I am a cautious rider so I was already slowing down then the cop car began to move and at this point slammed on my brakes. It was not enough though and what looked to like it just may be a near miss ended his back left quarter panel pulling my front wheel hard to the left and spilling both my and my bike onto the street.
I ride a 1982 Kz440 and though she is a rough looker and not the most powerful cat in the alley she is my pride and joy. What started with a 300 dollar purchase has now taken more that 3000 dollars and many hours of love to get to where she is today. When someone hurts her it is like hurting my child. My heart broke as we smashed to the ground. I was mostly unharmed aside from a scratched knuckle and possibly a bruised shoulder, and luckily I think my 440 is too. The handle bars are shot as is my front fender. I am worried that the fork is twisted but I wont know that for sure until I get her to the shop on Monday.
After a few well chosen and eloquently social expletives I calmed down enough to talk to this officer that was now coming toward me like a kid who has just broken his fathers favorite model that he was not supposed to be playing with. He acts much more like a normal motorist then a trained and competent police officer as he says "OH man I didn't see you" (Which I would never have guessed) then tries to blame me by asking if my head light was on. After I limped my bike to the side of the road he tried to talk me about of filing a traffic report... while wearing his uniform and on duty. This deal I did not take and soon there was a circus of cops around yucking it up. I did get a traffic report filed and the # of the Memphis city Claims department who is going to be funding the repair efforts.
We give a certain amount of respect to police officers, even those of us that don't respect them. As I think, for the most part, we should. They have an air of authority that says they are right, that they are there to uphold the law and, at least while they have their uniforms and and drive there cars with the blue lights they are going to live by that law and make sure it holds society together. This does have a tendency to go to their heads I think. As evidence of this I would like to ask you to think back on all the times you have seen a cop pop his lights and bloop his siren to run an intersection only to deactivate them on the other side, or walked into a Mapco at night to 12 of them standing around hitting on the attendants.
I think we forget from time to time that these swaggering, mirror sunglass wearing, tools of the state's order and control are actually people that make mistakes like the rest of us.
Now to my questions and concerns. I am not trying to screw the city out of any money at all, I don't want anyone to loose there jobs I just want my biked taken care of. My bike is old and I am horrified that they may try and total it. This will leave me up shit creak as I'm afraid that the damages are going to be more then the bikes physical worth. So can any of you out there help me with advise as to what I should try and do. There is tremendous amounts of sentimental value in this bike. Does this make and difference? I don't even really know how much my bike is worth to try and keep the repairs under that limit. I'm pretty scared about loosing my bike over this. What are my options?

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Man! That's a tough one. I really dislike trying to deal with people in places of authority since some of them tend to abuse their positions. Hopefully you will get their representative to understand that you rely on that bike for transportation and, as you've just stated, all that you want is to put it back in the same condition it was before the wreck. I sure hope they will work with you to that end. Take a lot of deep breaths and take your time discussing the possibilities with them so that hopefully they won't total your bike and you can get it road worthy again. I feel for you.

I doubt if you can be forced to total your bike. After talking to thier insurance adjuster and you don't like what they say just mention you will talk to a lawyer.
If they can settle without lawyers they will be happy.Roy

They need to fix your bike and give you a little money on top of the repair. Not saying you should sue for $10,000,000 like many idiots would. Just saying that you were injured (even if minor) and you are without your favorite transportation so some compensation is in order. Sounds like it was a honest mistake so no reason to make anyone suffer but also no reason you should be forced to suffer either.

Much as I hate to say it, you may need to contact a lawyer to get some help on this one.

In most places you have to file a claim with some department of the City before you can do anything else (like sue), I think locally the claim is filed with the City Clerk.

Governments operate under a different set of rules than us peons

A dog ran out in front of a friend of mine last year. He went down, dog went down farther XXX! His insurance adjuster came and looked at the bike (which I rode home the next day). It had a bent shifter and lots of scratches. A 83 CX500 Silverwing Interstate. The insurance gave him $900 for the accident. He only paid $700 3 years ago. He also spent 3 weeks in intensive care and swore he'd never ride again.

He left here about 15 minutes ago on his other bike a Gold Wing Standard. he is going to sell the Silverwing with a new shifter for $500. He is also wrapping up a $200,000 lawsuit that will pay back hospitals ,doctors, lawyers and a nice payday for him for his suffering. Sure he would have rather not had it happen but all in all..............

Dont go thru insurance, the "book value" on it is probably less than what you pay in insurance every year.. I know we as a country have become sue happy, but hey, sometimes its warranted, such as in your case. Get a lawyer, show him how much time and money you put into it, let them know its damn near irreplacable and get what you put into it. I, personally, live in NJ, and believe me when i tell you this is a police state. They are not nice. Figure if that was you making an illegal u turn in your hummer and it was the COP that slammed into you... How many tickets would you have got? Did he give himself a ticket, or his fellow officers give him a ticket? Cop or not, thats reckless driving..

GET A LAWYER.

The police will try to screw you every single time, even if they don't need to.

Do not trust them to do the right thing.

GG is correct,

Cops are folks, no doubt. Unfortunately, the system is set up to protect the Govm'nt.

Say nothing more, GET a lawyer and a mean one at that.

KZCSI

And don't get a lawyer that is local to the area where the wreck took place. The locals are all in cahoots so you need need someone from outside your area who won't be intimidated by the local good ol' boy network.

Bad as I hate to say it you may want to consult a lowlife lawyer,, the city is going to try and screw you left and right. and there is a good possiblity that the report will show some fault on your part, so watch them like a hawk.
Next thing should be to locate a antique or classic vehicle appraser, they will give you a more accurate value of the bike, also find a repair shop that deals in old bikes they will give you a better idea of the work needed.

Good luck