Description

While I realize this is a personal incident, I also read in the papers of it happening with a fair amount of frequency, which is why I am raising the issue here.

On November 3, 2011, I was in the "straight" lane (2nd or 3rd) at the intersection of Park and South Frontage in New Haven (more or less in front of Smilow Hospital). I was on a bike, at the light, and the first vehicle in line. The light turned green, and a mini-van behind me made a left-hand turn into me, knocking me over, but kept on going. I lay in the street for approximately fifteen minutes while all of the cars continued to go around me (it was about 9:00 am on a Thursday) until I finally got myself up and managed to walk to 800 Howard Avenue where I had been enroute to a doctor's appointment.

While the security guard in the building called the police and a report was made (case #11-64451), I have never heard another word. In the interim as a direct result of the accident, I have had to have my entire back fused, have been informed that every bit of cartilege and muscle and ligament was torn from my right shoulder and that there is nothing that can be done to address the problem since there is basically nothing left, and have lost a large degree of mobility besides being in almost constant pain. Yet because of my economic situation and personal situation (my husband, the former City Librarian of New Haven, had died two months before) I had to return to work full-time anyway.

Since I have never heard a word from anyone "official," it is as if the accident occurred in a "black hole," with little or no relevance to anyone save myself.

Are such cases always left more or less hanging, with no sense of closure whatsoever? I am told that I was fortunate that I wasn't killed, but given what I was left to live/exist with, I have to wonder...

Thank you in advance for whatever information you might provide.