daring-crow-5105/18/2026

Kid on a rental e-bike blew through a yield sign and hit my car — now his dad is threatening to sue ME??

Still kind of in shock writing this. Yesterday afternoon I was pulling out of a shopping center onto a side street — I had the right of way, moving slowly, everything was clear. Out of nowhere a kid, maybe 13 or 14, comes flying down the sidewalk on one of those dockless rental e-bikes (the kind you unlock with an app), blows past the yield sign where the sidewalk crosses the exit lane, and slams right into my front quarter panel. The impact cracked my bumper, dented the fender, and the kid went down hard.

I immediately stopped, put my hazards on, and went to check on him. He seemed shaken but was up on his feet pretty fast, no visible serious injuries. While I'm literally asking if he's okay, his dad materializes out of nowhere — apparently they'd been shopping together and got separated — and just unloads on me. Screaming that I "came out of nowhere," that I should've seen his son, the whole thing.

I stayed calm, called 911, and waited for the report. A woman who'd been sitting in the parking lot told me she'd caught the whole thing on her dashcam because she was about to pull out too. She was kind enough to AirDrop me the footage. It clearly shows the kid zipping along well above a walking pace and ignoring the yield markings.

Here's the kicker — I looked up the rental app's terms of service when I got home. You have to be 18 to ride, and you're explicitly not allowed on sidewalks in my city. The dad is already texting me (somehow got my number from the police report) saying I'll be "hearing from his attorney."

We've got the dashcam footage, the police report, and screenshots of the app's age/usage rules. Is there anything else I should be doing right now? Can they actually win a lawsuit against me here? What does this process even look like?

9 replies

Most helpful first

quiet-seal-9465/18/2026
First thing — stop texting with that dad right now. Every word you send him can be twisted later. Let your insurance company handle all communication from this point forward. That's literally what you pay them for. The moment you try to "explain yourself" in a text thread you're just handing them material.
- careful-wren-1475/18/2026
  I worked claims for years and honestly, situations like this get filed all the time by aggressive parents, but they rarely go anywhere when the evidence is this lopsided. The dashcam footage is huge. Make sure you back it up in multiple places — cloud, email it to yourself, USB drive, all of it. Footage has a weird way of "disappearing" from people's phones between the incident and the lawsuit stage. Also, report this formally to your insurer today if you haven't already, even if you think nothing will come of it. Late reporting is one of the few things that can actually hurt you on your own policy.
genuine-owl-6785/18/2026
The TOS violation is a really interesting angle. If that rental company requires riders to be 18 and prohibits sidewalk use, and the kid was neither age-eligible nor in a legal riding area, that opens up questions about the company's liability too — not just the dad's. I'd document those screenshots with timestamps and don't just rely on a photo of your screen; see if you can save the actual webpage as a PDF. That stuff can get quietly updated after incidents like this. Not telling you what to do legally, just saying preserve everything in its current form.
- gentle-marten-4445/18/2026
  Not legal advice, but generally speaking: when a minor is injured, courts look at contributory negligence and parental responsibility differently depending on the state. The fact that the child was using a service he was ineligible for, in a prohibited location, matters significantly. Dashcam evidence establishing right-of-way is the kind of thing that can end a case at the summary judgment stage before it ever goes to trial. Get a free consult with a PI attorney in your area — many will do them at no cost — just so you understand your actual exposure. Sounds lower than that dad wants you to believe.
spry-lynx-0345/18/2026
Almost the exact same energy as something I went through. Someone hit my car and then acted like I was the aggressor because I had the nerve to be driving on a public road. The threatening posture early on is often just bluster — especially when the other party knows their kid was doing something they shouldn't have been. Hang in there, the footage is your best friend here.
quiet-beaver-2075/18/2026
Just want to flag — make sure YOU get checked out too if you felt any jolt from the impact, even a small one. Adrenaline is wild and people often don't notice whiplash or neck tension until the next morning. Document any symptoms with a doctor, not just for your health but because if this does become a legal thing you want a medical record that starts from the day of the accident.
tidy-kestrel-4225/18/2026
Three things: (1) Back up that dashcam footage on something offline tonight. (2) Write out a full timeline of exactly what happened while it's fresh — time, sequence of events, what was said, witness contact info. (3) Don't speak to the dad again, period. You're not being rude, you're being smart. Let the adults with law licenses handle it from here.
daring-beaver-1455/18/2026
This sounds so stressful, I'm sorry you're dealing with this on top of the actual accident. The dad is probably scared and lashing out because deep down he knows his kid messed up. Doesn't make it okay, but try not to let the threats spiral you out. From what you're describing you did everything right.
swift-mole-6585/18/2026
Did the police report actually cite the kid for anything, or did they just document the incident? And do you know for sure the dashcam footage is timestamped and shows the full sequence clearly — like, will it be obvious to a random person watching it that he had the yield sign and you had the right of way? Just asking because "good dashcam footage" can mean a lot of different things in practice.