An insurance bill for damage to the vehicle that hit her ?
For the first time in her life, Nako Nakatsuka felt hopeless. On April 6, 2014, the typically upbeat biochemistry grad student and member of the UCLA triathlon team had been making a left turn off Santa Monica Boulevard on her road bike when a car drifted into the turn lane and hit her from behind.
But it wasn't the crash that got to her--it was what came in the mail a month later: an insurance bill for damage to the vehicle that hit her, along with the threat of a lawsuit.
Things had started off normal enough post-crash. According to Nakatsuka, then 23: The driver got out of the car, apologized profusely, and even fetched water for her as she lay dazed in the middle of the busy road.
But when Nakatsuka contacted the driver's insurance company about her medical bills--she'd suffered a concussion, severe bruising, and permanent damage to her glutes--she discovered the LAPD had never filed a report, despite issuing her a receipt for one. The driver had also told her insurance company that Nakatsuka had caused the crash by backing her bike into the vehicle.