Justice drives a tow truck

I was biking to the train station in New Haven this morning on my new folding bike when a driver in a black Mercedes sedan doored me and proceeded to leave the scene after I told him I wanted to file an accident report.
When the police arrived, the driver, who had gone into his nearby apartment, refused to come out and talk to them. I guess he thought he could hide to avoid paying for the damaged wheel and fork and fender on my bike. But the NHPD didn't react too kindly to his decision to hide, and so now, not only will he (or his insurance) be paying for the repairs, but he also had his car impounded.
The sad news is that my shoulder is messed up from slamming into the door. And my vintage Peugeot (see photo), which I bought last week from a bike messenger in Bed Stuy who had broken up with his live-in girlfriend and needed money for a down payment on a new apartment, is totaled.
The silver lining of the incident was that I got to sit in the back of cop car and watch the Mercedes get towed away to the police lot. It so rare in a world of competing motorist and cyclists interests that the scales of justice tilt in our favor, but today, thanks to the NHPD, was just such a day.

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