Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was sued by a cyclist for driving “wrongfully and recklessly” after he hit her with his SUV, has now turned the tables by instead blaming her for “carelessness” and “negligence”, while also demanding that the entire lawsuit be thrown out and he be awarded the court costs.
The 76-year-old former Governor of California had hit a cyclist last February with his GMC Yukon on San Vicente Boulevard, a major thoroughfare in the west of Los Angeles, with initial reports suggesting that the cyclist had turned left into Schwarzenegger’s path before he could brake.
Joanne Flickinger, the cyclist, then slapped the Hollywood star known for driving chrome motorbikes and armoured, hunked-up cars in his action movies, but also being quite the cycling aficionado in real life, with a lawsuit accusing him of driving with “excessive speed” and “failing to keep a proper lookout” which left her with “severe, permanent” injuries and hefty medical bills.
Now, according to court documents obtained by Radar Online, Schwarzenegger has denied all allegations of wrongdoing in the civil suit.
In his newly filed response, Schwarzenegger argued that “[Flickinger] was so careless and negligent about the matters alleged in the Complaint so as to have contributed in some degree to the injuries, damages and/or losses alleged by [Flickinger] and therefore said carelessness and negligence completely bars or eliminates any recovery by [Flickinger].”
In addition, he said any alleged injuries she suffered were caused by third parties outside of his control.
He asked the court, “that in the event they are found liable to [Flickinger], said liability should be reduced by the percentage of fault attributable to [Flickinger], and all other parties, persons, firms, corporations, and entities; and that said liability for non-economic damages of these Defendants is several only, and not joint, so that these Defendants shall be responsible only for the amount of non-economic damages.”
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While the exact amount isn’t clear, it had been previously reported that the cyclist is seeking damages of more than $25,000 for “past and future pain and suffering, emotional distress; past and future loss of earnings; past and future loss of earning capacity; past and future medical expenses; past and future healthcare expenses; past and future incidental expenses; and past and future household services.”
At the time of the incident in February, TMZ reported that local police and three eyewitnesses said that Flickinger had suddenly swerved across into Schwarzenegger’s lane before he could brake, and that the 76-year-old was not driving at excessive speed when the collision occurred, with one LAPD officer confirming that “no crime was committed”.
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However, it was reported that the cyclist noted immediately after the incident that she was in pain, though it was suggested at the time that she had merely suffered “minor” injuries. Schwarzenegger also apparently took the Flickinger’s bicycle to a local bike shop for repairs following the crash.
This incident from last February marked the second time Schwarzenegger has been involved in a traffic incident over the past year. He is also being sued by a woman, Cheryl Augustine, who said she was left ‘permanently disabled’ when the pair crashed in LA on January 21, 2023, citing Schwarzenegger’s “reckless driving”.
In a cruel twist of fate though, Schwarzenegger is a prime example of a celebrity who loves cycling. In 2018, he said he wanted to “bicycle all over the world”, and has been spotted riding with his “friend and hero” Greta Thunberg on a custom gold-painted e-bike in Santa Monica. Maybe he was in need a brushup of the traffic rules on the other side of the ocean but when visiting Edinburgh in 2016, he was seen cycling on the wrong side of the road – straight towards oncoming traffic.
Schwarzenegger also joined then-world road race champion Peter Sagan in 2017 in urging people to swap their car for a bike for their everyday journeys, as well as publicising research conducted by C40 Cities which highlighted the benefits of an active commute.
And in April last year, he earned the acclaim of long-suffering cyclists everywhere by personally filling in a massive pothole near his house, which Schwarzenegger claimed was “screwing up cars and bicycles for weeks”.
14 thoughts on “Arnold Schwarzenegger demands total recall of lawsuit filed against him by cyclist who he hit while driving an SUV”
Not much to see here. Just
Not much to see here. Just another shitty day in the lawsuit heavy private medical hell that’s Leftpondia.
So is the cyclist getting a
So is the cyclist getting a Raw Deal, or is their Recall of the events less than Total? I guess we’ll have to wait until it ends up in court and we get a Judgement Day.
“In 2018, he … has been
“In 2018, he … has been spotted riding with his “friend and hero” Greta Thunberg…”
Yet still drives a huuuge gas guzzling vehicle with massive blinds spots, as seen in the pic on this article, the needs/reasons for which may be debatable…
As far as Republicans go I
As far as Republicans go I quite like him, he did push for low CO2 policies in California when he was in power. That said, yes, bizarre that he claims to care about such things while also driving a monster like that.
mitsky wrote:
No vehicle has been sold with blindspots in the United States for many decades. Mirors are more than big enough, and plentiful enough, to show the driver their complete surroundings ( except for their close six o’clock, on panel vans, but that doesn’t matter ) and they are now even supplemented with cameras. People do need to learn how to aim those mirrors correctly, and most remain ignorant on that topic, but that’s a driver training problem, not a “blind spot”.
You can be upset that he chooses to drive that vehicle for other reasons, but blind spots have nothing to do with it, as they are effectively extinct on passenger vehicles.
I suppose it depends on how
I suppose it depends on how you define blind spots. I’ve seen plenty of articles demonstrating the poor front visibility of the really big SUV and pickups in the US (how far in front a person must be, to become visible to the driver).
Yep – playing with
Yep – playing with definitions. Pretty sure A pillars are a thing (for safety – of those inside).
In my opinion citing “user error” is often a way of minimising fundamental issues with your product eg. it has to work with the users which exist. At population level this turns out to be humans, not perfect users. If people didn’t drive carefully for the last couple of generations it’ll take something fundamental to change that, not just telling them to do it better!
In the UK any view hidden by
In the UK any view hidden by a roof column is a blind spot.
dh700 wrote:
Thick A pillars are a problem on many passenger cars.
Daclu Trelub wrote:
And thick A-holes
Don’t want to make an excuse
Don’t want to make an excuse for him but it’s very easy to start riding on the wrong side of the road in the UK if you’re from a right hand drive country. The trickiest are not the moments with heavy traffic but on the contrary, virtually empty roads early in the morning or very late. And roundabouts.
I hope the lawyers fire back
I hope the lawyers fire back and tell their clients to get to the choppa.
At the time of the incident
At the time of the incident in February, TMZ reported that local police and three eyewitnesses said that Flickinger had suddenly swerved across into Schwarzenegger’s lane before he could brake, and that the 76-year-old was not driving at excessive speed when the collision occurred, with one LAPD officer confirming that “no crime was committed”.
So clearly all Schwarzenegger’s fault because in movies he blows things up and he is also guilty of owning a SUV. No chance the woman smelt a large financial settlement after she lucked into crashing into a celebrity.
I’m not a huge fan of Mr
I’m not a huge fan of Mr Schwarzenegger, I didn’t really care much for his acting, then he put on an Academy Award acting when he ran for governor as a Republican, but it soon came to everyone’s attention that he was actually a democrat, and all he really wanted was the publicity and strut around like he was a big shot.
Having said that, this accident is not his fault, Ms Flickinger turned left into his path, it doesn’t matter if he was going faster than the posted speed limit, it was her legal responsibility when riding a bike, or a driving a car, not to turn left in front of someone, she failed in that responsibility. Along with witnesses, she needs to drop the case.
I don’t think her medical bills are all that serious, $25,000 medical bills and pain and suffering is nothing, and less than nothing living in California. Even if by some extremely rare event she wins $25,000 the lawyer gets a third of it, unless they go to trial then he gets half, so she’s raising all this fuss for not that much money. And since she lives in California, she’ll probably spend the money smoking it away!