Pedal Bar Company Sued: Driver Ran Over Foot, 'Couldn't Hear Screams' Over Loud Music

NASHVILLE, TN — Complaints about loud music and excessive wooing from pedal-driven bars winding through downtown Nashville aren't terribly unusual, but a New Jersey woman said all that noise caused serious injuries, when her foot slipped off, hit the pavement and the driver was unable to hear her screams over the music.

Michele Calabria of Ridgefield, N.J. is suing Nashville's Sprocket Rocket pedal-bar company and an unidentified driver in Davidson County Circuit Court for "serious, disabling, painful and permanent bodily injuries" she allegedly incurred during a trip on one of the company's vehicles in October 2016.

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Calabria's foot slipped off the pedals of the party bike, sending her body "forward onto metal bars" and "her foot was dragged several feet," according to the suit. "The music was too loud for the (driver) to hear the screams asking him to stop. After several high-pitched screams the (driver) finally stopped the party bike and tavern."

The complaint notes that under the relevant part of Metro Code "no music or amplified sound shall be played, nor yelling or conversation be conducted, on a pedal carriage in such a manner that it would violate the Excessive Noise ordinance."

The waiver currently in use by Sprocket Rocket includes an assumption of risk by the customer and a waiver of liability against the company and its employees, though Calabria's complaint does not note if she signed such a waiver, nor is it clear from the waiver or suit if the language was identical last year.

Calabria is seeking $750,000 in compensatory damages.

"Party bikes," as they are designated under Nashville's code, have been controversial since they became a popular means of conveyance, with critics saying that they are loud and slow-moving, essentially rolling roadblocks staffed with hard-drinking twentysomethings that tie up traffic in an already congested downtown. The two primary operators of the vehicles — Nashville Pedal Tavern and Sprocket Rocket — disagree with that assessment, but the companies are hardly a united front, currently embroiled in a federal lawsuit regarding Sprocket Rocket's use of the term "pedal tavern," which Nashville Pedal Tavern says violates its trademark.

Calls and emails to Sprocket Rocket Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning were not returned.

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