Luke Redpath
Well-Known Member
I've been lurking on here for a while and I've finally signed up, unfortunately I wish it was under better circumstances.
In what should have been a nice day, I was cycling to collect my brand new car today. Unfortunately I only made it half way before I was involved in my first collision. I was hoping to get some advice on how to best deal with this.
The road I was cycling down was residential, fairly quiet and quite wide. I was about 1m out from the curb. Up ahead I could see a car reversing out of its drive - it was reversing out of a concealed driveway with a hedge so the driver wouldn't have seen anything when he started moving. However, the pavement between his drive exit and the road was wide enough for him to reverse out fully, stop and look before his wheels touched he road.
I was going at a moderate pace and by the time I realised he was going to reverse straight out on to the road in front of me and hadn't seen me it was too late (he was on the same side of the road as me). I'd already rung my bell (pointless I know) to make him aware of me *before* I realised he hadn't seen me as a precaution. Once I realised he wasn't stopping I was braking hard and swerving towards the centre of the road to try and avoid him, whilst shouting. Even at this point he hadn't seen me and continued to reverse, meaning I finally made impact with the rear left of his car. I almost made it round so it was like my front wheel had got passed and he reversed into it if that makes sense. My hand made contact with the side of the car as I came to a stop.
His attitude was appalling. He wasn't abusive, he just simply didn't care. I don't think he asked me if I was ok and he certainly didn't say sorry. I got the usual excuses ("there was nothing coming, I didn't see you, I had blind spots etc.") and he claimed it was 50/50. My argument was he shouldn't have been reversing out of a concealed drive onto a main road anyway but that said if he'd stopped on the pavement and actually looked there's no way he couldn't have seen me. He probably didn't look very well.
Initially he didn't want to give me insurance details. He said I had his reg. I threatened to call the police and as chance would have it, a patrol car passed moments later and I flagged him down. He didn't seek that interested to be honest and also showed a lack of concern, but he did verify the guys insurance details and gave me an incident number.
The driver claimed "I'd get nothing" and that "I was fine and the bike wasn't damaged". I did manage to capture him on video on my phone while we discussed the incident.
My front wheel was slightly buckled and I was unable to finish my journey. I had to get a cab. On the plus side, I got my new car!
I've left my details with the British Cycling incident helpline and I will wait for them to call me back. The bike is in Halfords for an inspection. They seem to think the wheel can be trued.
Immediately after the incident I felt ok, besides a bit of shock but as the adrenaline wore off I started to feel the brunt of the impact in my shoulders, left arm, lower back and left hamstring. Nothing serious I'm sure but I'm feeling a bit sore.
To be honest, if the driver had admitted fault, been nice about it and said sorry I would have dealt with this private but I was so disgusted by his attitude that I want this to go through his insurers if possible. Does this seem reasonable?
Is there anything else I could have done to avoid this? I'm just relieved I wasn't going down hill at a faster speed and that there was no oncoming traffic or it could have been much worse.
In what should have been a nice day, I was cycling to collect my brand new car today. Unfortunately I only made it half way before I was involved in my first collision. I was hoping to get some advice on how to best deal with this.
The road I was cycling down was residential, fairly quiet and quite wide. I was about 1m out from the curb. Up ahead I could see a car reversing out of its drive - it was reversing out of a concealed driveway with a hedge so the driver wouldn't have seen anything when he started moving. However, the pavement between his drive exit and the road was wide enough for him to reverse out fully, stop and look before his wheels touched he road.
I was going at a moderate pace and by the time I realised he was going to reverse straight out on to the road in front of me and hadn't seen me it was too late (he was on the same side of the road as me). I'd already rung my bell (pointless I know) to make him aware of me *before* I realised he hadn't seen me as a precaution. Once I realised he wasn't stopping I was braking hard and swerving towards the centre of the road to try and avoid him, whilst shouting. Even at this point he hadn't seen me and continued to reverse, meaning I finally made impact with the rear left of his car. I almost made it round so it was like my front wheel had got passed and he reversed into it if that makes sense. My hand made contact with the side of the car as I came to a stop.
His attitude was appalling. He wasn't abusive, he just simply didn't care. I don't think he asked me if I was ok and he certainly didn't say sorry. I got the usual excuses ("there was nothing coming, I didn't see you, I had blind spots etc.") and he claimed it was 50/50. My argument was he shouldn't have been reversing out of a concealed drive onto a main road anyway but that said if he'd stopped on the pavement and actually looked there's no way he couldn't have seen me. He probably didn't look very well.
Initially he didn't want to give me insurance details. He said I had his reg. I threatened to call the police and as chance would have it, a patrol car passed moments later and I flagged him down. He didn't seek that interested to be honest and also showed a lack of concern, but he did verify the guys insurance details and gave me an incident number.
The driver claimed "I'd get nothing" and that "I was fine and the bike wasn't damaged". I did manage to capture him on video on my phone while we discussed the incident.
My front wheel was slightly buckled and I was unable to finish my journey. I had to get a cab. On the plus side, I got my new car!
I've left my details with the British Cycling incident helpline and I will wait for them to call me back. The bike is in Halfords for an inspection. They seem to think the wheel can be trued.
Immediately after the incident I felt ok, besides a bit of shock but as the adrenaline wore off I started to feel the brunt of the impact in my shoulders, left arm, lower back and left hamstring. Nothing serious I'm sure but I'm feeling a bit sore.
To be honest, if the driver had admitted fault, been nice about it and said sorry I would have dealt with this private but I was so disgusted by his attitude that I want this to go through his insurers if possible. Does this seem reasonable?
Is there anything else I could have done to avoid this? I'm just relieved I wasn't going down hill at a faster speed and that there was no oncoming traffic or it could have been much worse.
