Collision with car reversing off of driveway

[400bhp]

Completely the drivers fault.

Just another as-shole by the sounds of it.

Replace yourself with a child/younger person walking/cycling.

I just don't get why peeps reverse out of driveways. They should reverse in, more so if they live on a quiet street (it can be tricky to do so if you live on a busy road as you often don't get space to behind to reverse).

 

[400bhp]

sorry to say but sounds like a fail on your part ,you seen the guy reversing with limited vision and u think it was his fault ?
epic fail

Don't be a twat.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Oh FFS!

Anyone who says this was the rider's fault is a nobber.

Anyone who says this was the rider's fault simply thinks like a bully-nobber-driver "get out of my way puny cyclist or I will squish you" and is probably part of the "80% of cyclists are drivers" school who still think like drivers 100% of the time.

The fault is one hundred per cent all-day-every-day the driver's.

Could the cyclist have done things differently? Perhaps. But that does not diminish the driver's fault one iota.

No the flippin' wonder juries don't convict drivers if this is how even so-called cyclists think.

Ride defensively. Get a turbo.

 

[Banjo]

Welcome to the forum Luke.
I would get your bike checked over by a proper bike shop not Halfords.

Also I would go with what the British Cycling legal advice says.

Keep a record and receipts of all your expenses including the cost of any journeys you could have made by bike if it wasnt broke by this twat.
The guy is a complete arse in trying to tell you its 50/50. He was obliged to make sure it was safe to reverse and clearly it wasnt.

Good Luck.

 

[Luke Redpath]

Thanks for your comments everyone, glad that most of you agree that I'm not at fault.

Just a small update; I spoke with the British Cycling solicitors this morning on the phone and went through the details and they've sent me all of their forms to fill out. I'm also planning to attend the walk-in centre at my local GP tomorrow morning to get my back looked at because its got more painful, not better. All other soreness seems to have gone away, but my lower back is spasming so I'm assuming some kind of soft tissue injury - bruising or strain caused by the impact.

The solicitor I spoke to seemed to think its likely that the other party would be found liable given the circumstances of them reversing off their drive. Obviously it's down to his insurers to challenge this if he doesn't admit liability. He said I should be able to recover the costs of repairing my bike, related costs like extra travel (although the £11 for my cab journey might be challenged without a receipt) and if I want to persue a personal injury claim, I could be looking at around £500 if I recover within a few weeks (which seems the most likely), more if it takes longer. If I go this route it could take months to resolve, but that's fine by me.

As I said there were no witnesses but between my video of the conversation with the driver where we discuss the incident and the police incident number its very unlikely the driver will be able to deny what happened I think.

I'm going to get my bike back from Halfords today and see what the result of their inspection was. As advised above, I'm going to take it to another shop for a second opinion and quote - no good local bike shops around here unfortunately however I do have a friend that works at Snow & Rock and they have a Cycle Surgery workshop and I'm happy to trust his judgment, so I'm going to take it to them to be looked at and hopefully fixed.

 

[vickster]

Good luck. No way it's your fault

The British cycling solicitors form is a beast, took me hours but a rather more complex situation involving several hospitals and surgery!

As above keep all receipts, print off maps etc, and keep copies of everything

 

[Melonfish]

i'd say 50/50 split on this one, if you saw the car pulling out you should have been covering your brakes or at the very least braking gently ready to stop (Defensive riding)
for the chap reversing out he either didn't check his blind spots or clearly wasn't looking for a cyclist.
contact CTC see what they say, they are after all the professionals for things like this.

 

[Profpointy]

whilst not seeking to profit, it's perfectly reasonable to claim for insjury as well as new wheel or whatever - and if it's a few hundred quid, then so be it. And what a shame the chap's insurance will go up as well.

Of course, if he'd behaved like a civilised person, apologised, given you and your bike a lift home and offered to pay for your wheel, it would have cost him £50 and some good manners - but hey ho...

 

[buggi]

regardless of whether, with hindsight, you or others think the incident could have been avoided, this in no way diminishes his responsibility under the law and his insurance. The simple fact remains that he reversed off his driveway into traffic and you reasonably assumed he would stop at the kerbside to look, just as you would expect a driver of reasonable competence to do so. therefore it is, under law, solely his liability. Get a solicitor and put a claim in under his insurance, he will have a hard time disputing it.

 

[Luke Redpath]

Of course, if he'd behaved like a civilised person, apologised, given you and your bike a lift home and offered to pay for your wheel, it would have cost him £50 and some good manners - but hey ho...

Exactly. Instead, he acted like an arse, left me stranded and feeling quite aggrieved.

@Melonfish things are blurry but I'm sure I would have been covering my breaks - I do cycle defensively and cover them routinely at the sign of trouble. On this particular occasion though, I was caught out, due to the width of the pavement between the driveway and the road I simply wasn't expecting the driver to keep reversing off without stopping and looking and by the time I did realise it was too late.

 

[vickster]

whilst not seeking to profit, it's perfectly reasonable to claim for insjury as well as new wheel or whatever - and if it's a few hundred quid, then so be it. And what a shame the chap's insurance will go up as well.

Of course, if he'd behaved like a civilised person, apologised, given you and your bike a lift home and offered to pay for your wheel, it would have cost him £50 and some good manners - but hey ho...

The driver who knocked me off acted very much like this, albeit not admitting fault (as is correct from a legal standpoint)...I wasn't going to claim initially but it's all turned out rather worse for me. For a sore back, I would get checked but not necessarily pursue a personal injury claim immediately. You actually have up to 3 years after the incident to do so.

The driver in my case has already claimed against his insurance for the damage I / my bike did to his car when we banged into it

 

[Crankarm]

Let Leigh Day BC's solicitors handle it for you. The case will drag on for ages especially if you don't make an immediate recovery from your injuries and need treatment. There is no law against being unpleasant so many drivers are ar$eholes. Your civil case against him is only to claim damages for damage to your bike and compensation for injury you suffered plus recovery of other out of pocket expenses. You might well be aggrieved and angry which comes across clearly in your posts but frankly the law isn't interested in this merely allocating a monetary compensation to those areas you can claim for which your solicitor should fully advise you. The rest is just a waste of time and energy. But get yourself checked out properly at your docs as a priority. DON'T USE HALFORDS TO GET YOUR BIKE REPAIRED unless you bought it from them!

 

[vickster]

On the bike repair question, does yours have any carbon bits? Although the driver arranged for mine to be fixed (coincidentally his son works in a bike shop) and this was done quickly, the Leigh Day solicitor has advised me to get the carbon fork replaced as although there doesn't appear to be any damage, there could be an unseen hairline crack in the carbon which could go pop! Mine is a 2011 bike and it may not be possible to get a replacement...therefore I may even need a new bike as I am not having a different coloured fork!

Add anything like that to the form

 

[Luke Redpath]

I've just written out a transcript of the video I captured and it just defies any sense or logic. I don't know if I should post it on here in case it prejudices my claim...I'm going to include it with my accident report though. Importantly, he does acknowledge that he was reversing off the drive so I guess that could be helpful.

 

[Luke Redpath]

On the bike repair question, does yours have any carbon bits? Although the driver arranged for mine to be fixed (coincidentally his son works in a bike shop) and this was done quickly, the Leigh Day solicitor has advised me to get the carbon fork replaced as although there doesn't appear to be any damage, there could be an unseen hairline crack in the carbon which could go pop! Mine is a 2011 bike and it may not be possible to get a replacement...therefore I may even need a new bike as I am not having a different coloured fork!

No carbon. It's a Tern Link D8 folding bike. The solicitor did ask me if there was any carbon on it too.