Accident - What next?

[crazyjoe101]

I had a collision a couple of years back by way of left hook with no indicator, dealing with the driver turned into more hassle than I'd have liked to get my £250 damages and I was still out of pocket by the time you account for the day of work I missed and the 2 months of bus fare which ended up at over £150. Should I ever be in that position again I would be sorely tempted to go through insurance because I should have claimed for my single day of lost wages and my alternative transport, the issue being that at that time it was very important I go my bike on the road fast so I needed a quick payout.

The police were not of much help to me in my case so you are already ahead there, there was a police car behind the vehicle that hit me and they promptly drove away rather than have to stop and deal with what the collision they'd witnessed. I reported the collision as required by law within 24h, they didn't show much interest because my injuries were not significant but at least I'd done things by the book.

EDIT: I see you've settled so the above is not as relevant.

My collision was almost identical to yours except that I was in a segregated cycle path when the car hit me, I'd seen him indicate just seconds earlier when he joined the road so I wasn't cautious about passing them, knowing that they had indicated the last time.

The TL;DR for both our collisions is that although we were not at fault, we could have easily avoided them with more cautious/defensive riding but those are the lessons we learn.

 

[confusedcyclist]

Good luck with this, I had a very similar occurrence. I wasn't injured aside from a small graze. The most expensive damage was deep gouges on the brifters. The driver agreed to pay for any repairs at the scene if we left insurance companies out of it, as they were genuinely apologetic and largely unscathed I agreed to it. I took the bike to my LBS based on the agreement and incurred £100 for the insurance report (evidence of damage, photos, write up etc) and they quoted full RRP for new brifters plus cost of rectifying front wheel buckle and a new headset. I then took this in writing to the driver, who happened to live just round the corner of the collision. She noticeably recoiled a bit when I passed the invoice, presumably she thought my bike cost £50 all in?

Still, she promised to have the cash if I came back the day after. Which I duly did, but when I arrived she then started quibbling the cost of the new brifters saying her brother in law could get a cheaper quote from elsewhere, by which time I had already commissioned the repair work on the basis of their promise to put things right, plus I needed my bike back quickly as it was my main form of transport, I didn't have N+1 at that point. It could have gone all wrong at this point and I might have been out of pocket if they refused to cough up. I was pretty firm and said I wouldn't quibble over the cost, this was a fair quote from a reputable shop. If they had wanted to specify where the work would be undertaken they should have said so up front. In the end she backed down, I got my cash.

Lesson learnt, be prepared that the driver might try to wriggle out of it, so don't commit to any unnecessary cost until you have their cash in hand, and always be prepared to go straight to their insurer. Make sure you have their number plate etc, even if they seem sincere and willing to pay. Had this gone to insurance, it might have been 50/50 settlement because I passed on the inside. I think on this occasion it worked out better for me, on the flip side, this driver saved a fortune on insurance premium hikes too.

 

[crazyjoe101]

this driver saved a fortune on insurance premium hikes too.

The push-back over £250 I had off the driver who got me was stupid when you compare it to how much his insurance would have gone up on a work vehicle had it ended up down that road. I think most people just see the number and gawp being used to £50 or £100 special offer bikes in big retail shops.

 

[alicat]

I'm glad the driver paid up.

Just watched the clip. I think you were very lucky to get any money out of the driver. You were passing traffic quite fast on the inside as it was moving and anything could have happened at that junction but you showed no signs of slowing or looking out for hazards.

It is acceptable to pass stationary traffic at a cautious speed and be alert for any change in circumstances.

 

[Pale Rider]

Given your cycling was less than gold standard from a safety point of view you've done well to get it sorted.

Things got off to a decent start, her concern for you seemed genuine, and I see she had a newish car which means she at least grasps cars can be £20K plus and she probably knows nice stuff costs lots to repair.

For the sake of a quiet life - and a nice warm feeling - I would have given you a few hundred quid to settle it.

There would be a limit, if you asked for a couple of thousand - even if I knew the bill was fair - I would have referred you to my insurers.

 

[MarkF]

I'm glad the driver paid up.

Just watched the clip. I think you were very lucky to get any money out of the driver. You were passing traffic quite fast on the inside as it was moving and anything could have happened at that junction but you showed no signs of slowing or looking out for hazards.

It is acceptable to pass stationary traffic at a cautious speed and be alert for any change in circumstances.

Agree, it was really poor cycling, reckless and just daft. Really hope the OP learns from it and has many years of non-accident cycling ahead.

 

[HLaB]

The driver followed through, money was in my account and now out to the shop to get repairs underway.

I am going to be lambasted and criticised for the following clip. I look forward to hearing 'You were travelling too fast', 'There wasn't enough room why would you attempt that', 'Why would you go up the inside', and even that i am at fault for this collision. To them i will say this:

The plain and simple fact is that the driver of vehicle was effectively stationary in traffic, gave zero indication of their intention to turn (although did think to indicate after i'd drawn parallel as you can see by the wing-mirror indicator) and turned without checking mirrors despite having passed me with a reasonably wide berth some minutes earlier and therefore having been aware of me on the road.

I am in one piece, the bike will be fixed, the driver has shifted the guilty conscience for not being alert. We can call this case closed.

I'm glad you got it sorted so fast; look on the positive you've learnt a valuable piece of road craft without getting hurt badly

 

[steve292]

Thats poor cycling. I'm glad that your unhurt, but thats not filtering, thats undertaking.

 

[Gary E]

It's very easy to deconstruct an incident and pick fault afterwards (especially when it's filmed). But, that said, even had there been a cycle lane on that road I would have been very reluctant to pass that car on the left at that speed. Watching the clip I was thinking "no, don't do it" from a couple of cars back

 

[si_c]

As with the others, I'm glad it has been sorted to your satisfaction. I don't think that you were travelling too quickly, or that you did anything wrong, you were entitled to be where you were, and the driver did not signal her intention to move and she clearly didn't check her mirrors prior to moving off.

Given that the traffic was relatively stationary and you could see that there was space for her to move into ahead in your position there I would probably have held back a bit whilst she passed the junction. Having said that, I would more likely have been filtering down the outside of the traffic as I feel it puts me in a safer position generally, and whilst it does have it's potential problems with drivers emerging from a side road on the left, you generally have better visibility to see gaps where trouble may occur and plan. That and I hate being squeezed to the curb.

Edit: Thanks for putting the video up, more of us should do that when we have a near miss / incident so we can all learn from it.

 

[OneArmedBandit]

Glad it was all sorted.

In my experience it is always tough getting money out of a driver because they have no clue how expensive bike parts are and just assume it will be £30-ish. Unfortunately around here scrapes are fairly routine because the road designs are so poor with lots if artificial pinch points. Luckily they normally happen at low speed