Advice Following Accident

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Stefan T

New Member
Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone here would be able to give me any advice following an accident I had last week.

I was out riding with a group of people from work (we've all signed up to do Pedal for Scotland, so thought it would be good to get some practise in). We were cycling along a road where the traffic had come to a standstill so we were filtering up the inside. We came to a junction -- normally I might have been a bit more wary of this but as I was riding with more experienced riders and the rider ahead of me went on I followed him. I checked and didn't see any traffic coming. The next thing I knew I'd been hit by a van that was doing a right turn into the junction.

It didn't hid me hard and I was totally fine -- the driver managed to slow down to a near stop and I didn't even come off the bike -- the van only hit my back wheel. The driver stopped and I got her phone number and email address. We also got a picture of the Van's licence plates. I didn't contact the police regarding the incident.

I checked my bike afterwards and there didn't seem to be any damage aside from the back wheel being a bit less true. I cycled on for about 40km and finished the ride. Since my bike seemed fine apart from the back wheel I wasn't really expecting any real damage, however the shop have informed me the my rear triangle is now misaligned and that the bike is a writeoff! It was a Cannondale Synapse and only 2 months old!

I have no experience with this at all -- I would assume that my next step would be to contact the driver and try to claim against her insurance? Does anyone have any experience of this and know how likely I am to have a successful claim/how long it might take?

Any advice at all is much appreciated.

Cheers,
Stefan
 

Dirk

If 6 Was 9
Location
Watchet
Contact the driver and claim off her insurance.
Sooner done - sooner sorted.:okay:
 

vickster

Legendary Member
It sounds like it was your fault if you pulled out of the junction? Or were you going across a junction that the van pulled out of, it's unclear. They could claim against you in theory

Also a group filtering up the inside is not a safe manoeuvre so bear that in mind
 
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mythste

Veteran
Location
Manchester
I checked my bike afterwards and there didn't seem to be any damage aside from the back wheel being a bit less true. I cycled on for about 40km and finished the ride. Since my bike seemed fine apart from the back wheel I wasn't really expecting any real damage, however the shop have informed me the my rear triangle is now misaligned and that the bike is a writeoff! It was a Cannondale Synapse and only 2 months old!

Stefan

@Yellow Saddle - This sounds like BS to me, Can you confirm?
 

Tim Hall

Guest
Location
Crawley
I read it that the OP was filtering on the inside on the major road. Minor road on left. Van come toward OP, turns right to get into minor road, going across the (stationary) line of motorised traffic. Driver doesn't spot OP on the inside of the motorised traffic and down he goes. All of which is quite a lot of assumptions on my part. @Stefan T, was that how it was?
 

Milkfloat

An Peanut
Location
Midlands
It sounds like it was your fault if you pulled out of the junction? Or were you going across a junction that the van pulled out of, it's unclear. They could claim against you in theory

Also a group filtering up the inside is not a safe manoeuvre so bear that in mind

I read it as cars had stopped to let van turn across main road, bikes did not stop, bike got clattered. So technically vans fault, but p1ss poor riding. However, you are right the OP does not make it totally clear.

EDIT: Tim beat me too it.
 

Pale Rider

Legendary Member
The simple approach to claiming is to get the name of her insurers from askMID and then contact the insurance company's claims department.

But as others have said, you may not have a claim if, as looks likely from your account, you were responsible for the collision.

That's a decision for the insurance company, so no harm in contacting them with a true account if you honestly think the driver was at fault.

http://www.askmid.com/
 
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Stefan T

New Member
I read it that the OP was filtering on the inside on the major road. Minor road on left. Van come toward OP, turns right to get into minor road, going across the (stationary) line of motorised traffic. Driver doesn't spot OP on the inside of the motorised traffic and down he goes. All of which is quite a lot of assumptions on my part. @Stefan T, was that how it was?

Yes, this is how it was. Sorry if it was unclear.

Cheers.
 
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Stefan T

New Member
I read it as cars had stopped to let van turn across main road, bikes did not stop, bike got clattered. So technically vans fault, but p1ss poor riding. However, you are right the OP does not make it totally clear.

EDIT: Tim beat me too it.

Yes, more like this, however the cars hadn't stopped to let the van turn, they were stationary all the way up the road past the junction also. The junction was just left clear.

May have been poor riding (I'm pretty new), but as I checked and saw nothing coming, and was on the major road, I thought it was safe to cross.

Cheers,
Stefan
 

Milkfloat

An Peanut
Location
Midlands
Well technically it is the van drivers fault, but you may find it slightly harder with the insurance company because of the delay. Did you get any details of witnesses that do not include your fellow bike riders?
 

vickster

Legendary Member
Contact the driver to discuss what happened and to get the insurance company details. I would go through the insurers regardless of whether they say they want to settle without the insurer. They have to report the collision anyhow. Presumably you have witnesses to what happened

I don't know when this was, but you have 6 years to make a claim for damage to property by a third party
 
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Stefan T

New Member
Well technically it is the van drivers fault, but you may find it slightly harder with the insurance company because of the delay. Did you get any details of witnesses that do not include your fellow bike riders?

Nope, just the 4 people I was riding with :sad: As you can probably tell I really had no idea what to do.

Contact the driver to discuss what happened and to get the insurance company details. I would go through the insurers regardless of whether they say they want to settle without the insurer. They have to report the collision anyhow. Presumably you have witnesses to what happened

I don't know when this was, but you have 6 years to make a claim for damage to property by a third party

Whats the advantage to going through the insurer even if the driver wants to settle?

Thanks,
Stefan
 

Pale Rider

Legendary Member
Nope, just the 4 people I was riding with :sad: As you can probably tell I really had no idea what to do.



Whats the advantage to going through the insurer even if the driver wants to settle?

Thanks,
Stefan

Experience shows most drivers think a bike is something you pay £10 for from a car boot sale.

It is unlikely this driver will pull out £750 or so to replace your Cannondale.

Going through the insurer also largely takes personalities out of it.

There's no need for you to speak to the driver, so less chance of arguments.
 
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