Got knocked off again this morning!

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the reluctant cyclist

Über Member
Location
Birmingham
I only got knocked off my bike again this morning!

Only trouble is I am not sure that it is also my fault too.

I was going over a pedestrian crossing on my bike, I was going over really slowly as I had just come up the subway and have started using this crossing to make a right turn onto a busy road. It's a dual carriageway and the first car had stopped and the lights were on red for the traffic but as I went another car on the outside lane of the dual carriageway jumped the light and hit me.

He didn't really damage my bike luckily as I have only just got it back from the last time but he scratched all the side of his car. I shouldn't really have been on the crossing on my bike but I don't think it would have made any difference if I had been walking he would have hit me anyway. I normally look really really carefully to make sure that the next car stops but for some reason this morning I didn't - I won't make that mistake again. I had to go home and get my handlebars straightened out and some sympathy too because it really shakes you up but I am okay now and back at my desk like a good little worker!
 

gambatte

Middle of the pack...
Location
S Yorks
Your being on the bike is kind of irrelevant. Whether you were on it or not, he/she jumped the red, thats what caused it.
 

Maz

Guru
the reluctant cyclist said:
...the lights were on red for the traffic but as I went another car on the outside lane of the dual carriageway jumped the light and hit me.
The car jumped a red and you think it's your fault. How does that work?
I don't see how it can be your fault.
Glad you're OK, though.
 

Tynan

Veteran
Location
e4
I see what your doubts are but I think they're irrelevant, jumping the lights at a crossing and hitting someone crossing is seriously bad

please tell me you have details and the police were called, that driver needs a proper frightener from the cops
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Not your fault. Your offence, riding on a ped crossing, should have no bearing on the fact that the driver jumped a red light. You could, as everyone has said, just as easily have been a Mum pushing a pushchair, or an old lady, or simply a pedestrian. Did you get it reported?

My Dad drummed into me when I was a kid, that the red light doesn't physically stop traffic, and even now, at 38, I never rely on a traffic light alone when crossing the road. A fact that may have saved my life some months ago when a huge 4x4, driver on the phone, went over a red near my allotment, and I'd not stepped out to cross because I was still checking...

Perhaps that's what we need. Gates on traffic lights, like on level crossings. Mind you, some tossers even go round them. The difference being, the train normally wins.
 

Big T

Guru
Location
Nottingham
I cross at a ped crossing a couple of times on my commute, cos it's safer than trying to cross 2 or 3 lanes of traffic to turn right.
 

Tynan

Veteran
Location
e4
try to get into the correct lane in good time, as if you were a car, if you leave it too late, it's as good as impossible
 

Cab

New Member
Location
Cambridge
Shouldn't be riding on a pedestrian crossing, but still his fault. Whether a court would hold you being on a bike against you there, if such a case came to that, I don't know.
 
Hi TRC

That sucks. You weren't in the wrong - the idiot driver was. I hope you got details and are going to the police with this, as he may have killed you.

Don't be afraid to take tomorrow off too, if you need to. I've often had delayed reactions to being knocked off.
 
OP
OP
T

the reluctant cyclist

Über Member
Location
Birmingham
I am going to nip into the Police Station later - my fiance phoned them for me this morning and they said I have to go in and fill in an accident report in person - I can go into the city centre one on Steelhouse Lane as I work on Steelhouse Lane.

I checked on the highway code and it says on there that you are supposed to push your bike accross and not ride.

The bloke was really sorry and said that he was in a rush and that's why he went over!

The crossing was the first one on Lordswood Road just after the crossroads of the Hagley Road and Bearwood High Street (for those of you who know it). I wouldn't mind but I only changed my route to that way two weeks ago to avoid turning right from the Hagley Road onto Meadow Road because that's where I was knocked off last month!

Not doing too well at the moment and I would seriously class myself as a very careful cyclist - obviously not careful enough!!!

Of course the first reaction of everyone in the office is - you need to stop cycling to work you're going to get killed!
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
the reluctant cyclist said:
The bloke was really sorry and said that he was in a rush and that's why he went over!

Well, that's alright then, as long as he had a reason for potentially killing someone.:blush: Sorry or not, he needs to get his priorities sorted, and a chat with the police might do that. Beware of course that he might change his tune and say you rode into him, or something.
 
You may get a little 'telling off' for riding across the crossing ... But regarding the driver of the car ...

"191-199: Pedestrian crossings191
You MUST NOT park on a crossing or in the area covered by the zig-zag lines. You MUST NOT overtake the moving vehicle nearest the crossing or the vehicle nearest the crossing which has stopped to give way to pedestrians.


[Laws ZPPPCRGD regs 18, 20 & 24, RTRA sect 25(5) & TSRGD regs 10, 27 & 28]"

Copied from the 'new' Highway Code here :-

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_070339

Oh dear :blush:.
 

Tynan

Veteran
Location
e4
and that's quite apart from jumping it on a red as well

as regards using crossings, try and plan your route so you;re in the right place when you arrive at junctions, if you're a bit nervous take primary in the relevant lane and signal clearly at the appropriate time, using crossings is alwasy going to be dicey, quite apart from the peds, drivers aren't going to expect the switch from road vehicle to ped
 

Tetedelacourse

New Member
Location
Rosyth
Cab's post makes sense to me. Definitely glad to hear you're not badly injured or worse. From your description you know you did something wrong but that pales into insignificance compared with the actions of the driver. That should be an instant ban.
 
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