Zee
Guru
- Location
- Manchester
Okay. This was a Thursday PM, but this is the first opportunity I've had to sit down and think it over. I'm heading north down Brixton Road around Vassal Road.
Streetview
I was holding primary in the bus lane, with a queue of slow moving traffic on the other lane. A shoulder check shows a bright orange Suzuki ?hatch approaching from behind. (Great, another bus lane overtaker..). He pulls up behind me, his front bumper within 3ft of my rear wheel. I'm getting quite alarmed at this point, especially as he's edging to my right as if he's going to attempt a pass.
I make eye contact with the driver and gesture at the painted 'bus lane' markings (silly in retrospect, believing he hadn't realized despite the fact the road was orange).
Lo and behold, he does attempt a pass between myself and the traffic in the outside lane. I'm frigging flabbergasted at that point. His wheel arch comes level with my right leg and brushes it. I haven't got enough wheel clearance to even turn away. I take my right hand off and balance myself on his hood. (I'm 5ft 4 if that's any indication of how far I can reach laterally). Still no response from him - I shout and smack the bonnet to catch his attention (again silly notion, I had a hump cover, was wearing white and and was running two rear lights). He follows through with the maneuver regardless. As I was going down, I remember thinking "oh this can't be happening.".
I'm still not sure about the physics of how he hit me, (?I countersteered) but I ended up going down on my right side. I slid for a couple of yards down the road, still clipped in. The side of my head smacks into the road (+1 helmet advocate) and my knee takes a good knock and scuff. From the looks of my right glove after, I'd managed to get a hand to the ground at some point too.
I come to a halt in front of the bus stop and the driver stops a two three yards behind. I untangled myself from the bike to see the driver exit the vehicle and approach. The first thing he asks is what I was doing in the bus lane - He got a string of profanity in return for that. There were some lovely people at the bus stop who rushed over to help me up. Someone fished my phone out from somewhere under the car and the driver behind also stopped and handed me a business card without a word. I was a little dazed still, I got a photo of driver and the plates but made a mistake in not getting full details, only a first name and phone number.
Aside from cuts and scrapes which will heal, the sum total of damage:
*superficial to both shifters (the bars spun parallel to the ground as I slid)
*rear DR got a good whack and still has bits of red bus lane attached
*shorts tore, spilling...
*..phone onto the road where I suspect it got run over
*ratchet on the shoe was also dragged along the road and looks like it's going to give up the ghost.
I've submitted a report to the police. I'm not sure how this is going to work, especially because he had Romanian plates. Is there anyone unfortunate enough to have been in an accident before that can shed some light on where things can go from here?
Xi
*Also a note to the Friday Nighter's. Thanks for a great evening/morning. It was a fantastic pick-me-up after this.
Streetview
I was holding primary in the bus lane, with a queue of slow moving traffic on the other lane. A shoulder check shows a bright orange Suzuki ?hatch approaching from behind. (Great, another bus lane overtaker..). He pulls up behind me, his front bumper within 3ft of my rear wheel. I'm getting quite alarmed at this point, especially as he's edging to my right as if he's going to attempt a pass.
I make eye contact with the driver and gesture at the painted 'bus lane' markings (silly in retrospect, believing he hadn't realized despite the fact the road was orange).
Lo and behold, he does attempt a pass between myself and the traffic in the outside lane. I'm frigging flabbergasted at that point. His wheel arch comes level with my right leg and brushes it. I haven't got enough wheel clearance to even turn away. I take my right hand off and balance myself on his hood. (I'm 5ft 4 if that's any indication of how far I can reach laterally). Still no response from him - I shout and smack the bonnet to catch his attention (again silly notion, I had a hump cover, was wearing white and and was running two rear lights). He follows through with the maneuver regardless. As I was going down, I remember thinking "oh this can't be happening.".
I'm still not sure about the physics of how he hit me, (?I countersteered) but I ended up going down on my right side. I slid for a couple of yards down the road, still clipped in. The side of my head smacks into the road (+1 helmet advocate) and my knee takes a good knock and scuff. From the looks of my right glove after, I'd managed to get a hand to the ground at some point too.
I come to a halt in front of the bus stop and the driver stops a two three yards behind. I untangled myself from the bike to see the driver exit the vehicle and approach. The first thing he asks is what I was doing in the bus lane - He got a string of profanity in return for that. There were some lovely people at the bus stop who rushed over to help me up. Someone fished my phone out from somewhere under the car and the driver behind also stopped and handed me a business card without a word. I was a little dazed still, I got a photo of driver and the plates but made a mistake in not getting full details, only a first name and phone number.
Aside from cuts and scrapes which will heal, the sum total of damage:
*superficial to both shifters (the bars spun parallel to the ground as I slid)
*rear DR got a good whack and still has bits of red bus lane attached
*shorts tore, spilling...
*..phone onto the road where I suspect it got run over
*ratchet on the shoe was also dragged along the road and looks like it's going to give up the ghost.
I've submitted a report to the police. I'm not sure how this is going to work, especially because he had Romanian plates. Is there anyone unfortunate enough to have been in an accident before that can shed some light on where things can go from here?
Xi
*Also a note to the Friday Nighter's. Thanks for a great evening/morning. It was a fantastic pick-me-up after this.
). After gingerly picking my self up I told him that we'd better get of the roundabout before somebody hit us. I expected him to stop round the corner but he scarpered.
