"You lot are dangerous!"

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mrandmrspoves

Middle aged bald git.
Location
Narfuk
Went for a lovely ride today with the local bicycle users group where we climbed Ongar Hill. (It's slightly North of King's Lynn so must be at least a metre above sea level!)
While enjoying the views (a number of dull fields a couple of feet below us) I was approached by a man who told me how much of a danger we (recumbent tricyclists) are......because "when he was recently driving along a country lane with the sun in his eyes, he went round a corner and nearly hit a recumbent tricyclist!"
I tried to explain that this clearly showed that HE was the problem and driving too fast for the road conditions- but he was having none of it!
......
Funnily enough he didn't speak to my friend who was on his recumbent trike about 10 feet away from me......probably didn't even see him! (Slaps forehead in despair at the idiocy of some motorists)
 
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HMS_Dave

Grand Old Lady
Went for a lovely ride today with the local bicycle users group where we climbed Ongar Hill. (It's slightly North of King's Lynn so must be at least a metre above sea level!)
While enjoying the views (a number of dull fields a couple of feet below us) I was approached by a man who told me how much of a danger we (recumbent tricyclists) are......because "when he was recentlydriving along a country line with the sun in his eyes he went round a corner and nearly hit a recumbent tricyclist!"
I tried to explain that this clearly showed that HE was the problem and driving too fast for the road conditions- but he was having none of it!
......
Funnily enough he didn't speak to my friend who was on his recumbent trike about 10 feet away from me......probably didn't even see him! (Slaps forehead in despair at the idiocy of some motorists)
Trouble is the courts are likely to buy that excuse. Plenty of court cases of similar instances where cyclist have been knocked off and killed has resulted in acquittal...
 
OP
OP
mrandmrspoves

mrandmrspoves

Middle aged bald git.
Location
Narfuk
Trouble is the courts are likely to buy that excuse. Plenty of court cases of similar instances where cyclist have been knocked off and killed has resulted in acquittal...
Yes indeed.....locally, an uninsured motorist hit and killed a teenage cyclist, drove away and left him and when the police finally caught up with him he told them he had hit a deer. He got a suspended sentence, a small fine, a driving ban and 200 hours community service!
 

DRHysted

Guru
Location
New Forest
You"ll be noticed on one of those.

Yep see two lads riding two of them near where I live every now and then. They don’t look as if they’re cost effective as far as effort to distance goes.
 

CanucksTraveller

Macho Business Donkey Wrestler
Location
Hertfordshire
Comments like that always remind me of my friend Tom Barrett who died by "not being seen" in 2012. He was fully visible, being on a straight road on a clear day, but the sun was low, and the driver carried on at nearly 70mph while blind to what was in front of him.

The driver got community service. Tom's wife and kids got a life sentence without their husband and father.

BBC News - RAF Northolt commander death: driver given community service
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17512797

Beware being out in low sun conditions. Drivers will push on regardless as to whether they can see or not, and will make assumptions based on what speed the mororised traffic normally moves at on that road.
 
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DRHysted

Guru
Location
New Forest
Comments like that always remind me of my friend Tom Barrett who died by "not being seen" in 2012. He was fully visible, being on a straight road on a clear day, but the sun was low, and the driver carried on at nearly 70mph while blind to what was in front of him.

The driver got community service. Tom's wife and kids got a life sentence without their husband and father.

BBC News - RAF Northolt commander death: driver given community service
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17512797

Beware being out in low sun conditions. Drivers will push on regardless as to whether they can see or not, and will make assumptions based on what speed the mororised traffic normally moves at on that road.

Had a similar case down in Southampton where the driver of a minibus hit the cyclist with his mirror with enough force to fold it in, which knocked the cyclist directly in front of another car that had no chance of missing him. The driver stated that he thought he’d hit a lamppost, the judge instructed the jury to disregard the Highway Code that stated about being prepared to slow or stop if your vision is obscured by low sun, and the traffic Sargent said that although the cyclist was wearing a hi-vis top it may have been obscured if he was crouched over the bars as a lot of cyclists do.
I stopped following the case at this point!!

I do the best I can the rest is in the hands of the other road users. However when I was asked the other day if I felt more vulnerable on the recumbent trike than a “normal” bike, my reply was no. I have had better reactions from drivers whilst on the tadpole then I’ve ever got on any other bike, that’s cars, suvs, buses, up and including 44 ton road tankers. I think there’s a lot of WTF is that, is that a disabled person, and the fact I’m much wider so am further out in the road.
 

byegad

Legendary Member
Location
NE England
I had a motorist pull over in front of me on a blind humped bend 5 feet from a junction, to walk down the road and tell me he hadn't seen me. When I asked him why, as he hadn't seen me, he was on the far side of the white line when he passed me? He walked away.
 
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