[the little onion]

Just another rant at where we are with road safety nowadays.

 

On a regular ride, going uphill on a dead-straight three lane (two uphill, one downhill) 30mph road, wearing a very bright top, in broad daylight and very little traffic, about 75cm from the verge. So all in all, about as safe as you can get.

 

Suddenly, I find myself smashed into from behind, and thrown onto the verge. The driver gets out, walks over, says “it wasn’t me, it was someone else”, gets back into their car, which happens to have the left hand mirror hanging off, and drives off. Fortunately, some witnesses who heard, but didn’t see, the original crash, took down the registration. The police arrived, checked me over (nice polite officers, which was a relative rarity for west Yorkshire), and I limped home. The officers then phoned me later to say they visited the driver’s house, where he admitted hitting me, but claimed it was my fault because they were safely driving in the outside lane, at a safe speed, and I suddenly without any sound reason or warning, swerved several metres into the outside lane, and they couldn’t avoid hitting me. They couldn’t explain why I did this, nor why me and my bike ended up in the verge rather than close to the outside lane. Fortunately, I have only minor bruising.

 

The police (and I stress, this was a nice officer for once!) are not taking it further as there are no witnesses, nor do they think my GPS data (which shows me travelling in a straight line) is admissible in court. Which shows:

-how easy it is for drivers to kill or cause serious harm and get away with it if there is no independent witness. They just have to claim the cyclist made a random suicide swerve.

-how much we need to bring in pressumed liability laws, which would mean that there would be much tighter examination of the suicide swerve excuse.

 

Anyway, I don’t know if my bike is a write-off, as it is a carbon frame, so any damage might not be immediately visible. I’ll see what my LBS says and make an insurance claim.

Topic

[Mr Blackbird]

I must admit that I have
I must admit that I have suddenly swerved several metres to the right on several occasions while cycling on roads. It has been very fortunate that no vehicles were overtaking safely at a minimum 1.5m gap and within the speed limit at these times.
I have experimented with different tyre widths and pressures, but this has not eliminated the problem.
In addition I went to an Indian Restaurant for a Sunday buffet at the weekend. While walking past the hotplates I suddenly swerved violently to the right causing a plate of nan breads and a dish of lamb saag aloo to fall onto the floor. It appears that shoe tread is also a factor.
Do any other readers have any ideas?

Baffled and scared,
Peterborough.

[dabba]

They’re all prepared to lie.
They’re all prepared to lie. I was hit by an approaching grub as I was riding across an intersection. We both waited on opposite sides of the intersection for traffic to clear, and when it was safe to do so, I started to ride across. I was halfway through the intersection and he accelerated and turned into me. When I was being removed from the scene he apologised and claimed that he hadn’t seen me because his vision had been obstructed. I was straight across the road from him had he bothered to look! Fortunately I had my video camera running and gave the police my statement as well as the video of the event. He still tried to make up a story of my position on the road even though he claimed to me that he hadn’t been able to see me. I don’t think that he knew where I came from, and I told him that he just hadn’t bothered to look. The cop told me that my video evidence and my statement was the only evidence that was involved in him being charged with negligent driving causing grievous bodily harm. While he was charged, the court gave him a conditional 12 months good behaviour bond, so he really didn’t suffer any consequences for his actions.

I got a badly broken ankle and elbow, but it could easily have been much worse because he was driving an SUV tank. Bike repairs cost him/his insurer ~$AUD1500.

[David9694]

the little onion wrote:

No – they have 24 hours to report it before it becomes an offence. The officers were at their house within a few hours.

File under C for “cyclists flinging themselves into hedges and blaming innocent drivers” 

[the little onion]

No – they have 24 hours to

No – they have 24 hours to report it before it becomes an offence. The officers were at their house within a few hours.

[Bungle_52]

If the driver intially

If the driver intially stopped and failed to exchange details, claiming it wasn’t him, and later admitted that it was him, can’t he be done for not exchanging details?

[Rendel Harris]

I had a witness, my wife who

I had a witness, my wife who was riding 50m behind me; unfortunately the CPS didn’t summon her because they (understandably) thought it was such an open and shut case. They didn’t take into account the blatantly pro-driver magistrate who was so bad that when he asked the CPS solicitor if he had anything to say after the verdict he replied, “No thank you your honour, my mother told me if you haven’t anything nice to say then don’t say anything at all so I shall keep my counsel.” Risky but as I discovered speaking to him afterwards he was furious – more angry than me, which I didn’t think possible!

[David9694]

The lying and fabrication is

The lying and fabrication is the thing I find stays with me down the years – and I was fortunate that a witness came forward and set the record straight. 

[David9694]

So begins the long slog of a

So begins the long slog of a claim for compensation from a driver who is prepared to try to lie (to the police) his way out of responsibility. Have the police taken Statements? Are you OK? Like should you be checked over?  Where you ended up, any injuries, the state of your bike and the broken door mirror are all bits of evidence you may need.  

[the little onion]

thanks everyone for the well

thanks everyone for the well-wishing. Just a bit bruised and frustrated. Bike damage is uncertain, but I think my LBS may well declare it a write off, as they do with any carbon bike in a collision with a car. Although the bike is not a recent model, the replacement value is high- it was top of the range in its day.

 

I am in CyclingUK, so I’m using their legal services/insurance. I suspect that they will be able to claim from the driver’s insurance.

 

Whilst the officers attending were great, I do feel that a system that allows for something as ludicrous as the single witness suicide swerve needs looking at. Sadly, I’m actually using my camera less nowadays due to various bad experiences with the police. In any case, I suppose this driver will be punished through higher premiums, though this might just mean they drive uninsured, as so many people in West Yorkshire do. 

[Rendel Harris]

As per other comments, very

As per other comments, very sorry to hear this, been accused of exactly the same by close passers – memorably in court someone claimed that I had veered straight in front of them when they were driving at 30mph and were one metre behind. Unfortunately the magistrates weren’t intelligent enough to figure out that as they didn’t hit me (just) that meant they must have had a reaction plus action time of 0.07 seconds…

I presume you didn’t have your front camera on at the time to prove you didn’t swerve? Hope you recover well and that the bike is either okay or you can get their insurance to pay for a replacement.

[Hirsute]

How have we got to the point

How have we got to the point where we need either an insta 360 or a front and rear camera ?

At least he won’t escape an insurance claim with a lower burden of proof.

[ratherbeintobago]

You’ve got his plate, any

You’ve got his plate, any mileage in pursuing it through his insurers?

[chrisonabike]

Ah but Schrodinger’s cyclist

Ah but Schrodinger’s cyclist again.  Applying Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle the moment you establish exactly how fast they’re going (generally “too slow”) who knows where they are exactly (“all over the road”)?

[andystow]

I wonder how often they would

I wonder how often they would accept the excuse, when a driver rear-ends another car or a motorcycle on a dual carriageway, “oh, he was in the left lane and I was safely passing him on the right when he suddenly jumped into the right lane in front of me.”

[perce]

Sorry to hear this. Like

Sorry to hear this. Like others have said, glad you are OK. 

[Author]

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