Knocked off my bike by a car last night. Advice needed.

Joeinpoole wrote:
I’ve been

Joeinpoole wrote:

I’ve been discussing this and apparently if a vehicle, emerging from a side-road onto a main road, causes a collision it is pretty much ALWAYS the emerging driver’s fault. If the emerging driver’s view is obscured by other traffic then he MUST NOT emerge until he can see that it is safe for him to do so. Filtering up the side of traffic is perfectly legal and acceptable.

In my view the cyclist (the OP) was not at fault and could pursue the car driver’s insurers for any damages sustained.

Rule 88, although for motorcycles, clearly accepts filtering happens and advises care.

or this

http://www.solent-advanced-motorcyclists.co.uk/riding-tips-mainmenu-46/157-riding-tips-filtering.html

and finally

Rule 211

It is often difficult to see motorcyclists and cyclists, especially when they are coming up from behind, coming out of junctions, at roundabouts, overtaking you or filtering through traffic. Always look out for them before you emerge from a junction; they could be approaching faster than you think. When turning right across a line of slow-moving or stationary traffic, look out for cyclists or motorcyclists on the inside of the traffic you are crossing. Be especially careful when turning, and when changing direction or lane. Be sure to check mirrors and blind spots carefully.

I would say that it was
I would say that it was probably your fault. You were essentially overtaking and should have been using more caution. I doubt you’d be brought to book for it though so if you’re injury free and the bike’s OK I’d just call it a lesson learnt.

I had a ‘filtering’ incident myself going up the left side when a car pulled across having heard sirens coming up from behind. Fortunately I was going cautiously enough to take avoiding action up onto the pavement and avoided contact with the car. I landed in a heap but without significant injury. Filtering is not illegal but can be dangerous and should be done always with caution IMO.

[[[[[ Dunno, but here’s
[[[[[ Dunno, but here’s another one to watch for. I was riding 12mph on the crown of the road, “filtering” past all the GRIDLOCKED cars, 50 metres before a clogged junction. One impatient geezer gets fed up with the delay and without indicating, and without checking his mirrors, suddenly starts a 3-point turn to go back the way he’d come, just at the point where I’m level with his very flash jam-jar….Bang!…I slam into his front wheel and and hit the deck. I get up, walk back, and ask him what the phluck is he playing at. He stares at me, speechless (and bleary-eyed drunk), and neither he nor his lady-friend say a solitary word. I stare back and give him time to say sorry—-zilch. He’s six-foot three to my five-foot nine, and 15 stone to my eleven stone two, so I call him a fluckin blind klunt and ride away with me bruises and slightly buckled front wheel. What’s the moral? Around stationary traffic, always expect the unexpected, I suppose.

Mate of mine once did roughly
Mate of mine once did roughly what you did, on a motorbike. The vehicle that took him out was an ambulance, which was very convenient.

I think you would struggle to prove that you were the victim of negligence.

I ‘witnessed’ an almost
I ‘witnessed’ an almost identical incident recently, thanks to my brother’s dash-cam when he emailed me the footage. He lives in Thornton Heath and was in slow-moving traffic travelling north on Whitehorse Rd and about to turn left into Bensham Manor Road (where he lives).

In front of him, before the junction, was a black cab and a white transit van all crawling along very slowly. The white van’s brake lights suddenly came on followed by those of the black cab and it could be seen (from the dash-cam’s perspective) that the white van had stopped to allow a small lorry to emerge from Bensham Manor Rd and turn right to head south down Whitehorse Lane. A second or so later a pizza delivery driver, riding a moped, filtered past on the right of the north-bound traffic at a fairly brisk pace. The moped rider went past the white van at the exact moment that the lorry emerged from the junction and … BANG. The moped hit the front corner of the lorry, stopping it dead and sending the rider straight over the handlebars. The moped rider quickly jumped up and angrily remonstrated with the lorry driver and started kicking his vehicle. Fortunately I think the rider’s pride was hurt more than his body.

I think most people watching that footage would have concluded that the moped rider was almost entirely to blame. He was filtering on the right without caution, he was going too fast, he ignored the danger of the upcoming junction and the clear warning of the brake lights of the vehicles he was passing. Fortunately the lorry driver was emerging slowly and cautiously from the junction or the incident could have been a lot worse. He couldn’t have seen around the white van until he had stuck the front of his vehicle far enough out.

Some other
Some other examples:

http://www.access-legal.co.uk/legal-news/accidents-involving-filtering-what-the-law-says-lu-2811.htm

Having read these I might be reluctant about persuing a claim in the OP’s position. I suspect a little legal bias in favour of car drivers too.