Crash

Yesterday evening, I was cycling along, when a woman driving the other way down the road turned right in front of me, me to head into a road on my left. Sadly, she was only a few metres in front of me when she turned and crossed my lane so although I squeezed my brakes as hard as I could, I ploughed straight into the side of her car. It was broad daylight and I was doing c.18-20mph. No idea why she didn’t see me, she seemed to pause, look right at me, and then turn anyway, just as I closed in.

After picking myself and my bike up, she came over and apologised (a lot) and I got her name and insurance details, plus a photo of her car (complete with its brand new cyclist shaped dent in the left rear door).

The lady who was driving behind me before the crash also got out and explained to me she had seen everything and would be happy help me if I needed it, giving me her details. I thanked her, and then we all went our separate ways.

Surprisingly to me, the bike seems okay and I have some aches, bumps and bruises but seemingly nothing too bad and to be honest I was just happy it wasn’t worse.

So, the question – having mulled it over all day, is there something formal I should do? I’ve never been in this situation before and I thought given all seemed as okay as it could be, it was best to just leave it be. I just Googled and it seems you’re supposed to report to police within 24 hours, which has now passed. So, do I just chalk up as a lucky escape and move on? At the least I’m sure the woman will look where she’s going from now on!