I had a coming together with a car last night – filtering through traffic, a passenger opened a door and stepped out into my path. I was travelling at not far short of 20mph (was trying to get to the lights before they turned green) and went straight into her. She took the impact, but was knocked hard enough into the door to bend the frame. The door wouldn’t shut afterwards, so I imagine this would be an expensive repair. My bike's absolutely fine, other than some scrapes.
No blood, no breakages, but a lot of bruises. My neck’s in a bit of a state, and my right thigh (which somehow impacted solidly into the edge of the door) is exceptionally painful. I was about to give my details, but the driver became very aggressive, tried to blame me, and was becoming verbally and physically quite intimidating. So I rode off.
I know that I’ve broken a law by leaving the scene of an accident, but I don’t believe that I’m morally in the wrong. I didn’t cause the accident, I couldn’t avoid the accident. OK, I could have ridden more slowly, so there's a degree of culpability here, but anyone who opens a door and just steps out without looking is a complete idiot. If I'd been going at 3mph there would still have been an impact, though with much reduced consequences.
Interested to know the collective thoughts here - what would you have done?
