…as I cycled home from town. A taxi driver pulled into my path on a one way system with two lanes (I was in the left lane). I hit his nearside wing and was flung over the bonnet (he was cutting across the lanes from the right hand lane to execute a left hand turn).

The front of my bike is a mess. The wheel is ****, not sure about the frame and forks. Driver was reasonable, gave me his details etc. Said he wants to avoid an insurance claim.

I’ve reported it to the police.

What should I do about the bike, drop it into my LBS for a quote to repair it?

Have lower back bruise/pain where I landed.

Thoughts appreciated. Going to try and get some sleep, 33 mile Evans mtb ride in the morning (he says optimistically).

good your ok. He has to report an accident to his insurance. He has to give you his details. Report it to police, lbs for bike. If your ctc or other one contact their legal dept. If you go down the do it yourself route theres no guarantee that the driver will pay up. I doubt he has any idea how much a bike costs. Get checked out by doctor in the morning and rest up. Accident can shake you up. I’d skip the MTB ride.

I can already hear the discussion when you tell him it’s £800 quid for repairs/replacement of parts and kit…….

Thanks for the advice.

I reported it to the police as I had to walk past the police station on the way home.

I’m a CTC member, so I’ll give them a call.

I can see the cost soon mounting up. £100 for a front wheel. If the frame and fork are knackered, then add another few hundred. I’ve noticed that my jacket is also scuffed. 🙁

Rusty if a person is injured then he is also obliged to report to the police iirc.

It’s different to damage to property.

It is up to him to notify the insurer ultimately. If he doesn’t he will need to rummage around in his pockets for all the loss but you will end up in the territory of suing him.

I would make sure he knows there’s an injury involved, it might just spur him on to report it to the insurers.

One word of warning I helped someone who’d been involved in a car on car prang with a taxi in pretty much the circumstances you had on the bike (taxi driver launched out from a side road into their path) and the insurer involved started trying to threaten massive loss of earnings claims and all sorts of other loss to (in my view) either distract from who was at fault or because they weren’t getting the whole truth. Don’t take any nonsense. After all most cab drivers delight in telling their passengers just how much better they are at driving than anyone else (a kind of inverse of reality).

Hope you heal well and do get the bike properly checked. When I got run down I missed a bent mech hanger which I can’t find a replacement for.

Go through insurance.
Read this:https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/131099/

Be careful of you do the MTB ride. You might be more injured than you originally thought.

Go to your doctor if you are physically hurt but if it’s very minor use some ice.

I would contact him with a quote and if that goes wrong use CTC legal policy.

Might be worth recording the incident with them too. They’ll you give better advice than here.

Hope you’re ok.

Speaking as someone who also drives a black cab, I’d get in touch with the councils licensing dept and make them aware of what’s happened and that you have the police involved. They are public vehicles after all and the council will take pretty seriously taxi driver negligence which has resulted in injury and damage. Better to come at the driver on all fronts.

You’ll probably feel like a truck has hit you this morning.

Don’t ride if you are injured as it will only delay your recovery and risk further damage.

OP – had a very similar thing happen to me 5 weeks ago.
Knocked off by driver who didn’t see me. To be fair she reported it to police after the event and admitted liability. You have to get them involved to get an incident number. I went to hospital to get checked out…might be worth doing the same. Luckily I wasn’t too badly injured – cuts and bruises and lots of aches which you’ve probably found this morning! Bike is carbon so not immediately obvious if anything is wrong – bibs and lid were bin jobs. Driver wanted to go through her insurer when I mentioned the bike might need replacing. Get the bike into a reputable shop for analysis. I did this on the advice of a solicitor – in the end the findings were that although it looked ok they couldn’t guarantee it’s structural integrity without x-rays etc – the insurers wrote it off. I got a new bike, lid, bibs and some injury compensation. When you get an repair/replacement cost put it to the driver – if he refuses to play ball then insist on getting his insurance details. The problem is if he doesn’t play ball and refuses to give insurance details – not sure if the police will get them from him. If it’s his fault then might be worth consulting a no win no fee solicitor. I went direct to her insurer – this was straight forward though as she admitted liability. Glad you’re not too badly injured and get sorted.

Big question is did you get any witnesses ? Amazing how peoples version of events can change when they have gone home and considered the situation .

Said he wants to avoid an insurance claim.

Probably means he’s not insured at all.

First off I hope you are on the mend. healing vibes etc.
Take tomorrow off, there’s plenty to watch on TV, Track, Paris-Nice, etc.
Call the CTC, let them deal with it and the driver. that’s what you paid for.
Insurance will have to be involved, your bike has been damaged but more importantly you have been. You don’t want to be suffering still in 2 years time wishing you’d not taken a few hundred quid off this guy, instead of going through his insurance.
Soft tissue -bumps and bruises can rack up in to 4 figures quite quickly.
Its not milking the system, you have been hurt and he has got insurance to cover his negligence.

Thanks again for all the feedback and thoughts.

I’ve taken the bike to the LBS and their estimate is £400+ – new wheel, new forks, new headset, new disc, new disc brakes, new mudguard, new front light (got smashed off) and a shiny new bell.

Phoned the taxi driver and asked him to sit down. When I told him the amount he said he wanted to do it through his insurance and gave me the details. Fair enough.

He then started to imply it might have been my fault (unbelievably there were no first hand witnesses, busy part of town). I didn’t bite and we agreed to let the insurance company sort it out. I’ve phoned the CTC helpline and I’m waiting for a call back.

What’s annoying me now is that I’m without a commuter bike and don’t have anything else suitable. Is there a scheme for loan bikes like when you prang your car???

Now debating whether I should head down to A&E for an assessment, sounds like I should.

Now debating whether I should head down to A&E for an assessment, sounds like I should.

Do it ASAP and ask the doctor who examines you to forward their notes to your CTC contact.

And no more direct correspondence or talking to the taxi driver, you’ve paid your CTC membership fee for them to deal with just this sort of thing…

Healing vibes

dont forget to keep any reasonable taxi and public transport receipts. Also pain killers and any other things you buy like cold compresses etc (beer sadly is not allowed 🙁 )

Don’t bother asking the A&E doctor to forward your medi records. They won’t do it as it’s not their job, they wont know who to send them to as you won’t have a CTC solicitor’s file reference yet and medical records are not actually required for most minor injury claims these days.

DO make use of the CTC legal service and obtain and keep receipts for every expense you incur, ie the taxi/public transport costs you incur and any painkillers etc you may purchase. If your bike is your only form of transport you are entitled to claim the cost of a reasonable alternative. If you have to drive because you can’t cycle you can claim mileage, plus any additional mileage for treatment. Keep a note of it.

It’s also useful to keep a brief diary of your recovery – how long any bruising/swelling/pain lasted and any help you received from friends/relatives.

An update on what’s happened since I last posted…

The drivers insurance company (Aviva) got in touch and accepted full liability for the accident.

They’ve agreed to pay for the bike repairs after getting a quote and photos from the bike shop. We are in discussions about my damaged jeans (jacket turned out to be ok) and a replacement helmet as I have no idea if I banged my head or not.

As for the injury, I went to A&E. An x-ray confirmed nothing was broken, so it appears to be soft tissue damage only.

I made a personal injury claim with Aviva. A physio phoned me up and asked some questions about the injury. I got a call from Aviva the next day who made me an offer I was happy to accept. They’ll provide physio if I need it after the swelling goes down.

The council pulled the taxi driver in (he hadn’t reported the accident – a requirement of his licence). The damage to his car made it unsafe to other road users (sharp edges) so they ordered it off the road until repaired.

The police aren’t pursuing the matter with the driver, which I’m considering challenging (the outcome could easily have been more serious).

Appreciate all the advice and support.

That level of hit/damage/and a injury I’d go through his insurance.

He might have a habit of prangs/avoiding claims. Plus you need to make sure any injury isn’t underlining and you are compensated properly. That is what insurance is for. Genuine claims.

That level of hit/damage/and a injury I’d go through his insurance.

He might have a habit of prangs/avoiding claims. Plus you need to make sure any injury isn’t underlining and you are compensated properly. That is what insurance is for. Genuine claims.

Didn’t his post above yours exactly explain how has done, or is doing, all of that? 😕

Amazing isn’t it how people don’t want to go through insurance because “it’s just a bike” and then they find out that a bike, plus the clothing/kit etc can easily be 4 figures…

Good luck getting it sorted, sounds that at least the council are on side. Police won’t be interested unless you end up in hospital, just one of those things they’ll leave to insurance.

Be prepared for the flood of “you were in an accident” cold calls.

Sounds like you got a good result. Hopefully there’s no lasting damage. Just a pain in the arse waiting for it all to be sorted I suppose.

Aviva have said they dealt with the naughty people who leaked victims’ info to the ambulance chasers. Please let us know if you are bothered.