…at less than 10mph luckily, by a woman in a 4×4 coming over the roundabout. She actually said ‘sorry, I didn’t see you love,’ which at least raised a smile.

Stupidly didn’t check the bike much and now I’ve noticed the front wheel’s way out of true. 👿

Still shaking.

if you were in a car, you’d have exchanged details, No different here.

You’re right, taco, lesson learned.

Hope you aren’t too badly injured? Do you think the wheel is repairable or will need replacing!?

I hope this doesn’t ever happen to me, but if it does I really don’t know how I would react.
People seem to say ‘sorry, I didn’t see you’ as if that makes it alright.

Did you get number plate. Even if you didn’t exchange details at the time if you report it to the police as she made contact with you they have some obligation to investigate at least in so much that your insurance/lawyers can find the drivers insurance.

They also seem to be confused why you are so angry with then for almost killing you.

People seem to say ‘sorry, I didn’t see you’ as if that makes it alright

Yes, but..I commute everyday from South Manchester to the city centre. It’s approx. 30 mins each way, going at a decent lick. Occasionally though I need the car for work and I drive. The other day I near as dammit hit a bike on a roundabout that I regularly cycle round. I approached it at a safe speed, checked for oncoming traffic, saw nothing and pulled out slowly. A racer flashed across the front of my bonnet. It can only have been inches. Point is I genuinely didn’t see him. He was going very fast and was dressed all in black/grey.
Now I accept that if I had hit him I would have been liable. But I am a cyclist who occasionally drives and I am conscientious. And I still didn’t see him.
I guess that occasionally these things will happen. As a result of this I now wear a reflective yellow vest (I went out and bought it the same day), have two of those little flashing lights on at the front at all times and wear flashing, reflective ankle straps. All this in order to try to make myself as visible as I possibly can be to car drivers because the reality is that sometimes a driver genuinely won’t see you and the way I see it the more we can do to help them, the better

When I was hit, also on a roundabout, the guy followed up the classic SMIDSY with the equally classic “I’m actually a cyclist myself”.

I had two flashing front lights on my bike when he “didn’t see” me. He didn’t see me because he was looking past me to the cars behind to see if he could get a flier round the roundabout, not because I was invisible.

Hope you aren’t too badly injured? Do you think the wheel is repairable or will need replacing!?

Not too much. I felt nothing at the time, but now my dodgy back’s kicking off.

Wheel, I think, can be trued. There’s no obvious buckle.

Did you get number plate.

Nope. Total failure.

Weirdly, I can’t even remember what the woman looked like. When I try to remember the only face I see is Lucy off I’m a Celebrity…

where theres injury theres a claim – next you’ll realise you have whiplash, loose your job, need a wheelchair forever and be scared to leave the house, a downward spiral into the suing gutter is coming. 😉

I didn’t see you excuse I think I actually originally saw this on here. There is some science behind the line.

Hope you are ok camo.

When I try to remember the only face I see is Lucy off I’m a Celebrity…

Does she have an alibi?

Hope you are ok camo.

Cheers samjgeorge86! Just a sore back and a Gene Wilder/Blazing Saddles-esque case of the shakes so far. The whiplash etc that ti_pin_man mentions I expect to hit any moment now. 😯

EVERYBODY should read this before being let loose on the roads:

What an RAF pilot can teach us about being safe on the road

That article is a must-read. I’ve certainly changed my approach when using junctions in the car. Takes maybe a second longer to assess the road fully, but if it avoids an accident it’s well worth it.

Yup – I read that article (in the Pennant) and it seems that it is perfectly possible that the drivers did look and didn’t see you. I thought that modern extra-wide door pillars were bad enough but it seems that evolution has also conspired against the cyclist. Forewarned is forearmed and all that, but it is a pretty sobering explanation of SMIDSY if you’re a regular city commuter/rider.

Good article, and I accept that sometimes drivers really DON’T see me, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that a lot of drivers DO see me, and choose to endanger me anyway. This evidenced by them looking at me and sneering, smirking before, during and after and even just plain old admitting it when challenged.

There’s a world of difference in attitude between a driver who genuinely has not seen you and is sorry, and a driver who has taken a massive liberty with your life, and is cocky and unrepentant: I see more of the latter than the former on my daily commute.

OP I hope you are not seriously injured, hopefully the application of some heat and some rest will sort your back. Hope your wheel can be trued. It IS a bit of a shock isn’t it? The shaking will pass though, have a cup of tea and a quiet sit down for a bit.

EVERYBODY should read this before being let loose on the roads:

http://www.londoncyclist.co.uk/raf-pilot-teach-cyclists/

The situation they describe happened to me perfectly.

Came to a junction down a town house road with cars filling up each side of the road, left and right.

I creeped to the junction and came to stop, looked left, looked right and pulled out.

Next thing I know I hear a horn and screech of a motorbike coming to a stop. To be fair, it wasn’t *that* close – but I definitely pulled out in front of him.

The rider was wearing all black, on a black bike. But it was daylight and good visibility. I had always wondered why I hadn’t seen him until I read that article. I love science.

Since then, and since reading the article, I always take junctions much, much slower in terms of how long I spend looking.

Weirdly, I can’t even remember what the woman looked like. When I try to remember the only face I see is Lucy off I’m a Celebrity…

Not weird – shock. Glad you’re OK. 🙂

OP I hope you are not seriously injured, hopefully the application of some heat and some rest will sort your back. Hope your wheel can be trued. It IS a bit of a shock isn’t it? The shaking will pass though, have a cup of tea and a quiet sit down for a bit.

Ta Karinofnine and PJ!

The shaking has diminished. I half a back of chocolate digestives and Dr John to thank for that. I’ll try to heat and rest my back when I get home. But it’s my boy’s birthday today and there’s going to be scores of little gits kids running everywhere. 👿 🙂

http://www.londoncyclist.co.uk/raf-pilot-teach-cyclists/

I’ve seen that posted a few times, useful info, that’s the sort of info that needs to be getting to drivers.

The phenomenon being talked about is also why most of bikers I know will move across the road when travelling towards a left hand junction, the extra movement attracts the eye and helps to avoid you being missed.

miketually – Member

When I was hit, also on a roundabout, the guy followed up the classic SMIDSY with the equally classic “I’m actually a cyclist myself”.

I had two flashing front lights on my bike when he “didn’t see” me. He didn’t see me because he was looking past me to the cars behind to see if he could get a flier round the roundabout, not because I was invisible

You see, the thing is, until it happened to me I would have agreed 100% with this post. It’s not even as if I’m an inexperienced traffic cyclist, 1 year as a cycle courier in central London gave me enough traffic awareness to generally be ok. Thing is I know that I wasn’t trying to get a flier onto a roundabout and certainly wasn’t deliberately cutting up a cyclist. I didn’t see him and tbh it has done my head in since then, particularly given that I cycle to work through busy streets pretty much every day and it could so equally happen to me.

The article linked to above is a revelation and suddenly helps to make sense of something that previously seemed way too obtuse. From a cycling perspective, purely for self-preservation I’ve always worked on the basis that someone pulling onto a roundabout or road will do something stupid (bit like not flying up the inside of backed up traffic next to parked cars), but will now do the moving laterally bit as well (traffic willing). From a driving perspective will now ensure that I look actively in the way described in the article to try and ensure that it never happens again.

OP – hope you’re feeling better soon. Last big road smash I had cracked a few ribs (3 yrs ago), hurt like hell but that’s the way it is I guess 🙂

Surely people saying “smidsy” are the good guys (relatively speaking), they’re at least acknowledging they made a mistake, poor driving, yes, but at least they stopped.

It’s the ones that drive off shouting HA, HA, HA, I DID SEE YOU AND DON’T GIVE A SHIT, AND WHEN I GET HOME I’M GONNA TWEET ABOUT THE FACT YOU DON’T PAY ‘ROAD TAX’! that bother me.

Obviously it would be nicer to never get hit by a car and all drivers to love cyclists though.

They also seem to be confused why you are so angry with then for almost killing you.

Why am I always so nice to the guy who just nearly killed me?
— http://commuter-cyclist.co.uk/the-politest-victim/

Thinking about it, I was way too nice to the woman who pranged me and knackered my front wheel. Fivehours after the event and suddenly I can feel myself getting angry. Took long enough. 👿

Surely people saying “smidsy” are the good guys (relatively speaking), they’re at least acknowledging they made a mistake, poor driving, yes, but at least they stopped.

It’s the opposite for me. You really can’t do anything about the idiot boy-racer types other than avoid them, and thankfully that’s pretty easy. The really dangerous ones however are the people who don’t even realise what they’re doing is potentially lethal. Someone saying smidsy is tantamount in my eyes to saying ‘I’m sorry but I really couldn’t be arsed looking where I was going because my laziness is more important than your life’.

Demonstrating a working understanding of that RAF fella’s knowledge of how we look but don’t see things unless we retrain ourselves to look differently should be a mandatory pass / fail element on the driving test.

edlong – completely agree. Learning how to look should be a fundamental.