Approaching a crossroad junction, my lights on green but cars are stopped in the junction trying to turn right, so i stopped in the Advanced Stop Box & waited.
Lights turned to red, first car made a right turn, the other stopped where he was, in front of the Stop Line and directly in front of me.
He then started to reverse, right into me knocking me off my bike.
I managed to slap the rear windscreen before i went down so fortunately that stopped him.
I had an Exposure Flash lamp in flashing mode on my bars that was shining directly through the rear window, yet he claimed not to have seen me even though he claimed to have used his mirrors.

I took pics of his reg number & asked for his details, all he would tell me was that he worked at the garage opposite.
I went into the garage and asked if this vehicle and owner worked there and the lady confirmed that he did.

Bike is going to the shop tomorrow, how do i make a claim against him in the event of any damage?
As i don’t drive ive no idea how all this works.

Bury him under the new patio

lawyer up

Had the same thing a few years ago,but luckily wasnt hit,all you can is shout loudly and slap car/van,draws attention.

get in touch with a bike claims solicitor,theyll take everything in house and get bike checked out, alsocontact police.

Do i call the police, contact my insurers etc?

Well he should have given you, at the very least, name, address, insurers.

Since he didn’t, you’ll have to contact him via plod. Go to them with the reg number and they should be able to track him down. They should (but probably won’t) be interested because he hasn’t given you his details which I think is a legal requirement. Once you know who he is, then get the costs of repairs to your bike and get back in touch with him. Make sure you aren’t hurt, bearing in mind that injuries may take some time to surface and could cost you through time off work and/or treatment costs.

You didn’t by any chance get a photo of the driver- that would be useful.

Be extremely cautious about accepting anything “in full and final settlement” or similar.

Any messing from him, fire up a lawyer

As he didn’t give a name, should i call police?

Get him to fork out for the bike repairs and then break his legs to teach him a lesson

Yes . it is a crime to fail to provide details after an accident if he caused damage to anything other than his car or injury.

http://www.bikeline.co.uk

http://www.cycleaid.co.uk/

Or maybe go into the garage where he works once you have a quote for repairs and discuss it with them? People are far too quick to lawyer up, involve the police, etc etc

As he didn’t give a name, should i call police?

yes – but you should go to station to report as they wont take a statement over the phone, and probably wont rush out to see you! It may save some waiting around if you called and made an appointment before going in…

Or maybe go into the garage where he works once you have a quote for repairs and discuss it with them? People are far too quick to lawyer up, involve the police, etc etc

Report to the police anyway – they may well be interested as failing to give details is a crime in itself. And at least it’s on record – if you contact them a week later when he’s playing hardball, it’ll be much more difficult to prove anything.

Then try talking to him once you’ve got a quote for repairs. He may want to just give you cash (especially if it’s <£100 or so). Or he may laugh in your face in which case you’ve got the police already informed of the situation and can go via the lawyer / insurance route.

Any witnesses?

no one hurt contact your insurance such as the lawyers at CTC

has to provide details of accident report to police

Garage visit is a good idea, its happily just across the road from my LBS!
Just reported to police for a log number, potential failure to stop i believe. May be damage to frame but cant see at the moment, wheel is buckled.

Only witness was his passenger 🙁

Your standards are slipping up muddyd if he left with his wing mirror intact.

were you not carrying your axe?

hope your ok, sounds like you are though wich is good.

Garage visit for his name… was the car his, or a garage customers in for repair ? Police should get the details from the reg…

I’m fine, no injuries. Been reported to the police for the log number.
Vehicle was an unmarked white Astra van, think it was his personal vehicle but not sure about that.
No wing mirrors were harmed in the process!

They’ll claim you rode into the back of them. They’ll attempt to claim for whiplash.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he claims to know nothing about it.
I had someone door me a while back, the police turned up and he denied hitting me, my word against his, so nothing happened.

Its been reported & I’m going down to the police station this afternoon to make my statement. Then I’m going to the bike shop to get an appraisal, it may just need a wheel retruing but I want the frame checked over as well being a carbon frame.

I’d like to know how you can reverse down a public road without it occurring to you use the rearview mirror, when I asked whether he had even bothered to look he said yes I used those & pointed at his door mirror! The fact that a strong, bright light was flashing away through his rear windscreen shows he never used his rear view.

You said it was an Astra van? Did it have a partition in meaning he couldn’t actually see out of the back windows even though the van had them? That would explain why he only used the door mirrors, and you may have been in a blind spot.

Not defending him at all, just hypothesising. Hope you get some redress.

He was in the wrong, clearly

… but…

bright light on flash mode is just a light (and a major obstacle to seeing properly), he wouldn’t see YOU at all and it’s almost impossible to judge the distance of a flashing light source even without a mirror

I wish commuters would stop using bright undirected lights, and flashing is bloody dangerous IMO when it’s dark

muddydwarf – Member

I’d like to know how you can reverse down a public road without it occurring to you use the rearview mirror, when I asked whether he had even bothered to look he said yes I used those & pointed at his door mirror! The fact that a strong, bright light was flashing away through his rear windscreen shows he never used his rear view.

I imagine he didn’t look at all.
I had a woman reverse into me in a car park about 8 weeks ago while I was sat behind her in my car.
She just stuck it into reverse, no glance in the mirror or anything. I stuck my hand on the horn, which she paid no attention to and then reversed into me, shunting my car backwards about a foot.
She then decided the best thing to do was scarper…..I think she thought she had hit an unoccupied, parked car so would get away with it. When I caught up to her, she claimed that she thought she had ‘bumped the kerb’…..although there are no kerbs in the car park.

He’ll claim you rode into the back of him.

This.

Hate to say it OP, but I suspect you’re on a hiding to nothing here. Good luck extracting some cash out of him.

White van man! 👿

I went round a corner on a country road only to find a white van reversing towards me at speed, I managed to take evasive action and ended up in a ditch. By the time I had climbed out of the ditch he’d gone, luckily neither myself nor bike were damaged but I doubt if he’d even been aware of me being there.

When I got my current car (2005 Ford Focus) it was the first time I had a car with reversing sensors. I realised after a few months that I wasn’t taking as much care to look behind me before reversing – the beeps would tell me. Totally unconscious, not deliberate – but just changed my behaviour because I assumed the technology would do the observation for me… I suspect he was doing something similar

Been down to the police and given a statement. Police were fairly interested in my account and told me it was the same as leaving the scene of an accident.
The white Astra van (with rear windscreen) is registered to that particular motor engineers garage so an officer will be visiting.
Bike shop has agreed to write an insurance report as well.
At least now i know where he works – he was telling the truth after all, so maybe an agreement can be reached.

It was approximately 19:45hrs yesterday, so still good daylight & i had the lights on anyway. An Exposure Flare light has a constant beam with a strong pulsing flash – perfect for road use. As i was around a cars length behind him there is no way he could have missed me with even a cursory glance in his rearview mirror, i am surprised he didn’t see me in his door mirror as he claimed to have used that.

Hope he gets more than a warning.

I’ve had a few cars suddenly reverse at me like this, can’t imagine many worry about being in the blind spot of a car in front of them when not planning to pass it so unlikely to be prepared. So many people still just think of looking for cars when on the road.

He probably did look in his door mirror, the car that was behind him the last time he look was still there so he reversed up to that.
But the situation had changed and you were there, quite properly not starting to leave the junction before the exit was clear.

If the van is insured with the company their excess will probably be high so expect an offer if you are not hurt (I hope you are ok.)
if you accept get tell them to pay the bike shop and get the bike shop to invoice the Engineers for the total claim.
That will put you in credit with the shop and they will be better at recovering bad debts than you.

There was no car behind him, he was the 2nd vehicle in the centre of the junction waiting to turn right as i approached the junction. When i got there i pulled up behind him but behind the stop line as per regulation.
At no point was there a car behind him until i arrived.
Hopefully, as its a company vehicle they will play ball. To be truthful i don’t think the frame and fork are damaged (no visible signs as yet anyway) just the wheel needs sorting. If its a simple wheel trying it won’t cost much, although it is a Cero AR30 wheel with Sapim bladed spokes so i don’t know if it is an easy wheel to fix.

The same car or the absence of a car would have been the same because that’s all he looked for.