Riding the motorbikes back from Wales on Sunday evening, come round a bend and the car in front of me has to perform an emergency stop because some wakner in a Clio does a suicide overtake towards him, Clio driver done a runner and didn't stop. The car in front screeches to a halt and i have to brake like fkuc also, stopping about 10 meters behind him, lots of swearing in my helmet when there is the dreaded skidding sound and the next second i'm punted into the hedge and undergorwth as my mate loses control twatting the side of my bike. He then slides down the road with his missus following him. He has lost control and my missus leg took the full impact of his bike, him and his missus. Ambulance ride for the two ladies resulting in his missus geting a few grazes and bruises cleaned, but mines was in hospital overnight anf the full next day. Fortunatley nothing broken, but a haematoma? to the thigh. She is on crutches and will need another appraisal next week.
She has to miss a few weeks off work, will miss her run for life, and a few sporty bits she enjoys.
Both riders are insured fully comp, bikes are fully legal.
I know if i make a claim my insurers will claim off his insurance company, as he has run into my bike i think the legal responsibility may be on his side, although his insurers could counter claim aginst the nobber that was driving the Clio.
I'm not really one for making spurious insurance claims, but my missus will only get statuatory sick pay, and she had been earning a pretty reasonable wage which was going towards house decoration and a holiday to Dominican republic.

Would you claim against your insurance in this situation??

I'd be intouch with the local constabulary, it maybe likely that the clio can be traced?

it's your mates premiums that would suffer surely.

How would he take this? How important is the money vs friendship?

You could claim then pay back the increase in premium?

Yes and I'd be surprised if your mate had a problem with that

Did you get his reg? He should be on some preceeding or following traffic CCTV surely. He caused the initial accident. Not sure of the ins and outs beyond that. Healing vibes 🙂

I reckon the fault is his for being too close for the conditions 🙁

Clio driver a ****, but unlikely to be punished unless LOADS of evidence

He hit you from behind he is at fault.

I dunno what I would do quite honestly. Even if the clio driver can be traced the accident is not his fault I would have thought – its your mates for driving too close / not having full control.

Loads of people seen him driving like a ****, one woman witness pursued him till she got his reg, came bask and gave a full statement to the police.
On scene coppers said they would be going for a prosecutuin of the Clio ****.

I do hope he is prosecuted ( the clio driver). I don't think it alters the fact tho that the only collision was between you and your mate and as your mate hit you from behind he is at fault.

Presumably damage to bikes and kit as well so too much for your mate to pay up to avoid a claim?

I wouldn't have thought there is much chance of pinning it on the Clio driver, w*anker that he / she is. Your mate hit you so he's at fault (if someone had hit him first he would then claim against them for his damages and for what ever you got). Technically you should have both allowed enough stopping distance in the case the car in front of you made an emergency stop, it could have been a kid in the road rather than the Clio.

Cold comfort I know as the rules and reality of the road don't always come together. If I were you I'd ask your mate what state his insurance is in, is he's no claims protected and has he claimed in the last few years etc. If the answers are no and yes it'll end up costing him, if not then the insurance should pay up and he shouldn't get shafted. I assume there's damage to the bikes wanting fixing as well?

If the clio driver was prosecuted, you might have a decent chance to sue him for damages(??), but I wouldn't get my hopes up

Sorry dude, but i'd be claiming for loss of earnings at the very least, from your mate's insurance company – it's not a personal thing as his premiums are going to go up anyway now + I assume you're claiming for bike damage via his insurance too?

Minor damage to my bike, bit of the exhaust shroud snapped off, it was my missus thigh and knee that took the majority of the impact.

No brainer – make a claim! Thats what his insurance is for. If you feel guilty, split the excess with him.

Well, I'd speak to your mate first and see what he wants to do. No reason why you should lose out though, that's what insurance is for. Sadly he is responsible as he couldn't stop in time.

hard moral one this, ive only been a biker for 9 months and i was always been told not to ride directly behind the bike infront but to the side, so eitherway your mate was at fault. thats no help though, im no expert 😉

make a claim and take him out on a piss up after the dust has settled! as above thats why you pay insurance…

I can't see what the problem is, its why you both got fully comp insurance surely? If it was me who hit you I would be more worried about your wife than my next bike insurance premium

if he takes the huff how much of a mate is he?

If I hospitalised my mates wife the very least I would do is let him claim of my insurance.I would then go round with some wine and flowers say sorry and hopefully we could have a laugh about it.

Money is meaningless as you are alive but he shoudl do the right thing to you the victim.

would also try and ID the person responsible initially.

"my mate loses control"

That's the key point really. What has your mate said so far?

If he was a real mate he'd already have told you to claim against his insurance….. I would have…

Got to agree with Zed. If I'd been in the position where I'd lost control and hurt a mate's partner I'd be mortified. It's plain to see that morally the Clio driver was the root cause of what happened but ultimately your mate was not in full control.

Your mate was behind and should have left enough room to stop [irrespective of clio driver] he is 100% to blame.

Let the insurance companies sort it out.
Yes it might increase his premiums but this is less personal than trying to sort it out between you. It was his fault after all.

talk to Sorry Mate

Surely he's going to claim anyway for repairs to his bike?

Minor damage to my bike, bit of the exhaust shroud snapped off, it was my missus thigh and knee that took the majority of the impact

You have a top lady there – willing to sacrifice herself for the sake of a motorbike..
Humour aside – sorry to hear this. I was riding with some mates at rather cheeky speeds and one of them came down the outside of me into a 100+ corner. I couldn't see him and he had to brake hard sitting the bike up and went off the road destroying his Kawasaki. I felt like sh*t about it as I had caused him to go off even though we were all riding in a manner that could be described as 'excessive'. Finally we let the steam cool down & we discussed the issue as mates to find the best solution. ie insurance claims versus premiums & no claims bonus and to be fair to him he took the hit.
You're mates after all – you both know how quick you were riding and if the results would have been any different if you were riding in the opposite order (him first) – talk to each other…

came down the outside of me into a 100+ corner.

On a public road…FFS!!!
Sorry if I sound a bit Victor Meldrew here but I reckon that goes beyond what could be described as "cheeky".
Plain stupid more like.

If I hospitalised my mates wife the very least I would do is let him claim of my insurance.I would then go round with some wine and flowers say sorry and hopefully we could have a laugh about it.

Indeed. If it was me that had done that, I'd INSIT you claimed off me. I'd be mortified, and worried that you'd smack me in the chops!

The Clio driver had nothing to do with your mate hitting you & your missus. OK he might have triggered the chain of events that led to the incident but your mate was still riding too close behind you for the conditions (or just lost control by his own actions).
The Clio driver sounds like a dick and hopefully would get prosecuted for the state of his driving but I can't see how you have any claim against him for your mate hitting you.

Your mate should have offered you all his insurance details by now. Thats what you pay insurance for. Simples.
I hope everyone is ok, and makes a full recovery.
But lets be honest, motorbikes on our busy roads, the accident clock is always ticking, thats why you get good insurance.
Stay Frostie
Paul

I saw a knobber in a dark blue clio this morning trying to race a porsche, twas in Shropshire!!

came down the outside of me into a 100+ corner.

On a public road…FFS!!!
Sorry if I sound a bit Victor Meldrew here but I reckon that goes beyond what could be described as "cheeky".
Plain stupid more like.

yes agreed – young & stupid. I was trying to describe the philosphy of how we agreed to settle the claim as mates rather than anything else. Perhaps I should try & claim I was talking in kph…. 😳

If you're mates talk about it!! How much financial value do you think it it is finally worth in comparison to your mates premiums? (you mentioned there was only minimal bike damage)

its a right pain but the car driver was the start of it all and you all ended up taking the hit.if you all had a good distance between you then things might have been a bit diffrent.. but it would have had to have been quite some distance (we all ride a bit close at times and if this happened to any of the bikers on here, the outcome would have probably been the same for us.no, dont perk up and say you could have avoided it! we know who ye are!) If you braked to a near complete stop, your mate could still have hit you being quite some distance back with the panic/fixation. Reading the story makes it look like you were all riding too close but at the time, i wouldnt be suprised if you all had quite a good distance between you.Its just something that happened.This is what a few of us were talking about the other day,one drivers little mistake coupled with anothers little mistake can add up to a big wrong.
its the same with speeding.we could say that "oh we were only going 70mph in a 60.." and so could the other driver,and this is what police are talking about.when they say speed kills, a lot of us are quick to reply that it isnt.but when just a few mph over the limit from both drivers goes wrong.. it can end in tears when the drop of 20mph could have been enough to avoid the collision or enough to make the injuries a bit less serious.

You might say that your friends rode into you, but they might also say that you braked helluva hard,so.. whats the damage going to total? without bringing insurance into it,what would it cost each of you if you split the total? friends and all that.keeping a clean nose with the insurance would be nice.especially with them keeping notes on things for when you go to another bike/elsewhere for insurance.

anyhows.. yer alive.with this in mind you should be happier today than you have been at any other point in your biking life!

agree completely with Martin….

I'd have a word with your mate, along the lines of "Look, I know it's an arse, but things are tight right now and we really can't afford the loss of earnings. I know it wasn't really your fault, and it'll affect your future insurance premiums, but would you mind if…?"

The police definition of a 'Road Traffic Collision' starts with the phrase "Owing to the presence of a vehicle on the road…". This means that they should should the Clio as responsible, as even though it didn't hit either of you, it was responsible for causing the accident due to its presence on the road. Because the driver didn't stop, it is now a 'Fail to Stop Road Traffic Collision', quite a serious offense. I'd give the police a call and see if they have traced the driver. But even if they do, you'll still have to claim off your mate's insurance company, because it's your two bikes that collided. If 5 cars all shunt each other, the drivers can only claim from the company of the car that hit them, not the company of the car that caused the shunt at the rear of the pile-up.

It is a tricky one. My brother was involved in an accident on a motorway… A car a couple of cars in front crashed into the central reservation and the cars directly behind it started taking avoiding action and came into my brother's lane. He then made the decision to swerve into another lane to avoid the cars suddenly right in front of him and braking hard.

Eventually, after lots of swerving later, he went into the back of someone but he was found not to be at fault at all after crash investigators had done their stuff. The guy at the front was to blame for all accidents and other drivers were at fault for being contributory to the accident and driving without due care.

SO what I am saying, using this example, the driver of the Clio was at fault but not traced yet (I would suggest you try, but without hard evidence it will be hard to prove anything) but your mate was at fault for riding too close as you both accept. He should grow some and take the hit – after all, he is causing your wife considerable inconvenience.

HAd the tables been turned, what would YOU do?

Sadly one rules prevales all, if you dont have enough stopping distance your at fault! something I learnt a long time ago (not in a motor vehicle) on my mtb, crashed into a mate as I was 4 ft off his tail at speed, I now hang back a good 30ft for safety, same on the roads, they drive like idiots in Bristol and distance has saved me from 100's of accidents over the last few years, even if some prat overtakes etc I try to keep some distance just in case!

Maybe there was some oil/mud/gravel one the road that caused your mates emergency stop to fail and him loose control – an emergency stop necessitated by a ****t in a Clio.

that the way I see it 😆

Mate has had a chat with his solicitor who basicaly says " regardless of any other factor, you didn't leave enough space for yourself to brake – you are to blame"
Have notified my insurance company, but have asked them to hold back on doing anything for a week or so, until we see how my missuses leg is.
If it was a week or so loss of earnings, i would probably let it go, but it's a bit of an unknown at the moment.
Road conditions were just about perfect, so no oil, mud etc to blame.
My mate is not being arsey about it at all, i think he might be a wee bit concerned that he will get into a bit of trouble off the police if they decided to charge him.

Your mate is very unlikely to be charged now if he hasn't been