On Wednesday I got hit by a van. It was on a straight bit of B road 5:30pm, rush hour, going slightly up hill going west into the early evening sun. When it happened I was in the shade of some trees when he drove past me at speed and hit my elbow with his wing mirror. Fortunately I came away with only cuts and bruises. The driver was mortified at at what he had done and took me to A&E.

It was a glorious sunny day so considered myself quite visible but in hindsight I was wearing a dark olive shirt, black camelback hydration pack and black shorts. He was wearing sunglasses. A friend suggested that hivis apparel is the way forward.

I was curious as to what other people have done regards changing the cycling habits post vehicle crash.

I now give side junctions a wide berth as I go past them, having had someone pull on me. It’s saved me many times since. Other than that, you can’t make allowances for stupidity.

Ideally, insist on an ambulance and then claim for a new bike too

I got ‘doored’ by a van.. I now move out a lot earlier to give plenty of time to see me, and further out too.

I don’t ride past stationery traffic like a loon anymore. Bonnet/floor interface is a good wake up call.

MOAR lights/reflective stuff at night, got T-boned by someone turning right into a junction that I was crossing, at night. Also early mornings/evenings wear a hivis gilet for exactly the reason you identify.

A friend suggested that hivis apparel is the way forward.

Personal evidence suggests that hi-viz, bright colours etc does bugger all to prevent the numpties from taking you out.

Great feedback. Thank you everyone.

i used to take the direct route to work: ~5.5 miles; lots of busy roads, and impatient drivers, near miss monthly.

Now take the longer route, quiet roads, and cyclepaths. ~8 miles.

Less stress, much more pleasant, rarely have any altercations/ near misses.

As I don’t commute by bike, I time my road rides to avoid commuters wherever possible – too many folk rushing home after work, their mind on dinner/wife/kids etc…
My local road routes are largely singletrack back roads, which are great, but this time of year the biggest hazard is farm tractors, usually with trailers, scooting around the roads loaded up with freshly cut hay, or kit for cutting it. They, maybe understandably, consider the roads in the vicinity of their farms and fields, to be an extension of their workplace/farmyard, and generally show zero consideration to cyclists. There have been numerous incidents over the years, including at least one fatality. Luckily mine have never been more than shouting matches….

I don’t happily ride rim braked bikes, especially drop handlebar bikes, on the road any more! 😆

Also a lot more cautious about starting a cycle commute in anything but light rain.

23/12/2013 @ ~0645 has a lot to answer for. 😉

Went into back of stationary dustbin lorry just after a sweeping bend, due to brakes failing in the bad weather, fractured upper jaw/nose/hand; lost teeth; chipped many teeth.

Getting taken out from behind when riding into sun, I don’t think there is a lot you can do except be particularly aware and prepare to bale out into the verge. But knowing when to do this is pretty much guesswork.

Someone drove into a wall near our house a few days ago, cos the sun was in their eyes. Oddly, all the neighbours started talking about this one time a cyclist crashed some years back, like that meant the driver wasn’t really to blame or something.

@thomthumb I try and avoid road’s at any given opportunity but this was unavoidable. It happened in the South Downs so was on country road.

Cover brakes at junctions and move out a bit.
Ride further out and nip in slightly when I hear a car approaching, just to give that additional 6inches or so.
Make sure I’m visible and illuminated like a Christmas tree.
Thank the drivers who give me a wide pass or are thoughtful.

I got hit by a van sometime last year too and I’m now hyper aware of cars pulling out of junctions or turning across me. It’s saved me a couple of times since. Always wear a helmet and have lights in anything less than perfect visibility too. And no headphones, the amount of people wearing headphones while riding is ridiculous. Why deliberately disable one of your senses??

When approaching junctions look diriver in eyes. Move out if I thing roD fur furniture or door pillar.may inside their view.

Never had a problem from behind. I would be more tempted with a daytime disable rear light than hi viz as hi viz seems only helpful in a few situations that are uncommon day time rear light is more helpful in more situations but I think needs to be turned to A lower setting at. Night.

@jakd95 In my town (Worthing) some of the teens ride around at night all dressed in black, no helmet, headphones in, texting and without holding onto the handlebars. I just think ‘Good luck with that’.

Personal evidence suggests that hi-viz, bright colours etc does bugger all to prevent the numpties from taking you out.

In this scenario I think real general evidence agrees. There’s even the notorious case where a police collision inspector remarked (somewhat ludicrously) that hi-viz gear could act as camouflage when facing the sun.

Personally I ride with a rear light at all times (normally two: one dyno power and one flashing on the Fly6). My experience behind the wheel is that a decent light is far more effective than supposed hi-viz, which fails in a number of lighting conditions, and it also means not having to dress up like a radioactive gimp.

Hi Viz is a misnomer these days IMO I think that contrasting colours works a lot better, that and the assumption that everyone out there is a potential idiot. MY OH was taken out in daylight wearing a Hi Viz Jacket by someone turning right at a T junction. Daytime running lights works for cars so why not bikes.

I was wearing hi viz, a helmet, using lights and riding on a cycle path (separated from the road) and was still taken out by a driver. Knocked into a main road and hand broken.

Changes in behaviour? I’ve made a point of reporting aggressive and dangerous driving a couple of times since that incident, because the police weren’t interested and I let it go (BC solicitors were very good and I got full admission of liability from the driver’s insurer). I probably wear hi viz and a helmet less frequently when cycling these days (different workplace and commute).

I got hit from behind as OP. Took his mirror off with my wrist; which was fractured. Rode home with adrenaline painkiller though.

I am still wary when I hear a car behind. I will avoid some roads as they are too exposed and take to the pavements where I feel it’s prudent, like narrow 60 mph roads.

I don’t care if it’s antisocial; it’s better for me.

Getting taken out from behind when riding into sun, I don’t think there is a lot you can do except be particularly aware and prepare to bale out into the verge. But knowing when to do this is pretty much guesswork.

You can help this a lot by listening to the sound of traffic (you can hear when they are further out in the road as your hearing picks up the fact its more in one ear than the other) but also doing a quick shoulder check either when you hear someone coming or at regular occasions in heavier traffic.

That approach (listening and checking) saved me big time last winter when a van was blinded by the sun, I saw he hadn’t pulled out and threw myself across at the curb, quite impressively managed to keep upright despite being on a fixie and grinding the rims against the curb. Missed his mirror by a hair and he was white as a ghost when I cam up to him after he stopped, had only seen me as my back wheel was just off the level of his bumper.

You do especially need to take care of possible tailgaters too, where their view will be blocked by being too close to the car in front so they may not pull out as much to pass you.

This is all helped by…

andeh – Member

Ride further out and nip in slightly when I hear a car approaching, just to give that additional 6inches or so.

Makes it more likely a car will see you more in advance, also prompts drivers to pull out further. Crucially though it gives YOU space to manoeuvre.

Lights on all the time commuting though (dynamo), makes a notable difference to when I use my normal road bike.

Never actually been hit, but several close calls.

For commuting, route planning helped avoid busy/ fast rat runs, found quiet tow paths and cycle lanes might add a couple of miles but reduce loads of stress.

When road riding, I always have bright flashing lights, day or night. Also how with tree shadows. Often use a helmet mounted Exposure Link, seems to be visible above car height, and also gets mistaken for a camera.

I also wear bright tops rather than hi vis. Been commuting in my Greggs jersey and drivers see it, then do a double take to read it. Had fewer close passes since wearing it, and fewer angry drivers as well.

Had a bike-van meeting just yesterday on the way home from work. Second altercation on the same bit of road just before an esso garage.

There’s a bus lane that I was happily cycling in minding my own business, when a small white van pulls alongside me and then (without indicating) pulls into the bus lane. I assume turn to into the petrol station. Luckily I reacted quickly and there was a drop curb to ride up and away from danger, but I nearly shat myself.

Lots of people around who came to make sure I was ok, the van driver didnt even get out of the cab but did look a bit shaken.

Definitely going to look into so hi viz tops or gilets.

Be able to stop in the distance you can see…no 50kph cornering.

I had an accident with a delivery van the other day, their wing mirror versus my bag.

Apparently Mercedes sprinter vans wing mirrors aren’t designed to fold the opposite way!? Couldn’t get it to sit properly again at the side of the road/ didn’t want to apply too much force.

What I learnt:
1) Bloody good job I’m insured (I’m liable for £100 excess only), IF the company decide to pursue the costs/ they cant snap it back.
2) Crashes commuting in London are inevitable, I’d had 4/5 near misses with cars/buses pulling out on me that day already.
3) When filtering through traffic I will account for more room for my rucksack. 🙄

Regarding hi-viz: Particularly in London, I find wearing it MORE dangerous than just wearing other non black colours. Why? I find that drivers are accustomed to cyclists in high viz being slower, therefore more cars tend to completely misjudge my speed when “making their maneuvers”.

After near misses, rather than actual crashes, I tend to sit about a foot further out on certain sections so I’m more likely to fall into the field of vision of some **** who isn’t properly focused on the road.

Also hopefully dissuades at least a couple of the idiots who think they can pass me without changing their line, or against approaching traffic.

I wear bright rather than hi-viz. Red jersey, blue helmet. Still expecting to get punted into the bushes at some point.

2) Crashes commuting in London are inevitable, I’d had 4/5 near misses with cars/buses pulling out on me that day already.

I’m only an occasional London commuter but (fortunately) the only collisions I’ve had there are over-enthusiastic tits on bikes hitting me when I’ve slowed for pedestrians or red lights.

I’ve had a couple of offs, I’ve been commuting in London about 1.5 times a week for about 18 months.

One was my fault – didn’t see a car pulling across the cycle lane (which had a give way triangle so I should have stopped). I don’t use that path anymore.

One was almost a pedestrian collision, ended up washing out the front wheel on a drain and smashing shoulder. It was wet, I shouldn’t have been filtering quite so quickly, they shouldn’t have been jumping out from behind vans…

I have a high-vis jacket for dark / winter commutes. I wear bright clothes if it’s sunny/bright.

Fly 6 is always on – even when it’s just on record it has a little flashy light.

I always think and look about where I’m going to go to in traffic, ie about 30m+ ahead. Always have a route to ride out through.
Don’t ride at full speed, if you stop at lights, then there’s actually very little difference in time in London riding.
I don’t make a big point of hi-viz, but I do wear light colours usually.
Before any manoeuvre I look over the shoulder, and generally every 30 seconds or so anyway. It works pretty well in London for everywhere except Putney/ Richmond Volvo drivers (in my experience they’re the worst drivers of all), as drivers coming up behind know you’re about to do something, know that you know that they’re there and nearly all the time they just back off a touch.
I also tend to ride smoothly and predictably – straight lines on straight roads for example.
as an addition I’m just about to go hub dynamo on my brompton, with a B+M LED front lamp for daytime running…

Probably only difference is I have a camera. Mostly, files get deleted as nothing of note has happened. But occasionally I get to rant on youtube at something particularly annoying. New commute is only 8 miles each way, so miss out most of the dodgy roads where trouble happened.
I’ve always worn fairly bright clothes and had an orange rucksack.
Have 2 of yellow ones of these, which are good and visible as well as comfortable –

Great advice everyone. So in summary the future is bright colours, lights during the day and better road positioning depending on the road conditions. And full body armour (only joking).

I’ve felt more visible since switching to a bright yellow helmet…

Fully defensive riding, as above (changing road placement as cars pass/approach, covering brakes* as you see upcoming junction, watch the wheels at roundbouts if they’re not indicating, eye contact, always stay outside of dooring range etc etc).

Set your commuter up for surviveability- Topeak folding mirrors, epic brakes, grippy tyres and learn how to stoppie so you can brake at 100% in an emergency.

There’s only so much you can do, yes, but it’s also a lot more than nothing.

(I also don’t tailgate cars into clear roundabouts at 40kph anymore, they might stop for no discernible reason and I have had enough experience of smashing the rear window with my face. I don’t dart across gaps in traffic, you may fall over on diesel and land in the path of an oncoming bus. – these last two are my own stupidity, but worth noting perhaps)

*this also requires correct body position – don’t be standing up and stomping on the pedals when there’s a chance you have to do an emergency stop – you need to be seated and ready to transfer the weight hard backwards if you have to emergency stop.

Primary position, it seems to annoy surprisingly few cars, I think all people are subconsciously more comfortable with assertive predictable road language, maybe it’s because they don’t have to decide whether they can try and pass, takes the decision away if you take primary whenever necessary.

Braking distance borne in mind all the time.

I feel safer filtering in the middle of the road rather than passing between car and curb, and I only filter if traffic is literally crawling, otherwise I pootle along in the flow in primary.

I had an accident on Wednesday afternoon, just along the road from my house. An oncoming Zafira basically just drove straight into me head on. Fortunately I was driving a white T5 at the time and the Zafira came off rather worse than the van.

It may sound minor, but it’s shaken me up quite a lot. Barely any physical damage bar a bruised knee, but if there are people out there capable of driving straight into a bloody great white van where there’s plenty of room to pass, what chance do you have on a bike regardless of what you’re wearing. The gap was big enough that a fire engine fitted through it with around three foot to spare fercrissakes.

The suggestion is that the Zafira driver may have passed out, but she was bolt upright and looking ahead as she drove towards me in the middle of the road – no steering or braking.

I love road riding, but people like that make safety a lottery. And guess what, if she did pass out, and she claims very conveniently to have no memory of the accident, her insurance company can argue that they’re not liable as she wasn’t aware of her actions. You couldn’t make it up…

up hill going west into the early evening sun. When it happened I was in the shade of some trees

Classic situation, that one. Ded bright flashing rear light is your only hope but in that situation their windscreen often “whites out” especially if it’s mucky
I prepare for evasive action at any of those spots

Watched a TT last year in bright low sunlight, and one of them had one of these
http://four4th.co.uk/products/lights/scorpion/
it was very very bright, even when he went past me into the low sun, you still could’nt miss it.
As they say on their site, it’s a grey area regarding law, but if I commuted where I regularly had to go through the situation you described, I’d take a chance on it.

I use lights ALL the time on the road. Super bright, daytime visible ones.

Riding through sunlight dappled roads, narrow lanes, in and out of shadow, cyclists can be incredibly difficult to see, especially since the average driver won’t be looking or caring. And it’s not unknown on a long ride to start off in sunshine and finish in rain so having lights on the bike just covers all the possibilities.

I’d rather just wear normal cycle clothing and rely on lights than dress up like a lollipop patrol.

I’ve got a dynamo but always add very bright rapidly flashing rear light in the summer. Dappled sunlight and high contrast between shade and light is a bad combo.

I nearly hit a jogger driving into the sun. He was right up against a hedge in the shade, sun shining on windscreen and made it almost impossible to see him. Was a complete shock.