Wife just been involved in a SMIDSY

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Wife just been involved in a SMIDSY

77 posts & 41 voices | Started 3 months ago by druidh | Latest reply from flippinheckler

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druidh - Member

Driving home from work and she needed to make a call, so pulled in to the side of the road. This is a straight, rural road with a slight uphill. Good visibility.

As she is on the phone, she sees a cyclist coming up the hill behind her. Looks again - still coming. Looks again (panicking now) and the cyclist runs straight into the back of her white van.

The guy has blood coming from his chin and is a bit shaken. Keen to carry on, she talks him out of it applies a bandage and calls his wife, then drives him and his bike home a couple of miles.

His explanation for not looking where he is going? He uses that road lots and there's never anyone parked on it.

Question: should she report it to the police?

Posted 3 months ago #
rocketman - Member

fricken cyclists

Posted 3 months ago #
weeksy - Member

Yep.

Posted 3 months ago #
FunkyDunc - Member

Yes in case if ever tries it on with her.

.... you get what I mean, tries it on as blaming her for the accident, not trying it on other ways

Oh and did she have the engine switched off, if not she's in the wrong ie using a mobile in charge of a death machine.

Posted 3 months ago #
IanMunro - Member

fricken white van drivers

Posted 3 months ago #
geoffj - Member

Question: should she report it to the police?

Yes, there has been an injury.

Posted 3 months ago #
Markie - Member

Yes.

Posted 3 months ago #
rocketman - Member

fricken white van drivers

Posted 3 months ago #
Oscillate Wildly - Member

as above - if she pulled into make a call i bet my bottom dollar she left the car running (to keep her warm etc) whilst making the call....if so and she hasnt got her indicator on and her lights on etc then she is to blame....

indicator not, lights on and engine running = wifeys fault

none of the above = blind cyclist

Posted 3 months ago #
muppetWrangler - Member

If there is damage to the van then yes she should report it to the police (assuming she was legally parked) as the incident number may be needed for the insurance claim. If she's not making a claim then I wouldn't bother.

[edit]
The points above about the cyclist reporting it in order to claim against her are something I hadn't considered, given that I would report it now regardless of damage to the vehicle.

When we were kids one of my mates rode into the back of a stationary double decker bus!

Posted 3 months ago #
esselgruntfuttock - Member

I'd report it AND claim off him for whiplash.

Posted 3 months ago #
druidh - Member

Oscillate Wildly - why would you have your indicators and lights on while parked on a road in daylight?

Posted 3 months ago #
Surrounded By Zulus - Member

Whereabouts?

Posted 3 months ago #
b r - Member

I wouldn't.

And even if he decides to report, just explain what happened.

Posted 3 months ago #
ahwiles - Member

stupid question:

how's Mrs Druidh?

and i've just checked the forum, i can't see any 'i just ran into a parked van - can i make a claim' threads...

Posted 3 months ago #
Oscillate Wildly - Member

edit : if shes parked then fair enough, i thought i read it as urgent phone call just momentarily pulled over with engine/lights running....

the guy must be blind

Posted 3 months ago #
thebikechain - Member

Probably worth reporting it. Works van ain't it so I would just in case they have a policy on it.

Posted 3 months ago #
Grizla - Member

What's a SMIDSY?
Edit: Googled it. IGMC.

Posted 3 months ago #
druidh - Member

O_W - she was on the phone for a few minutes before the cyclist even appeared.

ahwiles - OK at the time but a wee bit shaken now. She's reluctant to report it though, hence my question

Posted 3 months ago #
wallace1492 - Member

Sorry Mate I Didn't See You

Posted 3 months ago #
thebikechain - Member

Surely it's still classed as an RTA so HAS to be reported. Unless i misunderstand the law which is 100% likely.

Posted 3 months ago #
Grizla - Member

Thank you.

BTW I did exactly this when I was a kid. I wasn't paying attention. I can't see there ever being any other reason than that.

Posted 3 months ago #
project - Member

SMIDSY,

sorry misses i didnt see you, strangely highly trained lorry drivers do the same sort of thing on the motorway to parked cars on the hard shoulder, it usually ends in a death.

Even with flashing lights some road users dont see you.

Posted 3 months ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

Injury accident should be reported. If she doesn't and he does there might be issues- altho unlikely.

She wasn't parked - she was stopped - she was in the vehicle so its irrelevant if it was a legal parking spot I think

Posted 3 months ago #
FunkyDunc - Member

"She wasn't parked - she was stopped - she was in the vehicle so its irrelevant if it was a legal parking spot I think"

But if she was on the road ie not in a parking spot, and she had the engine running, regardless of whether she was stationary or not, then she could be done for using a mobile phone.

Posted 3 months ago #
irc - Member

If she doesn't report it she is breaking the law as her vehicle was involved in an injury accident.

Unless.........

The only way she would not be required to report it to the police would be if she had at the time given the cyclist her name and address, the vehicle owners name and address if different, the reg mark of the vehicle and her insurance details.

If it does need to be reported it should be reported as soon as reasonably practical and in any case with 24 hours.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/170

Posted 3 months ago #
Edric 64 - Member

Well I have had the filth drive past loads of times whilst pulled over using the phone and never had a problem

Posted 3 months ago #
bigjim - Member

I've done the same thing but faster, police attended 'to see if I was dead or not' but otherwise classed it as a something called a 'bumper to bumper', breathalysed the driver, put me in an ambulance and left. Driver's insurance company came after a few months later but because the police hadn't take any witness details or statements they couldn't build a case.

Posted 3 months ago #
nbt - Member

She wasn't parked - she was stopped - she was in the vehicle so its irrelevant if it was a legal parking spot I think

Not really, else you could just sit in a car on double yellow lines. Stopped - in a queue of traffic
Parked - pulled out of the flow of traffic

Posted 3 months ago #
stilltortoise - Member

What's a SMIDSY and where do people learn these 21st century acronyms?

[EDIT] thanks Project

Posted 3 months ago #
alpin - Member

a good few years back a friend rode into a parked car and went through the rear window.
he didn't contact the police. he rode off quickly and had his mum patch him up...

Posted 3 months ago #
Rob Hilton - Member

I've hit 2 parked cars so far in my cycling career whilst struggling up hills; 1 I found myself sprawled over the bonnet - which I scratched quite badly. On finding the owner to apologise he looked at me like I was a nutter

Posted 3 months ago #
aracer - Member

Stopped - in a queue of traffic

What does this mean?

Posted 3 months ago #
v8ninety - Member

as above - if she pulled into make a call i bet my bottom dollar she left the car running (to keep her warm etc) whilst making the call....if so and she hasnt got her indicator on and her lights on etc then she is to blame....
indicator not, lights on and engine running = wifeys fault
none of the above = blind cyclist

I call bullshine. One road user collides with another stationary road user in daylight, then it is the moving road users fault for failing to look. The fact that a mobile phone is the reason that the first road user is stopped means that it could be viewed that an offence* was being committed by that road user, but this is irrelevant when apportioning blame as there could have been any number of perfectly legitimate reasons to stop.

*although it would probably be considered as better than continuing to drive and taking the call, therefor possibly not in the public interest to prosecute, discretion of the attending officer, etc.

Posted 3 months ago #
thisisnotaspoon - Member

Not really, else you could just sit in a car on double yellow lines. Stopped - in a queue of traffic

You can, double red is no stopping.

As for whether it's her fault or not depends on more factors, there was a (ficticious) example in Bike a couple of months back about a rider going into the back of a parked car in fog.

Bikers fault - too fast for the conditions (mittigated by the fact no one drives with the ability to stop in the distance they can see. Every driven on a motorway at night? Well your dipped beams are aproximately your 30mph stopping distance, and you can't use highs on the motorway.)

Drivers fault - parking in the road (it's not an acceptable deffence that you should expect everyone else to react 100% perfectly every time, so you shouldnt expect the driver to be able to stop if the car isnt visble from a good distance away)

So the fault would depend on whether a 'reasnoble' person could be expected to miss the van.

Posted 3 months ago #