[Closed] Despite all my best efforts I became an accident statistic last night

Eek. Hope you mend fast and hope the driver pays for bike and clothing damage etc without hassle.

Feel your pain but..

but bugger me I'm sore today

This won't help with the soreness 😳

Sounds like you now know what it's like to fall within a saccade, or rather be catapulted out of a saccade and over someones bonnet. Glad you're ok and hope all the post accident stuff goes smoothly.

I'm sure a lot of accidents happen to inexperienced people, risk takers and bad cyclists. But I also know that no matter how hard you try, it can always happen to you.

Anyway, healing vibes etc. is the bike ok?

glad to hear you're relatively okay. Was he breathalysed or questioned by the coppers at all, was he a doddery old fella? Did you get the reg? and perhaps give the coppers a ring.
How is the bike, was it a commuter special bso?

Did you manage to hang on to your bike as you went over his bonnet?
I did this with a taxi that pulled out on me - managed to leave a very satisfying gauge with my pedal.

Had similar in May, I was on a cycle path on the pavement and a car turned across me. I cleaned his bonnet and landed in a perfect headstand! Damaged my neck, compression injury, dislocated a finger, moved some small bones in my hand and lost full skin depth on a large part of one knee.

The driver said 'Sorry i thought you'd stop'!

He got a large fine, banned, and a large repair bill after it emerged it wasn't his first driving without due care!

Sounds horrible. At least there's no broken bones! Hope you're up and back on the bike soon 🙂

thanks for all your well wishes

bike is/ was a home built genesis cdf, i havent seen it myself but three people struggled to get the front wheel out! That can come later.

To be fair to everyone they were all ace, lots of caring folk and witnesses all hung around to speak to police and my wife who come got me.

As much as i'd really like to hate the guy he was a nice older chap who was pretty shook up by it all. I will get someone to check the bike over and i'll get his insuarance to sort it but i don't hold any malice towards him. Just wish he'd seen me 😉

As someones said, 7 years of commuting in all weathers taking as many precautions as you reasonably can and last night was my turn.

just had a look on my gps and i hit his bmw at 23.5 mph!

Sorry to hear this OP. There was a similar thread a few days back. An article about the way the eye works (and how it can miss relatively small objects when scanning) was linked to. It basically gives science to the SMIDSY defence. Particularly of interest to me as I near as dammit pulled into a cyclist on a roundabout (same roundabout I commute round by bike everyday) that I just didn't see. Scared the beezajus out of me, not least because I realised if I could almost do it then it could equally happen to me.

Article link below, but it basically explains about how the eye and brain fill in the gaps in the scene when you're scanning a large area quickly. It's what the poster above referred to as a saccade. This means that if the cyclist isn't in one of the snapshots used to create the bigger picture, as far as the brain is concerned they don't exist.

Anyway, glad you're not too hurt. Article explains it a lot better

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

Sorry to hear about your accident mate?

Mind if I ask questions about the lit up like a christmas tree bit? (For my own benefit here!)
- how many front lights did you have?
- where they flashing or solid
- which ones?
- bar or helmet mounted?
- was it light or dark? What sort of hi vis clothing were you wearing?

From the angle (where their lights aren't on you) then reflective stuff isn't much use I guess

three people struggled to get the front wheel out!

From my encounters with Jo public this doesn't surprise me at all - Wheel is probably fine 😆

I await the unrelated 'yeah but cyclist are always running red lights' comments.

There was a similar thread a few days back.

That was me. The OP's incident sounds way worse than mine, though. 😯 Hope you recover quickly Lummox.

My biggest problem was not getting the driver's details. Bike looked fine (luckily it was the crappy winter one), so I listened to her smidsy talk and rode off, scowling.

It was only when I had to shell out £27 to get both wheels fixed that I got really angry.

It's dangerous out there, people!

* sends out positive vibes *

I noticed you said the impact speed was around 23mph, I know that from my bike commuting days, cage drivers just don't expect a cyclist to be riding at those speeds- I guess we will see more of this kind of incident if the ebikes take off in sales- they are running around 15mph just on battery? - so could easily get up to 20 with a bit of pedalling.

Hope you come out of it okay !

Healing vibes OP.

But how many red lights did you jump prior to the incident? Working out the karma quota here. 😉

Hope you heal quick OP, sounds like a nasty bump 🙁

Glad you're generally OK fella, bikes can be replaced easily enough!

Glad you're (relatively) okay from what could have been a much worse incident.

Unlucky for meeting blind billy BMW driver. Healing vibes and all that. And I appreciate greatly that no-one has (yet) tried to put the blame on you.

Hope it stops hurting soon mate, very interesting and well written post.

PS does 23.5 mph dent a Beemer? Please tell me it did!

23.5 does indeed bend a Beemer I've now discovered, chap just contacted me with his insurance company details.

To answer Christmas tree question

Bike
p7 Bastid on medium setting pointing down, exposure flash on flash on front, front wheel has reflective spoke things for side vision, rear has led on flash and exposure flare on solid.

Me
Exposure joystick on helmet with redeye micro
Reflective cuffs on legs and gore soft shell with lots of reflective detailing.

Road was streetlight lit and a 30limit, also junction was 20m ish from roundabout. That I was travelling straight ahead at.

Well no wonder he couldn't see you 😯

Maybe he thought I was a UFO?

Glad you're not too bad.

More importantly how's the bike, will Mr Beemer driver be coughing up for a new one?

I find myself moving out towards the middle of the road when passing cars at t junctions in the hope that if they do pull out I can avoid them.

Get well soon, hope the bike's not a write-off.

I think perhaps you were wearing too many lights 😉
maybe he thought the flashing one was an indicator, although being a BMW driver he won't know what they're for.

glad you're ok.

winch - Member
Sounds like you now know what it's like to fall within a saccade, or rather be catapulted out of a saccade and over someones bonnet. Glad you're ok and hope all the post accident stuff goes smoothly.

Oi! Don't blame me...

😉

The driver said 'Sorry i thought you'd stop'!

An honest driver.

The "I didn't see you" line is often a lie, and using it as a driver will keep you out of court.

Admitting that you underestimated the speed of a bike, and took the dangerous risk that it would slow down for you, knowing full well that a bike can't hurt you in your car, is a rare thing.

At least it had a bonnet to sail over, beats battering into a slab sided people carrier/van! I was smacked on a roundabout last year, driver took me out by hitting my back wheel as I almost managed to go round him with my ninja like skillz ( 😉 ) rear rack/track nuts took an awesomely awesome gouge out of his front bumper and the old Langster came away completely unscathed.

Hope you're back on the bike/with new bike soon.

blimey, you really were lit up, that is an impressive array of lighting and visibility equipment!

Even more baffling you were hit!

a couple of years ago i got taken down by a 8 year old kid on a microscooter hopping off the pavement in front of me(this was daylight) I was travelling at warp speed

we both went down, he was fine I went OTB and landed on my ankle, 9 weeks off work with a broken heal bone

heal up!

Hope the OP is ok, I had a similar accident in '97 but connected with the rear passenger door of a ford escort. My knee shattered the window and I ended up with a ruptured patella tendon.
Get your bike checked by a shop and yourself by the doctor.

Bloody hell that's a lot of light!! As nice as the guy sounds, and he does sound like one of the good guys, I'm not sure if he should be driving...

I think one of the problems these days is that cars are driving with their lights on all the time. Not only are the lights dazzling, they make it difficult to pick out other road users such as cyclists and motorcyclists. In built up areas the lighting on most vehicles is excessive. If there was less on them, or perhaps better placed, a well lit cyclist would be easier to see.

Everyone makes mistakes when driving or riding, sadly. Hard to know what to do really. Is it fair to ban someone because of one incident? Even though it could've been fatal?

Even though it could've been fatal?

Everyone makes mistakes when driving or riding, sadly. Hard to know what to do really. Is it fair to ban someone because of one incident? Even though it could've been fatal?

it is hard to decide - that's why we have a system with judges who at least can benefit from seeing lots of cases and who can try to brings some consistency / balance (even if they make the odd decision too)

I've skipped from the opening post straigt to this.

Driver admitted he didn't see me, witnesses all confirmed I was extremely visible (the guy looked right at me before pulling out, just didn't see me)

I used to commute using a Joystick, that broke recently and I've been using my Seca race lights. Since using them I've had no end of close calls. I can see people can see me, but then pull out/in front when I'm right on them. It happens so often it's clearly the lights...too bright for a slow moving vehicle?

Yeeeesh nasty one. Get well soon OP and don't feel bad for hitting the guy's insurance: that's what it is there for.

that is an impressive array of lighting and visibility equipment!
Even more baffling you were hit!

It's stories like this that make me think that maybe it isn't always a bad thing to deploy a super dazzling 6000 lumen retina-scorcher pointed directly at driver eye-level.

Maybe something like this:

[img] [/img]

But then I come to my senses and realise that even if they were temporarily blinded, some drivers would just pull out anyway. 😕

But then I come to my senses and realise that even if they were temporarily blinded, some drivers would just pull out anyway.

I had a cyclist (properly kitted out, not just a man on a bike) do this to me when I left my lights on high beam by accident. Apparently they were so bright that he was dazzled and just pulled out. I asked if he did that in his car, he said 'yes' I started swearing at that point!

Hope you are on the mend.

I have started using a headtorch, in my case a 400 lumens Exposure Sirius, to try and make it obvious I'm there, but like the OP says, when it's your turn , it's your turn.

The other thing I seem to have started doing is looking to see if there is a car behind me, because for some reason I think there is less chance of them pulling out on me if there is a big lump of metal following behind and they see that.

anybody else think that?

I'll repeat this (posted it on here before somewhere):

I've started pointing one light up my chest from my crossbar, to try and show 'the person behind the light' and provide a lit area that is bigger than the area of the reflector itself. I think it's working, I got a 'good idea' nod from a fellow cyclist this evening. I don't think it will mix well with glasses though.

It appears I'm not the only person to have this thought: http://www.lightrider.co.uk