So pissed off.

Riding my bike to the train station when all of a sudden I get broadsided by a car on a roundabout.

Front wing took my bike out, I hit the windscreen/front column with arse and elbow which spun me off and away from the car luckily. Bit of road rash, sore arse/hamstring where the car hit and a possibility of a broken elbow (Awaiting second opinion from specialist Radiologist).

His excuses of ‘I didn’t see you’ and ‘I’m tired, I had no sleep’ didn’t really do much for me tbh.

Bikes knackered as well.

Best thing about the whole thing – I was riding my bike to the station to get a train to Skye for basically my summer holiday. A few days riding and to take on Bealach na Ba. Ah well. Always next year…

russell jones walker

speak to these guys. CTCs lawyers. helped me out when i needed it.

what did he police have to say?

His excuses of ‘I didn’t see you’ and ‘I’m tired, I had no sleep’ didn’t really do much for me tbh.

I’d be calling the cops.

It could be a childs face next time etc etc

Hope you heal fast.

You should be able to claim off his insurance for incurred losses (including holiday), hope you got his details.

If I were you I would push for prosecution but you’ll need some luck as the police probably won’t be that interested beyond an incident number for insurance reasons.

Unfortunately this kind of thing seems inevitable if you are going to ride on britains road.

Sounds like a case of SMIDGAF.

‘I’m tired, I had no sleep’ It could be a childs face next time etc etc

…Or a loaded intercity train on the east coast mainline.

Take him to the cleaners.

Stoner – Member
what did he police have to say?

Said he’s at fault and told me to claim off his insurance and speak to a solicitor re: compensation.

I forgot to mention this in the first post, happened about 6:30am this morning – There was 5 or 6 cars around when it happened, not one stopped and offered assistance (bar the bloke who hit me). That pissed me off too.

not one stopped and offered assistance

Reminds me of when I dropped the bike on an icy road (sudden bad snow a few winters ago). Cars behind me just drove around and continued.

People are lazy tw-ts aren’t they?

Heal fast..!

(Oh and RJW are a decent law firm – you’d be in good hands there)

I got clipped by a car overtaking me too close on Sunday, clipped my handlebar on the way past sent me flying.
Nothing broken but a lot of road rash and my whole body aches, worst thing was being left in road waiting for a second for the next car to run over me. luckily it didnt happen, but Im going to take the driver to the proverbial cleaners.
this is the third time a woman has run me down on a bike and said they didnt see me I think it should be a criminal offence or driving with undue care and attention at least.

I think I need some advice in relation to moving this forward.

The officer who is dealing with it has told me to take the bike to a shop and get it assessed (I dropped the bike off this afternoon.)and he’s going to give me a ring back on Friday to discuss it.

What should I do in the meantime? Just wait until I speak to him or should I contact a solicitor?

Solicitor.

Your claim has naff all to do with plod.

what scottchegg said – police really interested if an offence has been committed – you want your money regardless.

strange, like ourmaninthenorth, I dropped my bike on the ice while riding to work. Next thing I knew people had come out of their houses to see how I was, offer me lifts to home/work or wherever. Absolutely bowled over I was!

Anyway, good luck with the claim.

daleftw: See this thread, it’s well worth a read, has some useful info in there (although some of it is a bit militant at times).

Next thing. Are you a member of British Cycling or CTC? If not, why not?! If not, you want to be looking for one of the solicitors in the back of mags like Cycling Weekly – ones that specialise in cycling incidents. If you are a member of either of the above, get in touch with their accident helpline. Does your home insurance have any personal injury or accident clause in there?

Keep a list/diary of everything. It’s common for you, the other party and/or the police to lose/forget things and it’s very common for the other party to suddenly change their story. Post on here any updates, it’ll keep a record of what happened and what’s been said/done.

I keep this in my favourites just in case:

http://www.lfgss.com/thread4213.html

Edit: too slow!

‘I didn’t see you’ and ‘I’m tired, I had no sleep’ sounds like an admission of guilt, I wonder if he will change his story once he’s talked to the insurance co.

log into lfgss and read their monster thread about what to do in case of an accident.

here – http://www.lfgss.com/thread4213.html

last time i was knocked off, the car left me unable to get up off the narrow road, the next two cars drove up the verge to go round me! Whatever would BW say?

Photograph injuries while they are still fresh. Check with local council for CCTV in the area. Unfortunately, if this guy changes his story, it sounds like you have no witnesses. Maybe even revisit the site, draw a plan of road markings and record as much detail as you can.

Hope you heal soon.

when does it become an offence to run someone down?
when they die
major tauma
broken bones
road rash

It should all be the same thing, its a driver driving dangerously and causing harm.

What a son of unmarried parents, “I had no sleep” admits he was unfit to drive. Take him down!

Heal fast fella, glad it wasn’t worse. A chap I know now has a carbon fibre shin/foot from being knocked off by a ****t going 80 in a 30 zone.

It is quite frightening the number of people who actually don’t see you. This morning riding along a straight road with good visibility, a woman coming the other way turned right, completely oblivious to me being there 👿

+1 Scotchegg

Plod may be interested, especially after the admission of no sleep may amount to an offence (eg driving without due care). But that’s plod’s concern. Note down everything you remember.

Recovering damages for (1) your bike aand c,othes and (2) your injuries is a private matter. Strictly, the third party is personally liable, but he’s more likely to rely on his insurance to handle it.

For (1) get a LBS to do a full assessment of damage and cost to replace.

For (2) you need (a) medical opinion on the extent of your injuries and then (b) legal advice – from RJW or another decent PI law firm – on what the likely compensation would be (basically, there are guidelines for all of these things).

His insurance company may well become much less likely to play ball, but your lawyers – esp if you engage them on a conditional fee arrangement (no win, no fee) – will know how to manage that and ensure you’re not done over.

You’re the innocent party so deserve to be fairly compensated for your losses.

Good luck!

This is where it happened – https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll=54.889657,-1.519337&spn=0.000902,0.002411&t=h&z=19

I joined from the South. In the right hand lane as I was taking third exit. He hit me when he entered from the west in the right hand lane despite him wanting to head straight on (East)

You might want to be careful about publishing that Strava file. The driver (and his insurance co) may try and use it to say that you were “racing” or similar and therefore riding dangerously.

If I were you, I’d delete that ride ASAP.

Edit: also, it shows where you live and that might not be the best idea ever – time to reset your privacy settings to hide your exact home location.

keep a diary of what happens. in 6 months time when you see a doctor and you can’t rememnber which bit of what hurt you will be gutted.

as for the bike shop. make them REPLACE anything that is a bit duff. mine thought they were helping by truing up a wheel which was squashed by a car to save me £40 for a new rim. I’ve just replaced at my own cost because it’s never been the same ie round!!

It is quite frightening the number of people who actually don’t see you. This morning riding along a straight road with good visibility, a woman coming the other way turned right, completely oblivious to me being there

Almost exactly what happened to me.

As above – police investigation and compensation claim are two separate things although any police action may persuade the insurers to accept liability fairly quickly. In my experience that happened almost instantly when the solicitors contacted them, I think they have 14 or 21 days to either accept liability or dispute it once they are put on notice.

At that stage it moves to the long drawn out process of valuing everything. The police investigation has sod all to do with that really – the only thing I can think of is that if you’ve given inconsistent stories about how injured you are. You should be able to claim for the holiday – I’ve certainly added the entry fees for a couple of missed events onto my claim.

My medical examination happened quite quickly, although I took photos of bruising etc that would fade. I then had the choice of submitting it or waiting to see if my injuries cleared up in the time the doctor predicted – if they didn’t I could have it redone but I want to get stuff sorted so just went with what he said.

I’d recommend cycling specialists. I work for a law firm and spoke to someone here first but it was clear that the people who did lower value RTA claims only really did car on car accidents. Low value claims here tend to involve junior fee earners working through questionnaires and processes and because I was giving the wrong answers to questions like “were you wearing a seatbelt” on their standard questionnaires it seemed to throw them a bit. When I spoke to specialists it felt much more like they understood, their questionnaires were very much set up for bike accidents and they understood the sort of things I wanted to claim for a lot better.

You don’t need to be a member of any cycling organisation to have access to legal advice (and equally if you are, you can choose to go to someone other than the partner firm if you prefer). Firms will almost certainly be happy for you to contact them directly because they won’t have to pay a referral fee! As long as your claim has enough prospects of success that their fees aren’t at substantial risk (ie you’ve got a good case on liability and the damages are likely to exceed the level at which they can claim costs which I think is about £1000) you don’t need a membership card to be able to speak to them. If there is risk you may be able to cover it with ATE insurance (after the event) (I have joined CTC since the accident but not for the access to legal advice)

Sorry to hear that and as others have said, document everything and get on to some legal types.

I’m not condoning the driver’s actions but unfortunately these things do happen (been there, done that). I am surprised he admitted liability at the scene and I’ll put money on it he’ll change his tune when the paperwork starts coming in.

Definitely worth checking you’re 100% OK on the medical front. A work mate was taken out last year and he’s still having shoulder issues.

Yeah, definitely going to write everything down. Even now I’m missing bits out.

Re: Him changing his story about saying he was tired – He attributed this to having a new child. So surely, the only way I would know he has a new child is because he said it?

I’m a member of British Cycling, literally signed up 6 weeks ago as I want(ed) to do some Cat4 races.

m1kea – Member
I’m not condoning the driver’s actions but unfortunately these things do happen (been there, done that). I am surprised he admitted liability at the scene and I’ll put money on it he’ll change his tune when the paperwork starts coming in.

Yeah, I can kinda empathise with him. Maybe it was just one of those things where I was perfectly in line with his front column or whatever. Accidents do happen. But at the same time the way he took the roundabout etc. just annoying like.

Also, thanks for all your help, I’m a little out of my depth with this, so I really appreciate it.

Bummer, I’ve had so many close shaves here, it really scares me at times. Road riding can be more dangerous than mountain biking at times.
Good luck and get sorted vibes being sent.

I’m a member of British Cycling, literally signed up 6 weeks ago as I want(ed) to do some Cat4 races.

0161 274 2000 and ask to be put through to the accident/claims dept. Ask their advice and help, they’re the experts and deal with this kind of stuff day in day out.

Also saves you the trouble of finding a third party solicitor, BC will handle everything.

Pushing for a prosecution over the tiredness issue may be counterproductive. Driving in that state may invalidate his insurance, which may mean you need to sue him personally for the compensation.

May invalidate his insurance partially but his third party liability still stands as far as I understand it.

Pushing for a prosecution over the tiredness issue may be counterproductive. Driving in that state may invalidate his insurance, which may mean you need to sue him personally for the compensation.

Not so – the insurer may refuse to pay for damage to the insured persons car but they remain liable for third party regardless.

He hit me when he entered from the west in the right hand lane despite him wanting to head straight on (East)

But at the same time the way he took the roundabout etc. just annoying like.

It’s a proper tosspot’s move is that, made double irritating when there’s not any sort of second lane on the other side – he’s essentially just pushing in front of everyone else who are using lane discipline properly. Chances are he was just intent on nailing it straight across to succeed in his pushing in manouevre and didn’t take the time to look properly, which he’d probably have had chance to do if he was in the correct lane. Driving without due care and attention, you might say.

Sorry to hear about the whole thing btw, hope you heal ok, get to skye soon, and it all works out ok for you!

hope you are ok and you can get the compensation that you deserve.

slightly irrelevant but it was seeing a friend’s crash that made me get one of those ICE bracelets. I got mine from http://www.iceid.co.uk, it was £20 but it is well made and the engraving is clear.

A few days riding and to take on Bealach na Ba. Ah well. Always next year…

I am riding the Bealach Mor in Sept – the na Ba is part of it I think – I will be thinking of you.

Take photos of your bruising, hopefully you took photos at the scene. Go to the doc now so it is recorded.

I am using http://www.bikeline.co.uk/ for something similar.

Without a solicitor his insurance will likely give you the run around – but as soon as you get the solicitor they admit blame/offer money for early settlement/etc.

It’s stupid, if they did this before you got a solicitor they would save loads of legal fees, but they are boneheads.

made double irritating when there’s not any sort of second lane on the other side

Also, the right hand lane is clearly marked right turn only, so to get to where you are he had to cross 2 give way lines (entering the roundabout, and the lanes of the roundabout) presumably without indicating.

Yeah, literally got the train back to Sunderland, went to the walk in centre, got assessed and x-rayed, went to the police station, then took the bike to the bike shop. So everything has been logged etc.

thisisnotaspoon – Member
Also, the right hand lane is clearly marked right turn only, so to get to where you are he had to cross 2 give way lines (entering the roundabout, and the lanes of the roundabout) presumably without indicating.

I hadn’t noticed that. Even more annoying.

I was knocked of by a bus in March on a Wed Night, it didn;t indicate away from the bus stop, didn’t see me despite hammering the side of it before hitting the deck. Lucky I had a witness who was riding along side me. Straight to police still in bloodied, shredded riding kit, to get it logged. Email to bus company with details and crime ref. Get photos of your injuries, bike & clothing damage. Get to the hospital/doctors to get checked over, while you still have visible injuries. I am 4 months down the road, bus driver being done with careless driving. Transportation Claims company been in contact, police been in contact – just waiting on a cheque coming through the door. These things take time, so get the ball rolling as soon as possible and don’t pull any punches – you could have been seriosly injured or worse killed….