Large 4×4 reversing over my bike

I would appreciate that if anyone here was present, not to post details of location, vehicle, etc.

I was on a DH/XC uni trip yesterday. The car park was a classic trail centre car park; busy and full of bikes and people. Just before we left, a bloke in a large 4×4 reversed onto my rear wheel/brake/mech/possibly frame, doing considerable damage – around £140 in parts plus a potentially compromised frame (08 SX trail)

My bike was lying on the ground at the rear corner of our LWB van (behind the van) and he was parked next to us, so turned very sharply out of his space. He nearly just drove away but enough shouting by around 13 of us persuaded him to stop.

He explained that he didn’t think it was his fault because he couldn’t see out of the back of the car. He was arrogant and didn’t want to sort it out (didn’t even check his own car for damage!) but gave me his contact details and offered me £20. I didn’t take it.

After I explained for a while about the dangers of driving backwards without looking (small child?) he left shouting something along the lines of “don’t leave your f* bike in the road”.

I gathered contacts for four witnesses and have several club members who were travelling in a another vehicle as witnesses. Also the bike hire centre staff and centre manager are aware of what happened. No CCTV unfortunately.

I filed a police report last night, although it is likely they will not investigate as it is a civil matter.

My plan:

I intend to contact him directly first and ask him to cover the costs without involving his insurance. This won’t cover the potential frame damage, though, because I don’t know if there is any.

If he doesn’t comply, I’ll contact his insurers. I’ll get a repair quote from a bike shop and take it from there.

Has anyone experienced a similar situation? What was the outcome? Any ideas about how to deal with the potential frame damage?

The frame appears okay, the wheels fits and there is no creaking. But I’m worried that the car wheel, which apparently mounted the axle, might have stressed it 🙁

Many thanks,
Jon

I do not have bike insurance or BC membership. Or house insurance.

Hmmm no mercy from me.

I’d claim for a whole new bike from his insurance company.

I wouldn’t ring him first nor would I take any ‘out-of-court’ type of deal. Better safe than sorry/out-of-pocket.

PS: I’ve had no similar experience – thankfully.

Apart from his apparently nasty attitude, then I think he’s right. Bad news for you though, I’d be gutted.

I stopped reading after you deemed his 4×4 unnecessary

I fail to see how it can be “right” to disclaim responsibility for running something over because you could not see it..
Go for it OP.

Overall clearly he will have to sort it out and pay

you cannot hit a stationary object whilst you are moving and then blame the stationary inanimate object for the accident on the gorunds you did not see it!!

they may reduce the pay out as your bike should not have been on the floor – contributory negligence ??? not certain as IANAL

Await reply then decide whether no won no fee is required or you can sort it yourself

I think you’ll find it hard to claim for hypothetical damage.

Conflicted tbh. Yes you absolutely shouldn’t be reversing over things, you put your car where you know it’s safe. But, at the same time, my bike doesn’t get left where it’s going to get reversed over, personally I would feel partly responsible. People seem to forget they’re in a car park at bike places, stuff spread about everywhere, you wouldn’t do it at tesco.

“don’t leave your f* bike in the road”

he has a bit of a point there. There’s obviously a responsibility on the driver to take care but I wouldn’t lay a bike down in a car park, especially behind a vehicle’s back wheels.

I’ll be interested to see how your claim goes – good luck. Did you take a photo of the position of the bike ?

@ trail_rat, prejudice removed

Sounds a bit 50:50 to me. Although he maybe should have seen the bike (I can’t see what right behind my rear wheel on my car) you def shouldn’t have left your bike lying on the ground where it could be run over [quite easily it seems].
That said he should probably contribute something – post a pic so we can see what the damage is.

you cannot hit a stationary object whilst you are moving and then blame the stationary inanimate object for the accident on the gorunds you did not see it!!

So it’s OK for someone to put [object x] behind your rear wheel and then claim when you run over it? How do you know he was not in the car before the bike was put there and when he got in the car he had no obstacle behind?

post a pic so we can see what the damage is intake breath through teeth.

So it’s OK for someone to put [object x] behind your rear wheel and then claim when you run over it? How do you know he was not in the car before the bike was put there and when he got in the car he had no obstacle behind?

Things/people move, it’s still the drivers responsibility to avoid these things. Something I’m acutely aware of when reversing the van around (solid bulkhead with no camera, radar, beeper, etc)

Edit: this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to avoid leaving kit somewhere there’s a chance of it being damaged

criminal damage? if you had put a conrete block behind his car temporarily and he had reversed into the **** do think he would have driven off saying he couldnt see it

Thing is, you’d expect people to be milling around by the back of a vehicle in a place like that. You’d expect bikes (or people) to be in that area, since that’s where they get loaded back in (or people are faffing). In that scenario, surely you’d reverse straight back until you could turn into an area you could see? No idea what to do know, but I’d get some quotes in and contact him. If he won’t play ball at all you might have to go for small claims court?

As far as the frame is concerned.

I had my bike in the boot of my car and was rear ended, writing the car off.

I took the bike to the LBS to get it checked out and was told there was no way they could guarantee the strength of the frame and was given a statement declaring the bike a total loss which was then included in the claim for the car.

TBH the bike seemed fine apart from having to slightly ease the fork legs apart to get the front wheel in.

In the end I accepted a no questions asked cheque for £500 to cover the cost of some new forks – could have pursued it further but was happy with that and almost 4 years on I’m riding the same bike and havent died due to catastrophic frame failure.

Basically I doubt you’ll find any LBS who will tell you (in writing) your frame is o.k.

Given that its not a public highway, youay struggle to obtain details of insurer, do you have independent witnesses? Small claims may be your route

Sharkbait, the way I’m reading it the bike was not behind the 4×4 but behind the van. Completely agree that if you’ve put something behind another vehicle then it is your fault, and at best there’s some shared responsibility.

the way I’m reading it the bike was not behind the 4×4 but behind the van.

if that’s the case I’ll start sharpening my pitchfork.

edhornby – Member

Given that its not a public highway, youay struggle to obtain details of insurer, do you have independent witnesses?

Aren’t public car parks considered to be essentially public roads?

Edhornby publicly accessible space so RTA applies.

Sounds a bit 50:50 to me

Clearly you’re out of your mind. If you hit something that’s stationary, it’s your fault. End.

Given that its not a public highway, youay struggle to obtain details of insurer, do you have independent witnesses?

Nope that’s not true.

I’d say his fault. As the driver of a vehicle you are obliged to check that everything is clear and it’s safe to proceed. He must have been aware that there was activity around the back of your van and would have certainly felt that he ran over something, so to just drive away makes it even worse IMHO.

Couple of suggestions:

1. Draw a top-down diagram of where everything was, showing the parked 4×4 and the angle he turned at to hit the bike. Your description isn’t clear, a simple sketch would clarify what happened.

2. Did the 4×4 driver walk past you before getting into the car and driving off? Clearly if he walked past the bike before driving off he has absolutely no excuse for not seeing it.

3. As others have said, LBS to assess whether the frame can be trusted or written off.

Good luck.

Thanks for your responses.

Unfortunately no photo of where the bike was as somebody moved it just after it happened, but we did all see the position it was in. Neither do I have a photo of the damage at the time – it was absolutely p*ssing it down and in my aggravated state unfortunately I wasn’t thinking about photos.

The bike had been there for a good 10-15 mins before it happened.

Until I have initiated a claim and talked to my witnesses I don’t want to post any diagrams on the internet. The bike was not directly behind his car and there is no reason why he should not have seen it at least from his mirrors.

For the matter of a claim: he was moving, your bike was inanimate and not moving. So it is *his* fault.
From my point of view, daft thing to do leaving any bike lying in a carpark. Mine are always upright and off the car park it at all possible.
I do have house insurance that covers such things as well, worth thinking about if you have £00’s of worth of bikes/outdoor kit/stuff away from home.

To clarify, I wasn’t asking to see a diagram I was simply saying that one would be useful in convincing whomever you need to convince that the bike wasn’t lying in a unreasonable position relative to the 4×4.

Clearly you’re out of your mind.

PP I was under the impression that the bike had been put behind the car and not the van- as it seems it wasn’t I have given my revised opinion above – maybe you should RTFP.

Could you give us more details about the 4×4. I need to know the make, to more accurately gauge the level of sneering to deploy

You left a bike lying on the ground in a car park for 10-15 mins? It does sound like he should have seen it though never assume that this is the case. It does sound like you have a claim, but little sympathy from me.

Neither do I have a photo of the damage at the time – it was absolutely p*ssing it down and in my aggravated state unfortunately I wasn’t thinking about photos.

Which may come back and bite you. I would have thought you’d need pictures of the damage to prove it actually existed or have you already repaired it?

I’d try and go through his insurance but I think you may have problems, being private land and they fact he will more or less day you put the bike behind his vehicle, you will probably have a real fight on.

By the way I’d have told you were to go if you started being all pretentious and spouting about the “dear kids”.

I once reversed into a big rock in Llandegla car park. Luckily I didn’t appear to do any damage to it, so their was no need to get my insurance involved, or post a thread about it on here. But if you are the owner of a rock in Llandegla car park, I’m sorry.

Public car park = public highway as defined in theRoad Traffic Act.

As PP says, moving vehicle hits stationary, inanimate object = driver’s fault.

OP, contact his insurers direct – if he didn’t give the info then you can find it on Ask MID

What were you driving at the time Binners?

I think we all realise it was not the best place to leave a bike.
Nonetheless the moving vehicle hit an inanimate object that was always there- its really not hard to work out blame.
As for private land imagine this if your car was stolen from it would you expect your insurance to pay.
Could I drive round Tesco car park pissed out my mind ?
Basically if the public can access it then the laws apply

Do you need to ask? This is Singletrack. A Skoda Octavia vRS estate. Obviously* 🙂

* I’m not even joking

Agree probably the drivers fault, but whats with people leaving their bikes lying around trail centre car parks ???
I was at Cwmcarn and had to reverse tightly out of my spot to get out. Like the op someone had left their bike lying on the ground behind their car. He seemed to think it was a massive bother to move it so I could go home.

A moving vehicle hitting an inanimate object is not the drivers fault if the inanimate object was placed irresponsibly.

I always walk around my van before getting in and driving off.
I did so, got in buckled up, checked mirrors. Reverse, BANG.
Whilst I was buckling up a stupid woman in an tiny electric car pulled behind me right up to my bumper to try to squeeze half the lengh of her car in the parking bay I was occupying.

As her car was tiny and right behind me I could not see it In my mirrors.
She tried the old it could not possibly be her fault as her car was stationary.

But the insurance judgement went in my favour as it was ruled she had parked irresponsibly.

And your small child argument does not wash either, if I was reversing out checking my mirrors and hit your child it would be your fault for not keeping him under your protection.
And if you were aware of your bikes position did you not think to move it the moment your heard the driver fire up his engine, just in case.