London Fixed-gear and Single-speed SJS Cycles

Not a lawyer but yes, if you crossed any lines marking a division of carriageways, for what ever reason you are travelling on the wrong side of the road.

It is permitted to travel on the wrong side of the road if you are going to overtake, however you have a legal responsibility to ensure that the carraigeway you are moving into is free of traffic and will be so for the duration of your overtaking manouver. You were supposed to avoid him by making sure your manouver was safe in the first place. The third point may be irrelevant if there was insufficient space to avoid a collision.

As above, seek legal advice before doing anything else.

I had a nasty crash a couple of months ago. It was my fault. I never admitted it and just said I couldn't remember anything because I'd been knocked out. The police just gave me a ticking off and told me to wear a helmet, even though I'd scraped up the side of some guys van and totally wiped out his mirror.

I was dead lucky I was ok (bumps, bruises and slight concussion) and also that I wasn't prosecuted. Just never admit blame in the first instance of an RTC.

Very Useful Infomation. Thanks.

When should you call the police. I have a friend who was hit and knocked off and she didn't call, and I now know she should have. However, what if your not injured? Or your bike is the only one who was hurt? Does it matter if it was an accident or if it was reckless or dangerous driving?

I even have heard of the police telling people who report stolen bikes that they should have called them out to the scene. Is that just the police trying to shift the blame or is it something you should actually do? This whole area of what you have to do in these unfortunate situations is itself a mess.

I agree - there is a lot of confusion with what cyclists should do following an accident.

Although it does not always seem practical at the time, you should always call the police to the scene in the case of an accident, whether you are injured or not.

Cyclists seem to think of themselves as having less rights than other road users and often leave the scene of an accident without taking the other driver's details. My advice is that it is best to think what you would do if you were a car driver. For instance, if your car got stolen or broken into you would call the police to the scene. Or if your car got damaged in an accident you would take down the other person's details and get the police involved. Do the same if you are a cyclist.

i'm not going to come along this evening as i forgot TRNC... but happy to offer services if you need some help to look at transport options to solve the issue. seems like you've enough skills / people attending tonight.

Did you mean to post this in the Action Group thread?

rider down... me

on the harrow road going south on the hill just before the turning for scrubs lane

riding my fixed bike with front brake

i am going down the right hand side of stattic traffic. A women coming from a junction on my left, she was cutting through the stoped traffic, pokes her nose out into the centre of the road

the nature of the hill is steep enough to make it hard to see a gap in traffic or a car pulling out from the left.

so the first i see is of her poking her nose out right in my path i am about 2 meters away i lock my legs and my front brake, but unfrotunatly end up with my front wheel in her wheel arch and me over her bonet

i was not breaking the spead limit i run 44, 16 and was not spinning out so i must have been going below 30

no helmet but i am absolutoly fine brusied jaw and shoulder but my frame now has a bent top tube and down tube and the wheel base is now shortened by an inch or so.

I have the womens number and have contacted her about the broken frame and told her i want to claim it on her insurance.

I also damaged her wheel arch or rim, not sure what she meant was broken over the phone. Can she claim against me, i have no insurance.

Her only witness is her passenger and my only witness is the guy i was riding with.

Was in a bit of a daze so didnt get numbers of passers by etc.

what is the process i go through and was i in the right or the wrong in this situation?

also WANTED NEW FRAME (will be checking classifieds soon)

Sorry to hear about your accident - good thing you are not too badly injured...that could have been really nasty.

In the circumstances you have discribed, the current position in law is that both parties are equally to blame. In other words you would be liable for half the cost of the repairs to her car and she would be liable for half the cost of your injury and bike repairs.

If you were insured then your insurers would pay for her damages and you would still get half of your compensation, so you would still gain. As you are not insured, you would have to pay for 50% of her repair bill personally. As this is the case it is probably not worth you pursuing a claim unless your injury becomes more severe or if the repairs to your bike are worth more than the repairs for her car.

Hope that helps!

ok cheers i think i will leave it as fair and square then she phoned me saying thats what her insurers said aswell, my frame was just a shitty old converted touring frame any way so the value isnt probs as much as the repairs to her car or worth bothering with.

thanks for reading and replying

No problem - happy to help.

C.B., I'm biased, but you can get free third party insurance if you join the LCC (you can also get it through other cycling organisations, I should mention). Saves you money through discounts in bike shops and gives you peace of mind.

http://www.lcc.org.uk/

Glad you're OK and good luck with the outcome!

Oliver
LCC

I don't know if the LCC keeps a close count of reported cycle accidents or anything, but my girlfriend fractured her elbow last night thanks to a dangerous driver.

She was coming down Brixton Hill in the bus lane at a sensible pace (she is a very cautious cyclist), with lights and helmet. He turned onto Brixton Hill from left lane of the roundabout, sped up hill, cut across three lanes without indicating and turned into Baytree road at speed right in front of her - she braked and skidded out, landing in the gutter of Brixton Hill on her left elbow.

There were, unfortunately, no eye witnesses and she didn't manage to get the plates due to the driver's speed. The driver failed to stop - indeed, he reportedly accelerated away.

I presume there is nothing we can therefore 'do' about this assault, except log it as a statistic?

Not much, no. :( Obviously, report to police--it is a personal injury incident and an incidence of aggressive driving. You could log it on the CTC's SMIDSY site when it's launched at the Cycle Show this week.

http://road.cc/content/news/7792-ctc...ign-cycle-show

Even if you don't have that much info, whatever information you do have might help the police to build up a picture.

Hey guys got a quick question...

I was run over, yes actually ended up underneath a car 2 weeks ago as a driver didnt see me on a roundabout, we entered from the same entrance but me first then he just drove into the back of me, me and bike ended up under car up to chest, luckily i am mostly alright, ambulance, police were on scene etc... ended up in hospital for x-rays on foot but ok now.

Bike now totalled, all i want is bike back, rang him up he said he didnt believe it was entirely his fault, i have a witness who states that he drove into back of me.

what are my chances of getting bike back (its worth about £1300)? i am in touch with lawyers through the free legal advice from ctc... and any idea how long this is going to take?

the tube seriously sucks

Ouch, sounds bad, yellowbanana. Glad you weren't hurt worse, it seems to have been a lucky escape!

If you're already in touch with lawyers, let them work on the compensation issue. If he really drove into the back of you on a roundabout, he will have a difficult case to make re: not being at fault. But as I say, let the lawyers sort it out if it can't be resolved amicably. It's worth the expense (especially given the high value of the bike) and saves you a lot of hassle. You probably already know that many of them work on a 'no win, no fee' basis. The main thing you need to do is get a bike shop to certify that the bike is a write-off, perhaps the one where you bought it. Good luck.

Sorry to hear about your girlfriends accident - hope she is recovering okay.

I just thought you should know that there is an organisation called the Motor Insurance Bureau that may be of help. It compensates the victims of road traffic accidents for injury where the driver is uninsured or in a hit and run scenario like this one.

To make a claim through the MIB she will have needed to have reported the accident to the police. Did she do this after the accident?

unfortunately not.

it is quite often the way I suppose - she didn't realise how badly she had hurt herself until a while later, the bike was okay and I just couldn't convince her that a trip to Brixton police station followed by Kings A&E on a wet saturday night was a good idea...

Luckily it has transpired that she managed to fracture her elbow in 'the best way possible' and it should be healed in 2-3 weeks, so she's not too upset. (I, on the other hand, am still seething with rage!)

Thank you both for the information anyway. I'll bear the MIB in mind come the (inevitable) next time...

That junction's covered in covert and non covert CCTV, so there should be some evidence of it somewhere...? Oliver, can you clarify when the police report has to be made - is it too late to do it now?

If you want witnesses, you could ask over on the brixton forums of Urban75. Its full of pleasant curtain twitchers.

As far as I know, the police have to accept reports even if it's very late, although obviously the sooner the better. But I don't know for sure. If anyone is a police officer or lawyer and knows better, please post.

Don't put your hopes up high about CCTV. I think unless it's a fairly new camera, the chances of reading the numberplate of a fast-moving vehicle are very low. Also, most CCTV footage gets deleted fairly quickly, so it may well not exist any more.

For untraced drivers, the MIB require the police to have been notified within 5 days of the accident or as soon as reasonably possible after that (i.e. if you were in hospital for a week following the accident then they may extend the deadline by a few days).

Thanks oliver i am going to be getting a 14 bike company bike and will need insurance so i will look into it then cheers

Sorry to hear about the crash......I'm a lawyer and it’s not my specific field but as a rule:

- Always log with the police (you never know what may subsequently transpire) and the fact you logged it counts
-Take photos of bike and injury and take note of a&e/hospital visit etc. If poss, the photos should have date and time on. Just really need to be meticulous over recording everything.
- Is the area covered by CCTV (we do live in a surveillance state), always worth seeing if the police will check camera if you have precise time etc.

I apologise if some points have been mentioned and of course are not so relevant as the accident is in the past but for the future and others……

Bollocks, just been hit by a left-turning, non indicating driver. I have a few grazes and bruises, and my wheel is pringled. Gonna do a claim on his insurance, I know all the advice says to tell the police, but what do they actually do?

They give you a formal audit trail - which will support you in a claim.

Sadly from what i've found out this week, Lambeth cctv is more than pointless. Even they don't know who reviews it.

HI ALL, PLEASE NOTE,
THIS WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE A "RIDER'S DOWN" THREAD.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE:
IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF AN ACCIDENT PLEASE READ ALL POSTS. If you still have questions then contact the relevant person (THEY ARE PROBABLY LISTED ON THIS THREAD) and by all means post here what you find out (HELP OTHERS!). If you don't know who the relevant person is, then post the question here (hopefully without your entire accident story).

IF YOU HAVE ANSWERS (not just clever ideas) TO QUESTIONS OR KNOW WHO DOES, PLEASE POST THAT INFO HERE. If it's turning into banter, please take it off this thread, figure out the answer, and post the answer here.

IF YOU HAVE POSTED A "RIDER DOWN" -TYPE POST, PLEASE DELETE IT. IT WEAKENS THE POINT OF THIS THREAD. Those who have been in an accident need to be able to get through this thread easily and efficiently. Please no banter back and forth here, it makes it a huge pain to get through when someone else needs to get through this.

THIS THREAD IS FOR HELPFUL INFO ONLY (make it simple for those who have been in an accident) OR FOR QUESTIONS THAT NO ONE ELSE (and you've tried) HAS BEEN ABLE TO ANSWER.

If you have helpful info or would like to donate your assistance (you're a lawyer, md, cop, emt, etc) to other FGSS members, please post that here.

Apologies, I don't mean to sound horrible, but for this thread to continue to help people it can't be a bunch of mish-mashed stories about accidents. The point is for serious info about what to do, who to call, where to go for help, what to expect, and how to get the most out of the legal system.

I'm happy to answer any civil questions anyone has got - I'm a lawyer and specialise in getting compensation for cyclists who have been involved in accidents.

but i don't seem to have the "privilege" to start a new thread, since i'm not yet an old enough user. where on this forum do you propose that i [& members of a similar status to mine] express this kind of news, so that i can then [if permitted] delete this post?
i agree with you about keeping this thread pure.. as it very informative, but riding past this unfortunately common scenario leads to shock, anger & frustration [& also sadness in this case, since it was fatal], which most of us would feel a need to share.
s

Great thread, really helpful! Thanks!

What to do if you're in a crash
Just some words of wisdom from Norman (who has been knocked off his bike twice)

Put your local police station's phone number on your mobile on speed dial

Know your route so that you can tell the police / ambulance your exact location

If you are injured, phone the police immediately

Note the car registration

Take a photo of the accident showing vehicles in crash positions

Take a photo of the driver (the driver who drove over Norman's front wheel denied he was in the car - said someone stole the car)

Take names and addresses of any witnesses

Contact Cycle Aid 01772 250871 - Norman got around £1200 when he claimed.

Cycle Aid are personal injury solicitors specialising in cycle injury and accident claims. We will act for you on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis giving cutting-edge legal advice to help you make a claim for compensation. We have been involved in many substantial claims involving head injuries, shoulder injuries, spinal injuries, facial injuries, back injuries, knee injuries and other bicycle accident claims

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