Cycling law review

[Ssscrudddy]

All of you cyclist haters out there will be pleased to know I was knocked off of my pushbike yesterday. You'll be less pleased to know I suffered no injuries & only cosmetic damage to my bike.

I was waiting in the middle of the right hand land (right turn only) at the red lights in the green bit that is for cyclists only. As the lights changed a car came up behind

I turned right into the main road (1 lane each direction) parked cars both sides. I was cycling far enough out that if a parked car opened it's door I wouldnt get hit by it. This displeased the car behind me as he couldnt overtake because there were a few cars coming the opposite direction so he had to stay behind me. There's also a couple of islands that meant he still couldn't pass me once the opposite cars had gone by. He was getting peed off with me, beeping his horn & yelling at me to "get out the effing way". But he stayed far enough back. He was held up for about 15 seconds max & he was fuming.

Then as I was approaching a side road a car pulled up to the junction to turn right into the main road which I was already on. She couldnt see me, I was fully behind the post to the right of the windscreen, she didnt even try to look around it. I immediately started taking avoiding action as I knew she hadnt seen me. She saw the car behind me & decided to floor it in order to beat the car that she should have waited for before pulling out.
Me & the bike went sliding over the left hand corner of her bonnet & i ended up on the floor. She jammed her brakes on. The car behind me stopped level with me & shouted "serves you effing right you fat effing c**t", laughed & drove off. The woman got out of her car, looked at her bonnet & started screaming all sort of abuse about how I had damaged her car. She then got back in her car & drove off.

So the only peeps who saw anything was me & the 2 car drivers. People did come out but no one else had actually seen it happen, & there was no CCTV.

Rang the police, but they refused to attend on the grounds that I wasnt injured & my bike wasnt damaged, so I was probably lying, job done.

Ironic thing is, both of those drivers would have been registered had insurance, trackable, just like what is being called for for cyclists. Apparently that will solve all the woes of the poor hard done by everybody else except cyclists, & we all know car drivers never do any wrong.

---

Actually that puts me in mind of an incident that happened over 25 years ago. On a pushbike I was waiting at the lights to go straight on. A car pulled up & stopped level with me on my right hand side. The lights changed, I started going forward, the car on my right turned left knocking me off & she didnt even stop. She knew she had knocked me off my bike.

I managed to chase her down because she got stuck in traffic. I called the police (yes I had a huge brick of a mobile phone way back then) but they were not interested on the grounds I wasnt dead, back then it didnt matter if you was injured or had your bike wrecked. Eventually they did show up because I wouldnt get out of the way & was holding up traffic. They forcibly removed me from the road & that was the end of that.

Funny thing is, many years later a dead cyclist was found in town, he'd been knocked off in the middle of the night. He had lights high viz etc, the car didnt stop, but everything was on cctv. When they finally got the driver it was the same woman who had knocked me off all those years ago. I wonder how many people she has killed.

 

Edited September 29, 2017 by Ssscrudddy

[Ssscrudddy]

deleted double post

Edited September 29, 2017 by Ssscrudddy

[cuthound]

14 minutes ago, Ssscrudddy said:

All of you cyclist haters out there will be pleased to know I was knocked off of my pushbike yesterday. You'll be less pleased to know I suffered no injuries & only cosmetic damage to my bike.

I was waiting in the middle of the right hand land (right turn only) at the red lights in the green bit that is for cyclists only. As the lights changed a car came up behind

I turned right into the main road (1 lane each direction) parked cars both sides. I was cycling far enough out that if a parked car opened it's door I wouldnt get hit by it. This displeased the car behind me as he couldnt overtake because there were a few cars coming the opposite direction so he had to stay behind me. There's also a couple of islands that meant he still couldn't pass me once the opposite cars had gone by. He was getting peed off with me, beeping his horn & yelling at me to "get out the effing way". But he stayed far enough back. He was held up for about 15 seconds max & he was fuming.

Then as I was approaching a side road a car pulled up to the junction to turn right into the main road which I was already on. She couldnt see me, I was fully behind the post to the right of the windscreen, she didnt even try to look around it. I immediately started taking avoiding action as I knew she hadnt seen me. She saw the car behind me & decided to floor it in order to beat the car that she should have waited for before pulling out.
Me & the bike went sliding over the left hand corner of her bonnet & i ended up on the floor. She jammed her brakes on. The car behind me stopped level with me & shouted "serves you effing right you fat effing c**t", laughed & drove off. The woman got out of her car, looked at her bonnet & started screaming all sort of abuse about how I had damaged her car. She then got back in her car & drove off.

So the only peeps who saw anything was me & the 2 car drivers. People did come out but no one else had actually seen it happen, & there was no CCTV.

Rang the police, but they refused to attend on the grounds that I wasnt injured & my bike wasnt damaged, so I was probably lying, job done.

Ironic thing is, both of those drivers would have been registered had insurance, trackable, just like what is being called for for cyclists. Apparently that will solve all the woes of the poor hard done by everybody else except cyclists, & we all know car drivers never do any wrong.

 

Did you take her registration number? 

If so you should contact the police and insist that you want to report the accident, they will have to report her for failing report the accident within 24 hours of it happening  (assuming she hasn't already).

You can also contact the DVLA and they will provide her name and address. She must then provide you with her insurance details, and you can then claim for damage to your bicycle and any personal injury that may have arisen as a result of the accident.

[Ssscrudddy]

I tried but she drove off too quick & I wasnt in a position to see it. I once had a similar thing happen on a motorbike in MK, guy pulled up to the junction from a side road, looked me right in the eye, then pulled out on me. I managed to get his reg as I was in a position to see it as he drove off. Plus there was a whole bunch of witnesses.

Turns out he had pinched his mums car. He kept saying he was going to plead guilty but he kept pleading not guilty.

Funny thing in court after denying it had even happened at all, his defence team then tried to make out he couldnt be done for it on the grounds that it hadnt happened there but instead half a mile up the road. This is despite the fact that police & ambulance were called to to where it had happened & thats where all the witnesses had stopped. He got 6 months in prison.

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Scariest 1 ever was when a van pulled out on me from a side road, I was on my motorbike, I caught up with him, I got 3 words into a rant at him, then wished I hadnt, his eyes scared the crap out of me, this guy was clearly a killer. Right at that moment loads of police turned up with machine guns, I was literally thrown out of the way as they grabbed him & carted him off. I never did find out what it was about

Edited September 29, 2017 by Ssscrudddy

[Machpoint005]

22 hours ago, WotEver said:

I very nearly squished a cyclist this afternoon. A tight left hand turn at traffic lights on a narrow road and the pillock had come up my inside and was about level with the passenger door as I turned. 

Don't take this personally, but as a general set of observations:

Do you not have a left-hand door mirror?

Are you not in the habit of using it before turning left, for precisely that reason?

If not, why not?

Were you indicating left?

Why do you call the cyclist a pillock?

Is is because you know you were actually at fault and are now feeling lucky not to have injured or killed somebody? 

34 minutes ago, Ssscrudddy said:

I tried but she drove off too quick & I wasnt in a position to see it. I once had a similar thing happen on a motorbike in MK, guy pulled up to the junction from a side road, looked me right in the eye, then pulled out on me. I managed to get his reg as I was in a position to see it as he drove off. Plus there was a whole bunch of witnesses.

Turns out he had pinched his mums car. He kept saying he was going to plead guilty but he kept pleading not guilty.

Funny thing in court after denying it had even happened at all, his defence team then tried to make out he couldnt be done for it on the grounds that it hadnt happened there but instead half a mile up the road. This is despite the fact that police & ambulance were called to to where it had happened & thats where all the witnesses had stopped. He got 6 months in prison.

---

Scariest 1 ever was when a van pulled out on me from a side road, I was on my motorbike, I caught up with him, I got 3 words into a rant at him, then wished I hadnt, his eyes scared the crap out of me, this guy was clearly a killer. Right at that moment loads of police turned up with machine guns, I was literally thrown out of the way as they grabbed him & carted him off. I never did find out what it was about

Plenty of SMIDSYs out there.

[WotEver]

36 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

Do you not have a left-hand door mirror?

Are you not in the habit of using it before turning left, for precisely that reason?

If not, why not?

Were you indicating left?

Why do you call the cyclist a pillock?

Is is because you know you were actually at fault and are now feeling lucky not to have injured or killed somebody? 

Yes

Yes, that’s why the pillock didn’t get squished. 

N/A

Yes

Because he waddled his way between the pavement and my nearside while I was waiting for the lights to change. As I said, the roads are narrow so I was well within a metre of the kerb yet the pillock thought it would be a good idea to squeeze into the space. 

No. 

[cuthound]

12 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Yes

Yes, that’s why the pillock didn’t get squished. 

N/A

Yes

Because he waddled his way between the pavement and my nearside while I was waiting for the lights to change. As I said, the roads are narrow so I was well within a metre of the kerb yet the pillock thought it would be a good idea to squeeze into the space. 

No. 

I've seen this happen so many times in London, even with articulated lorries and buses which were clearly indicating left, which anyone with half a brain cell can see is going to take a tighter line or even mount the pavement when turning.

Fortunately most cyclists do have a sense of self preservation,  but some put their lives entirely in someone else's hands. 

[Murflynn]

4 hours ago, Sir Nibble said:

I think it is important to remember that insurance is not so that if you cripple someone they are covered and get compensation, if you cripple someone then it's you that needs cover so that it doesn't cost you everything you own and a bankruptcy paying it yourself. It would take a lot of premium savings to cover a million pound claim.

disagree.

if you can't afford £1million compensation then the judge will decide that you should pay perhaps £20/week for the rest of your life.  Not much help for the guy (now quadraplegic) whom you left lying in the road.

 

 

I happened to watch the Top Gear episode today, where they tried to produce cycling safety information films for the GLC.  As you can imagine they were quite irreverent but very apt.

Edited September 29, 2017 by Murflynn