Been hit by a car? rant here!

big-hitter

Vote. Tell stories. Rant. Leave. Simple!!!

Me vs HGV - Enough said.

redvee

Yes but the police decided there wasn't enough evidence/witnesses to prosecute the drive but I did win £2k in compo. I was cycling along a shared cyclepath/pavement and the car was emerging from a works access and trhe driver was looking to the right as this is where the traffic approaches from but she forgot about the cyclepath and traffic coming from her left. In discussions between solicitors she claimed I was on the road, going too fast, had no lights, had no helmet(true), in fact anything to pass the blame onto me. The police description of road conditions/daylight went in my favour. If I was on the road I would have made contact with the front of her car and not the side, I did make contact with the front of her car as I slid down it.

dondare

Twit turned left across me. I hit his front wing and went over the bonnet and my bike went under his front wheels. He jumped out of the car like a jackinabox and ran round to see if the wing had been damaged. Also gave me a false name and address. BASTARD!!

R34PER

i dont want to submit to the poll and tempt fate. :? i have had a few near misses but managed to avoid as i managed to notice the danger soon enough. one on an island was scarily close as a driver in a people carrier, full of wife and kids, came on to an island as i was passing. he was looking for cars to the right and didnt see me until the last second. its quite a large island so he was carrying some speed still too. he must have been locked up for 20+foot :shock: but i managed to avoid his path with a quick direction change. i think he will look a little more closely next time.

hisoka

Riding home one night, in high vis and lights on bike along a highly lit road, was clipped by the wing mirror and ended up wrapped around a lamp-post. By the time I was undazed enough to look after the car/van that had hit me I couldn't even tell if it was a car or a van. Had been clipped in at the time, wrenched my leg a bit and winded me but I was so lucky it wasn't any worse.
I could have said it was my fault, afterall I was riding a bike at night but I do tend to think since I was hit from behind when clearly visible it was the drivers fault.
(yes, the saying it was my fault was sarcasm as I am trying to be a careful rider who uses high vis and lights)

unclemalc

I'm doing 28mph going past the traffic camera. He's doing 30mph. After getting 10yds in front the brake lights go on and he flashes left. Choices:
i) try and cut into the left corner alongside him (no, he'll go over me; besides it's too fast);
ii) go around him to the right (no: oncoming traffic will get me);
iii) go into his boot.
I chose the latter, trusting in the helmet and a shoulder charge - that should also save the bike...
Trouble was, I was clipped in so right leg gets twisted and I'm on my face with the bike on top of me and a feeling like I could have done my hip badly. :shock:
He has got out of the car and is standing there in his flat cap and driving gloves - every inch the 80yr old sunday driver. :twisted:
So I am lying in the middle of the road and I think "Sod it, hold up the traffic, lets get some blue lights here so I can get some witnesses".
Which I did. I got a day in A&E and a couple of weeks on crutches with a twisted hip. He got an official police warning and a compulsory retest ...

I like cycling helmets.

cee

I got hit by a small van.

Traffic slows, and I am on outside of lane. He slams his brakes, then pulls a u-turn right in front. I go slamming into his wing, then over the bonnet. He stops and whilst I pick myself and bike up, he continues his u-turn and disappears up the road. :twisted:

I made a claim to the Motor Insurers Bureau's untraced drivers scheme and got a successful payout for my broken ribs.

lost_in_thought

cee wrote:

I made a claim to the Motor Insurers Bureau's untraced drivers scheme and got a successful payout for my broken ribs.

Hey cee, I also got hit by a van in february of this year, the guy in the van departed swiftly having dispatched me sideways into a kerb at about 23mph, where I'm told I did an impressive somersault still clipped in before bouncing and landing 'like a sack of potatoes' on a kerb. the doctor-on-a-bike behind me stopped the traffic and called an ambulance.

I was very lucky to escape with a few broken ribs and some nasty road rash, but as the van driver legged it (so to speak) along with the car tailgating him, the police couldn't get a numberplate in order to prosecute, or so they said.

So what's this untraced drivers' scheme? I'm unlikely to pursue it for this one, but more info would be handy.

zanes

See here;

http://www.mib.org.uk/MIB/en/Default.htm

Basically, an organisation that every insurer pays into, to payout for insured/untraced drivers.

lost_in_thought

well there you go!

Very handy, thanks for that.

CiB

Poll is not sound - what about incidents where blame can be equally apportioned?

I met a car on a roundabout a couple of years ago - whacked into his near-side door at some pace, shot up in the air and landed on the road on my middle finger, which isn't designed to support my weight. When I stood up the finger was bent at a weird angle, and the bike was a bit mashed - front wheel & forks no longer viable.

The consensus by police and me tbh was that both of us were equally at fault, but if I pursued I might end up paying for repairs to his car which would outweigh my wheel & forks, so I left it. It was irrelevant anyway - the driver had done a runner, saying he was just going to park up away from the busy road and the traffic jam that was building up. Never saw him again - he p!ssed off. What a soft git.

ansbaradigeidfran

dondare wrote:

Twit turned left across me. I hit his front wing and went over the bonnet and my bike went under his front wheels. He jumped out of the car like a jackinabox and ran round to see if the wing had been damaged. Also gave me a false name and address. BASTARD!!

Oooh, cunning use of colour code to circumvent the language filters!

iain_j

Been hit by a car, and I hit one back too

Couple of years ago now, riding home from work one particularly foggy night, making my way carefully through some roadworks and suddenly a taxi which I'd seen go past on my left decided he was going the wrong way and swung right, straight into my path. Not much visible damage to me or the bike but gave my shoulder a knock, and 2 years later it's still aches like mad at times (today in particular). Lucky for me there was a police car right behind when it happened, which helped quite nicely with the compo claim!

And a few months ago, riding home from work again, had a bad day so I was in a bit of a rush to get home. I'd been stuck in a slow-moving queue to get past a line of parked cars, so when the one in front of me indicated to turn left into the side street I leapt past him before the gap closed. Unfortunately he stopped suddenly cos there was someone coming the other way and I went into the back of him - it was an old box-shaped car and I got the corner right in my ribs. And when I fell down, my bike went from under me and straight under the wheels of a car coming up from behind :x

Mind you, the three weeks off work coincided nicely with the Tour de France :P

chaley

I didn't know you could only vote once!
I've been hit by 4 cars in the past, first one I was riding along the road minding my own when a women reverses out of her drive straight into the side of me, we were both only going slowly so no harm done, second and third times had the same deal car overtakes and then pulls into the left and onto over me, both times a few cuts and knocks and bent wheels and forks a smallish cash donation and a lift home and all was well. The last time I'm going down a bit of a hill at around the 35mph mark, when a pick up pulls out in front of me I jump on the brake and end up in the side of him sort of half in the pick up bed half under it, not a mark on me or the bike this time, Elvis knows how as it should of been a bad one. All of them were in the morning with half a sleep drivers!
The other vote that I would of cast was the time that I rode right into the back of a parked car at 40mph + on my old weighted gpv bike when the brake cable snapped, it was either the back of an astra or the cars coming towards me, sort of sat the bike down and into the bumper, now that did hurt!
Chaley

ince

I was hit by a car 12 years ago now, 5:30 in the morning on my way to work. There I was bimberling along at 30 mph when a car coming towards me turned across me. I hit his rear wing, over the top and landed on by backside in the middle of the road.

Broken femur, compleat dislocation of my left ankle and a cracked scafod (sorry about the spelling). Got two weeks in Warrington Hospital, a leg full of metal and unable to walk for 3 months. Still have aches and pains now and my left knee and foot don't have much feeling.

Confesion I was on my Motorbike with all my gear on and yet still came of in a bad way. The scary part is I can cycle through the same strech of road on my pedal bike at the same speed I was doing that day, with none of the protection I had then. ...... still that will not slow me down. :twisted: