Motorists excuses when they are at fault

salsajake

Just had one today, so thought I would post up my two favourites so far:

On hitting a car that pulled out in front of me at a crossroads, with me having right of way and riding at c.25mph (I got the bike sideways and hit him sideways with my cleats, thankfully (for me, rather than my head, less thankfully for his door):

"The van behind you was flashing for me to come out"

I don't need to say anything do I.

This morning, on coming off a two-lane roundabout, where a guy in the left lane decided to exit the roundabout into the right lane of the dual carriageway, despite me being there (I'm fairly surely that is his fault) and me saying he should have stayed in the left lane as he risked broadsiding me, he said:

"well who is going to get killed first, me or you?"

As if that somehow justifies it, some kind of perverse logic there! My response was "me, probably by some prick like you"

Any other fine examples of an outright reluctance to accept fault out there?

Kieran_Burns

Bizarre - i was just thinking about this.

A few summers back - BLAZING hot day (yeah they did happen) bright sunshine, no clouds. Me all in jet black. (dumb idea) and a guy pulled out on me. His excuse? "Get some bloody lights!"

girv73

College Avenue, central Belfast. Two lanes of traffic heading out of the city and two lanes heading in. I’m stopped at lights in the country bound lanes, at a junction where the city bound lanes can cross mine by way of a filter light. My lights change to green and I set off, but a driver in the city bound lanes turns at his junction and attempts to drive over me.

His excuse? "Bikes have to give way to cars".

http://www.rainmiles.com/archives/angry-in-audi.html

soy_sauce

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Bizarre - i was just thinking about this.

A few summers back - BLAZING hot day (yeah they did happen) bright sunshine, no clouds. Me all in jet black. (dumb idea) and a guy pulled out on me. His excuse? "Get some bloody lights!"

lol. the driver proply is a cyclist also and he is used to saying that to people.

Eat My Dust

Last week I had a guy pull right in front of me, we then both took an immediate right (not that I had any choice) he told me it was my fault for not signalling. I did ask him what the signal for "please don't run me over " was. He didn't know.

I've also had the "look mate, who's going to be killed if I hit you" before.

Nice place we live in isn't it.

Christophe3967

This is exactly why I have just ordered a video camera to go on the handlebars. I'm going to treat it as a black box. And insurance.

salsajake

If you are married, don't be tempted to show the wife! "Look at this idiot... what do you mean I can't commute in anymore?"

Kieran_Burns

Just remembered one from last week - I'm coming down the road at about 20-22mph and see a lorry pull across into a car park in front of me.

The lorry driver looks at me and then starts to reverse out, necessitating a serious amount of braking on my part.

When I came to a screaming halt alongside his cab I shouted "What, could you NOT see me???" (I was wearing a yellow nightvision jacket)

His reply?

"No. I saw you. I had plenty of time to pull out"

Wha???????? :shock: :roll:

jeepie

My favourite was shouted very aggressively in a high pitched voice full of RAGE:

"THIS IS A ROAD!"

I wish I'd replied and this is a road bike.......

downfader

No one dares say anything to me. Am I too big and scary? Or is the camera scaring them off (had no real incidents in about a week and its been a joy :shock: )

lost_in_thought

A bus driver who'd just knocked me flying in Oxford - I was turning right, signalling and everything, on the headington roundabout (going towards St Hilda's) he was heading straight over-ish down the Cowley road...

'You were right in front of me!'

No sh!t sherlock, and now I'm sprawled on the ground.

His passengers ganged up on him and made him take me and my bike to the hospital!

richk

I got knocked off (years ago - oncoming driver turns right straight across/into me) - driver looks at my bike & says "your tyres are bald" :?

robmanic1

Slightly on a tangent but I was "collected" by a French guy once, I was on a roundabout, he entered said roundabout took my back wheel away and launched me skywards. All I can remember as I lay on the deck was watching this guy attempting to reattach my rear mudguard, which struck me as odd being as though the wheel itself was completely taco'd. :roll:

In typical Wenger stylee he uttered the immortal "I did not see you". Sacre bleu!

cee

i said this before on here.....

A few months ago, i was in a bus lane in primary (bad kink in the road makes drivers want to overtake unsafely there), with busy traffic in the main line to my right.

Taxi behind me goes for the overtake before the bad kink, and can't because of the other traffic.

Then at the bad kink he tries it again, but with me fully in primary can't.

Anyway we get stopped at traffic lights about 30 metres after the kink and he winds his window down....and says "Bus lanes are for buses, taxi's and cycles!".

I am open mouthed, look down just to check and answer "whats this then? A space hopper?"

salsajake

RichK wrote:

I got knocked off (years ago - oncoming driver turns right straight across/into me) - driver looks at my bike & says "your tyres are bald" :?

The multi-level ignorance is actually quite impressive.

Christophe3967

salsajake wrote:

If you are married, don't be tempted to show the wife! "Look at this idiot... what do you mean I can't commute in anymore?"

No worries - ignorance and all that....

graeme_s-2

Nothing verbal here, but this morning a driver coming in the opposite direction flashed his lights at me, and gestured strongly towards the pavement/cycle path (I'm not sure which it was at that point on the road), I gave him a quizzical look. While he was still flapping his arms at me he sailed through a red light at a pedestrian crossing and nearly hit the person about to cross the road. I think he drove on completely oblivious to what he'd just done.

I couldn't help but feel that he should probably pay more attention to his own driving and worry somewhat less about my riding. Especially as we were heading in opposite directions and I wasn't inconveniencing him in anyway.

woodyonthebeach

Its the classic I didnt see you.

Followed shortly by the driver saying to me "thats assault if you hit me" So if he had hit me what would it be a slap on the wrist and good telling off.

steve-m

Cycling north up the A1000 towards East Finchley, car driver turns right crossing my path, I brake but still hit her side, two phrases used

"You were going too fast" - was on my fixed so max 40K

"I was late for work" was the one that made me vent all my fury

shoulder_of_orion

I had one a few years ago... I was shooting down the bus lane down denmark hill at pace. A driver, who was in a queue behind a car wanting to turn off to the right, suddenly decided to drive into the bus lane and knocked me off my bike. I was grazed and badly shaken up, the driver sped off down the hill without stopping. After picking myself up I rode the bike down the hill and found her stuck in traffic. I knocked on her window, she opened and I said "Do you realise you knocked me off my bike back there".

She replied, "Well if you're going to speak to me like that, I don't want to talk to you." She put the window up and drove off.

Her reaction made me far more angry than the initial incident.

KonaKurt

I had almost exactly the same experiance/drivers comment back in the autumn, except the driver who knocked me (though i just about kept my balance!) just gave me a funny look through her window! I caught up with her in a traffic jam, tapped on her window, and she just said 'well, if you are going to look at me like that, I am not talking to you!" ... like I should have been smiling politely and batting my eyelashes at her instead, after having been knocked almost to the ground by the speeding side of her range rover..!

KK (NOT a motorist, and proud!)

Jay dubbleU

Idiot in a Toyota Landcruiser who reversed out of his drive without checking the cycle track and got a nasty dent in his door 'Who's going to pay for that ? - 'Not me buddy' :twisted:

PS having ridden by the place several time I notice now he reverses into his drive

benborp

I was once knocked off my bike while heading up a modest hill through a junction, as I went through the lights went amber and a car approaching from the opposite direction floored it to get through and turn right. All I could do was wait for the impact - I made sure I went over the top which is just as well as I ended up rolling up the windscreen over the roof and ended up standing in the middle of the junction, my bike bounced off the bonnet and went 20 feet the other way. The woman driving said it was my fault because I hesitated. No s*%t! Hesitated? I came to a complete stop before she drove straight through me from the opposite direction.

It was the shakedown ride after I'd rebuilt the bike, new wheels, new groupset, new pedals, respray. £2500 spent and the only part that was old was the handlebars which were the only part that got damaged!

mr_hippo

salsajake wrote:

On hitting a car that pulled out in front of me at a crossroads, with me having right of way...

Can you explain how you got 'right of eay'? No other UK road user has it!

sarajoy

mr_hippo wrote:

salsajake wrote:

On hitting a car that pulled out in front of me at a crossroads, with me having right of way...

Can you explain how you got 'right of way'? No other UK road user has it!

Hah, my driving instructor used to correct me on that too. I'm sure he means he has 'priority'!

DiggingDeeper

cee wrote:

"whats this then? A space hopper?"

Quite a good quip given the trauma...any ideas on the FCN of a space hopper!!

gradiric

I had a strange response during an altercation with another cyclist. This cyclist pulled out of a petrol station right in front of me, looking in completely the opposite direction as she did so - I narrowly avoided crashing into her. When I pointed this out, her reply was "haven't you ever seen someone you thought you recognised...?" while gesturing in the direction of someone on the pavement - as if that excused her failure to look at the road/traffic.... :roll:

chuckcork

Had a guy a few months ago, I'm going around a large, multilane roundabout, on the inside first as I need to come out on the right on the far side, but to do so have to change lanes before exiting.

D!ckhead in his car, mobile phone pressed to his ear and engaging all his attention, takes one look at me, sees me in the inside lane, then looks away to keep on with his conversation and drives into the roundabout, in the process completely missing my lane change and my indication, I almost run into him I'm going so fast and end up having to do a snap lane change back into the inside to avoid hitting him side one.

His excuse when I caught up with him in the nearby shopping centre carpark, having just got off the phone, "you were in the other lane"! Yeah, but I also changed lanes and indicated, you were so busy with your phone you weren't paying attention to what I was doing or where I was and almost took me out.

A few weeks later a woman driver at exactly the same sport did almost the same thing, except she only looked to see if anything was coming at her when she was a full car length into the roundabout, way to late to see anything coming.....my complaint to the police as to the dangerous layout of the junction, the number of mobile phone users that have almost taken me out etc has of course been course been completely ignored....so much for bringing in a ban on mobile phone use, it doesn't seem to have registered with the general public.

cee

DiggingDeeper wrote:

cee wrote:

"whats this then? A space hopper?"

Quite a good quip given the trauma...any ideas on the FCN of a space hopper!!

depends on how much air is in it....and the number of racing stripes it has....

Animal100

My daugher was driving through town the other evening. Going around on the nearside of a two lane bend. BMW on the outside lane starts drifting over to her lane and knocks door mirrors. Red traffic lights up ahead, daughter gets out of her car and confronts the dozey bint in the BMW saying 'you just hit my car'. The dozey bint was still on her mobile and wound down her window to ask whats wrong. When told she had hit
her car and its also illegal to drive whilst on a mobile phone, the dozey bint argued and said its not illegal to use a mobile whilst driving. But when my daughter said its endorsable by 3 points on your licence and up to a £1000 fine she started to relalise that perhaps it is illegal, but she clearley did'nt know. There must be a huge amount of people out there that either dont watch anything remotley newslike on the telly, look in the highway code or read newspapers. Where have they living under a stone?

alfablue

Jeez, animal, bl**dy annoying! Could have been a two wheel casualty statistic easily enough!

On a 14 mile commute I regularly see between 5 and 10 mobile phone users! Many of them clearly oblivious to other road users, many seeming to favour phone use over signal use! :evil: