Interesting Crash this morning!

JamesFree

Had a interesting crash this morning and managed to walk away from it without a scratch (considering what happened was very lucky) but had a very trashed rear wheel.

Was approaching a red light at a pedestrian crossing so slowed down and stopped in the area marked out for bikes and then less than a second later felt a impact from behind and bike goes flaying forward and im left standing there with no bike any more but still standing in almost the same position in complete shock I look around to see a white van about 6 inches from my back and then look forward to see my bike a little while up the road.

The van driver apologised and straight away admits fault as he 'did'nt expect me to stop at the lights' and was going to stop in the bike box at the lights I managed to get his details including a good picture of his driving license with all his details readable, his reg number and also had another cyclist give me his details as a witness incase he turned out to be dodgy.

I really felt I was very lucky to come away with this completely untouched, also glad I had borrowed the girlfriends bike to ride to the station as I have a throat infection and a full commute wasn't the best idea.

Clever Pun

sounds all very cut and dried...

glad you wern't hurt

Cafewanda

:shock: :shock:

"The van driver apologised and straight away admits fault as he 'did'nt expect me to stop at the lights' and was going to stop in the bike box at the lights" Priceless :shock:

rjsterry

:shock: Very lucky indeed! I have a bit of paranoia about such a thing happening to me (I've had a couple of near misses where I've stopped then heard some squealing tyres behind me).

I take it you didn't have a foot clipped in and your saddle is quite low - if this happened to me, I'd be punted down the road with the nose of my saddle firmly wedged where it shouldn't be.

Good to hear he owned up and gave you his details.

SamWise72

What an idiot! "I was planning to drive through the stop line and stop in the area reserved for bikes, and rather than act on the evidence of my eyes, I assumed you weren't there and drove into you". I wonder if the scuff will decide to enforce the ASL under these circumstances?

JamesFree

rjsterry wrote:

:shock: Very lucky indeed! I have a bit of paranoia about such a thing happening to me (I've had a couple of near misses where I've stopped then heard some squealing tyres behind me).

I take it you didn't have a foot clipped in and your saddle is quite low - if this happened to me, I'd be punted down the road with the nose of my saddle firmly wedged where it shouldn't be.

Good to hear he owned up and gave you his details.

I was very lucky I was ill (never said that) as took the girlfriends bike down instead of either of mine, otherwise would have been clipped in with a much higher saddle that would have stabbed me in the back.

jonginge

Ooh, could have been nasty. Glad you seem to be ok.

I do worry about this a bit. If the light changes so that I need to brake pretty rapidly I normally throw a life-saver check out there to give following road users an indication I'm about to stop

I have been run into by another cyclist while stopped at some lights on the NKR. I'd been stationary for several seconds. He was a klutz

JamesFree

Cafewanda wrote:

:shock: :shock:

"The van driver apologised and straight away admits fault as he 'did'nt expect me to stop at the lights' and was going to stop in the bike box at the lights" Priceless :shock:

I know what a joke eh!!

I did then point out it was the area for bikes to stop anyway, but he didn't seem to acknowledge it.

JamesFree

JonGinge wrote:

Ooh, could have been nasty. Glad you seem to be ok.

I do worry about this a bit. If the light changes so that I need to brake pretty rapidly I normally throw a life-saver check out there to give following road users an indication I'm about to stop

I have been run into by another cyclist while stopped at some lights on the NKR. I'd been stationary for several seconds. He was a klutz

What I don't understand though was that the light had been red for a good 2-3 seconds aswell, I really think he just hadn't seen the red light and I was just lucky the traffic was awful ahead of the lights so he had reduced his speed enough.

Kieran_Burns

1st of all I'm really glad you're uninjured due to this persons appalling driving

Secondly, I'd really recommend you not let your girlfriend see this thread... your comments along the lines of "it was lucky it was my g/f's bike" might get you into a spot of bother....

soundninjauk

Holy hell. Glad you got away from that unscathed. What is it with people and crashing this morning?

<touches wood>

JamesFree

Kieran_Burns wrote:

1st of all I'm really glad you're uninjured due to this persons appalling driving

Secondly, I'd really recommend you not let your girlfriend see this thread... your comments along the lines of "it was lucky it was my g/f's bike" might get you into a spot of bother....

Hahaha It actually a hand me down from me, but at least she gets a nice new rear wheel.

Radioactiveman

Had a similar experience of being rear ended. I passed a junction and a car saw me and waited. Said car then pulled out behind me accelerated straight into the back of me.

cjcp

Oh, that's a bit close. I got shunted at lights two weeks ago, but at slow speed - nothing like that! Good job you're ok.

W1

A great lesson for the advocates of RLJing here.....this sort of accident is what you've achieved.

Glad you're OK.

scattered pedals

Stopped at a red by Clapham Common last week - in left side of ASL, Motorbike stopped next to me on my right. He was then sent flying forward by the Car behind.. am worried about it now esp in the wet - maybe RLJ is the way to go!

UndercoverElephant

W1 wrote:

A great lesson for the advocates of RLJing here.....this sort of accident is what you've achieved.

Glad you're OK.

He would have been safer if he'd jumped the red.

*runs and hides*

ooermissus

W1 wrote:

A great lesson for the advocates of RLJing here.....this sort of accident is what you've achieved.

I was waiting for that, but I think it's balls. I bet the guy said whatever came into his head to justify his dangerous driving. I simply do not believe drivers are crashing into cyclists because they have watched others jumping red lights.

Something similar happened to me yesterday afternoon. I was nearly forced off the road in Central London. The driver said to me afterwards: "what do you expect when you're not wearing a helmet?" The helmet had nothing to do with it - he'd just been impatient about speeding through a gap that I was already occupying - but it gave him a get out clause.

He then told me I was breaking the law for being helmet-less and he should report me to the police . Just another driver who behaves as if cyclists are vermin to be cleaned off the roads. A tiny minority, to be sure - but not an insignificant one.

W1

ooermissus wrote:

W1 wrote:

A great lesson for the advocates of RLJing here.....this sort of accident is what you've achieved.

I was waiting for that, but I think it's balls. I bet the guy said whatever came into his head to justify his dangerous driving. I simply do not believe drivers are crashing into cyclists because they have watched others jumping red lights.

Something similar happened to me yesterday afternoon. I was nearly forced off the road in Central London. The driver said to me afterwards: "what do you expect when you're not wearing a helmet?" The helmet had nothing to do with it - he'd just been impatient about speeding through a gap that I was already occupying - but it gave him a get out clause.

He then told me I was breaking the law for being helmet-less and he should report me to the police . Just another driver who behaves as if cyclists are vermin to be cleaned off the roads. A tiny minority, to be sure - but not an insignificant one.

He crashed into him because he PRESUMED the cyclist would run the red - because that's what all cyclists do, innit? And why do people think all cyclists do that? Because quiite a few do.

I was hit by a cyclist when I stopped at a red light and he didn't. I got the same excuse from him. I'm not the only one on here who has suffered this type of incident which, were RLJing not endemic amongst cyclists, simply would not be a consideration.

You never hear the same excuse from a car on car accident do you, because it's completely absurd. Somehow it's OK for cyclists though!

rjsterry

<= RLJing thread is that way, but I'm afraid I agree with W1 here (dammit, not again!)

scattered pedals

[He crashed into him because he PRESUMED the cyclist would run the red - because that's what all cyclists do, innit? And why do people think all cyclists do that? Because quiite a few do.

I was hit by a cyclist when I stopped at a red light and he didn't. I got the same excuse from him. I'm not the only one on here who has suffered this type of incident which, were RLJing not endemic amongst cyclists, simply would not be a consideration.

You never hear the same excuse from a car on car accident do you, because it's completely absurd. Somehow it's OK for cyclists though![/quote]

So what if they can't use that excuse ? you are still in hospital, someone in another car would prob be ok

W1

rjsterry wrote:

<= RLJing thread is that way, but I'm afraid I agree with W1 here (dammit, not again!)

We must stop meeting like this.

ooermissus

W1 - you presumably discount the opinion of the guy who was there, who thinks the driver didn't see the light and then used RLJ-ing as an excuse - just as the guy who nearly hit me used helmets as an excuse.

JamesFree wrote:

What I don't understand though was that the light had been red for a good 2-3 seconds aswell, I really think he just hadn't seen the red light and I was just lucky the traffic was awful ahead of the lights so he had reduced his speed enough.

W1

ooermissus wrote:

W1 - you presumably discount the opinion of the guy who was there, who thinks the driver didn't see the light and then used RLJ-ing as an excuse - just as the guy who nearly hit me used helmets as an excuse.

JamesFree wrote:

What I don't understand though was that the light had been red for a good 2-3 seconds aswell, I really think he just hadn't seen the red light and I was just lucky the traffic was awful ahead of the lights so he had reduced his speed enough.

And you presumably discount the statement of the guy who actually did it?

"The van driver apologised and straight away admits fault as he 'did'nt expect me to stop at the lights' "

I think that's an odd "excuse" to use - I mean, it's hardly an excuse at all is. It doesn't in any way limit or remove liability. At best it's an explanation. A not unreasonable explanation, given how many cyclists do jump red lights....

JamesFree

Due to the place he eventually stopped being just before the line at the front of the bike box and a good 8 foot past where he was meant to stop and this was after he had done an emergency stop at the last minute when seeing me.

This is what leads me to think he had completely forgotten to stop or didn't see the lights (as there are just before another set 25 yards up the road)

ooermissus

W1 wrote:

ooermissus wrote:

W1 - you presumably discount the opinion of the guy who was there, who thinks the driver didn't see the light and then used RLJ-ing as an excuse - just as the guy who nearly hit me used helmets as an excuse.

JamesFree wrote:

What I don't understand though was that the light had been red for a good 2-3 seconds aswell, I really think he just hadn't seen the red light and I was just lucky the traffic was awful ahead of the lights so he had reduced his speed enough.

And you presumably discount the statement of the guy who actually did it?

"The van driver apologised and straight away admits fault as he 'did'nt expect me to stop at the lights' "

I think that's an odd "excuse" to use - I mean, it's hardly an excuse at all is. It doesn't in any way limit or remove liability. At best it's an explanation. A not unreasonable explanation, given how many cyclists do jump red lights....

Yes I discount it. Because if the guy drives assuming that no cyclist will ever stop at a red light, he's a moron and his excuses are worthless. And because, as I explained, I had a similar experience just yesterday, when my not wearing a helmet was used as a post-hoc, and utterly implausible, rationalisation of some pretty awful driving.

Sometimes you give the impression that you think that most bad things that happen to cyclists are either their fault, or the fault of other cyclists. As a class, we have annoyed other road users and now deserve what we get.

rjsterry

JamesFree wrote:

Due to the place he eventually stopped being just before the line at the front of the bike box and a good 8 foot past where he was meant to stop and this was after he had done an emergency stop at the last minute when seeing me.

This is what leads me to think he had completely forgotten to stop or didn't see the lights (as there are just before another set 25 yards up the road)

Indeed doesn't look as though he was planning on stopping at all. That said, the fact that such an explanation occurred to him does suggest that he at least wouldn't be surprised to see cyclists jump red lights.

scattered pedals

rjsterry wrote:

JamesFree wrote:

Due to the place he eventually stopped being just before the line at the front of the bike box and a good 8 foot past where he was meant to stop and this was after he had done an emergency stop at the last minute when seeing me.

This is what leads me to think he had completely forgotten to stop or didn't see the lights (as there are just before another set 25 yards up the road)

Indeed doesn't look as though he was planning on stopping at all. That said, the fact that such an explanation occurred to him does suggest that he at least wouldn't be surprised to see cyclists jump red lights.

the excuse is irrelevent - if the cyclist had RLJed everyone would have been happy

W1

scattered pedals wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

JamesFree wrote:

Due to the place he eventually stopped being just before the line at the front of the bike box and a good 8 foot past where he was meant to stop and this was after he had done an emergency stop at the last minute when seeing me.

This is what leads me to think he had completely forgotten to stop or didn't see the lights (as there are just before another set 25 yards up the road)

Indeed doesn't look as though he was planning on stopping at all. That said, the fact that such an explanation occurred to him does suggest that he at least wouldn't be surprised to see cyclists jump red lights.

the excuse is irrelevent - if the cyclist had RLJed everyone would have been happy

Or if cyclists - as a group - didn't RLJ so often that excuse/reason/cause would never have occurred.

soundninjauk

scattered pedals wrote:

the excuse is irrelevent - if the cyclist had RLJed everyone would have been happy

Right up to the point where the cyclist got hit by Asprilla's wife driving through a green light.

scattered pedals

W1 wrote:

scattered pedals wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

JamesFree wrote:

Due to the place he eventually stopped being just before the line at the front of the bike box and a good 8 foot past where he was meant to stop and this was after he had done an emergency stop at the last minute when seeing me.

This is what leads me to think he had completely forgotten to stop or didn't see the lights (as there are just before another set 25 yards up the road)

Indeed doesn't look as though he was planning on stopping at all. That said, the fact that such an explanation occurred to him does suggest that he at least wouldn't be surprised to see cyclists jump red lights.

the excuse is irrelevent - if the cyclist had RLJed everyone would have been happy

Or if cyclists - as a group - didn't RLJ so often that excuse/reason/cause would never have occurred.

So if no cyclist ever RLJed ,all cars would stop safly at all red lights?!