Pedestrian wrote of carbon bike...

mask of sanity

As title suggests, I was riding along a bike path next to some stationary cars when a pedestrian appeared from between two of them. I had no time to react so we collide and the end result is that my six week old Kuota Kharma has a massive crack through the down tube plus some extensive damage to the left shifter.

I took his number and phoned him once I'd returned home. He was fairly understanding and seems prepared to put money towards the damages but where do I stand should anything go wrong? Is there any legal steps that I should take? I also have the number of a witness to the accident.

Cheers, MoS.

ShutUpLegs

Get a statement from the witness.
Get a full breakdown of the cost of repair and ask for a written commitment to pay up in full within an agreed time.
Contact a solicitor.

mattward1979

Small claims would be the best bet... If you were on a designated cycle path, either on the road or off, the pedestrian is at fault.

Just make sure you take loads of photos, write EVERYTHING down and get things signed by the pedestrian if at all possible, and a written statement from the witness would seal the deal.

Sorry about the bike =(

keef66

I'd be nervous that he might change his mind when he finds out how much money might be involved.

I think it would be prudent to get advice from a solicitor and a statement from your witness.

You got insurance?? People frequently cough up quicker if pursued by an insurance company

Daver27

"IF" he has home insurance, it should cover him for this type of thing. I had an almost identical incident riding a motorbike through traffic (filtering at 10mph) and a mother and daughter stepped out from behind the van i was passing without looking. £4.5k worth of damage, bike written off. claimed off their home insurance.

avoidingmyphd

have you got his full details yet? i.e. enough to pursue him if necessary.

make sure you get them before he realises the possible cost, or changes his mind. be nice for now. maybe ask for his name and address so you can send him the quote, or some other similar technique for getting his details without just saying you want them.

Secteur

Are you a member of CTC? They give free legal advice etc for this sort of thing, I believe.

rick_chasey

Off.

Otherwise your pedestrian writes about carbon bikes.

mask of sanity

Cheers guys.

He text me whilst I was walking home asking me to phone him to ensure I was ok. He's being very reasonable about it so far. I asked about home insurance and he doesn't have any. Apparently he used to live in London and is currently living in Bristol because he's unemployed, could explain the lack of home insurance.

I also informed him of the expense of the bike and he figured it was worth £1500-£1800 so his guess was not far off.

I like the idea of getting a written commitment to pay and getting more contact details (though he gave a rough idea of his whereabouts when I phoned him so he doesn't seem desperate to avoid any costs).

I've looked at the area in which the accident happened on google maps and it wasn't actually on a cycle path but was about five metres away from one that I was aiming for.

I'm not insured or a member of CTC, no. Would feel a lot better about this if I was!!

So I guess my next action should be obtaining his address, a letter from him committing him to costs and a quote of the damages which I can forward to him?

mask of sanity

Rick Chasey wrote:

Off.

Otherwise your pedestrian writes about carbon bikes.

Cheers for your incredibly helpful post... :roll:


I've just wrecked my £2K bike so I really couldn't care less about such a mistake.

Secteur

Join CTC NOW - they probably cant help you with this one, but for the cost (£40ish, I think) it's well worth it. And you never know, they might give you some advice...

father_jack

my guess is he thinks it's a £200 halfords special...when he gets the bill :shock:

edhornby

as the others have said - contact the witness ! get his statement in writing before you start writing to the pedestrian

sorry to hear about your broken bike, hope you're ok too

hokum

mask of sanity wrote:

I've looked at the area in which the accident happened on google maps and it wasn't actually on a cycle path but was about five metres away from one that I was aiming for.

So were you on a pavement or the road? 'Cos if you were on the pavement I'd say you haven't got a leg to stand on, I'd tell you to jog on if that was the situation.

father_jack

Could you post pic where it happened?

amaferanga

Kuota have a crash replacement policy for frames less than a year old.

I think you need to get an address for this guy straight away though. I collided with a motorist several years ago and after admitting it was his fault, saying he'd pay for it and giving me his telephone number he then went quiet and I couldn't get in touch with him. Luckily I had the registration number for his car and managed to track him down, but I gave up trying to get him to pay in the end (it was an old mtb with nothing more than an out of true wheel).

mask of sanity

I was on the road. Wouldn't be posting here if I wasn't.

Here's a picture of the road: http://tinyurl.com/62s5yuz

I was a couple of meters in front of the pram when he came out from between stationary cars on my right.

amaferanga, is it definitely a crash replacement policy rather than for manufacturing faults? I looked on their site and couldn't tell.

I just asked him for his address but he seems reluctant to give it to me. He asked me to give him a call once I have a quote from the bike shop and that he would meet me at my work tomorrow morning :? Getting worried now!

father_jack

It would be spooky if that cylist in that photo is you!

father_jack

A girl walked out in front of me yesterday too :roll:

hokum

mask of sanity wrote:

I just asked him for his address but he seems reluctant to give it to me. He asked me to give him a call once I have a quote from the bike shop and that he would meet me at my work tomorrow morning :? Getting worried now!

Translation: "I'm waiting to see if it will cost more than £20, at which point you'll never hear from me again".

Push for his address because otherwise you're not going to get anything. Do you at least have his name?

amaferanga

mask of sanity wrote:

amaferanga, is it definitely a crash replacement policy rather than for manufacturing faults? I looked on their site and couldn't tell.

Yes.

I should add though that it's only a discount on the frame - not a new frame for free

BrianTrousers

Good luck with this one.

If he has no insurance you're knackered. The only way you're going to recover this is via a legal process, in effect to sue him personally for the costs. You'll incur fees for this which could outweigh what your talking about anyway.

He's unemployed so we can assume has no money, neither will he have any property. It's only worth sueing people if they can pay up. You'll end up with him being bound to pay you 13p a week for the next two hundred years which he won't and then you'll have to go through another legal process to force him to pay etc etc.

Sorry to be the voice of doom but this is how it is.

Have you thought about consulting a no win no fee charlatan?

fossyant

Do you have household insurance - you may be better claiming from your own insurance ?

It's unlikely he'll have enough money to pay for a new frame and damaged components.

I was 'hit and run' a few years back, and my house insurance paid for all the repairs.

neiltb

Have to agree with BT above, and by the look of it either you should have seen him or were undertaking traffic, if it goes to court, he'll bring that up and a portion of blame will almost certainly transfer to you. It'll take you months and you might not get anywhere.

How's your house insurance if the manufacturer doesn't want to know?

CiB

Doing it on your house insurance might not be a good plan in the longer term; your future premiums will reflect the fact that you've made a claim.

You need to get a sensible quote for the cost to repair / replace it and then push this bloke as much as is reasonable. He might be unemployed, but he may well have just done 15 years in the city and be sitting on a huge ISA somewhere whilst he has 6 months out to find himself. In the end if he can't or won't pay you may well have to trouser the cost yourself, but the implications of claiming of your own insurance need to be checked through first.

father_jack

Why bother with insurance, if you never make a claim then?

CiB

Because landing yourself with a few hundred pounds worth of increased premiums over the next n years to cover the cost of a bike frame that's probably worth a similar amount isn't the same as claiming on the same insurance when your house is flooded by a swollen River Severn, burns down or falls into an abandoned coal mine that's been under your back garden since 1853. I would imagine.

father_jack

In that case don't bother with house contents insurance.

mousetoo

You'll incur fees for this which could outweigh what your talking about anyway

Nope. You can claim in the small claims court and it'll cost 50 quid

navrig

Even if he admits liability and you win either in or out of court what will he pay you with?

If you win in court there may be an agreement that he pays you weekly at a stupidly low amount. If he defaults on that you are stuffed.

I hate to say it but you are likely to spend more than you will win.

I would try telling the cost of replacement frame and ask for his "contribution". Take what he offers and move on.

mask of sanity

Quick update:

Have taken the bike to the LBS and they shall be taking photos and passing them on to Kuota. They do indeed offer a crash replacement so the cost is likely to be less then I first thought.

As for the guy involved, I called him today after dropping the bike in to let him know of the developments and he didn't answer... So naturally I figured he was bailing on me. However, he called me back a few hours later and still seems willing to put up some money. From what I can work out he still has a house in London so I'm thinking maybe he had a well paid job whilst he was employed.

As for the circumstances, undertaking where I was doing it was (in theory) perfectly safe. It's a very wide section of road allowing me more than a metre of space alongside the stationary traffic. There was no way I could have seen him as he walked out from behind a people carrier so the vehicle was much taller then he was. It was without a doubt his responsibility to check it was safe. This is another reason why I think cycle lanes are a waste of time and money and focus should be on increasing awareness of bikes, something which in Bristol is normally very good!

Cheers for all the advice!