Rider Down - Welwyn Garden City - ME! Advice requested

richred_uk

Cheers for all the advice and good wishes - especially liked the diary thing - started that last night to try to stay on top of everything.

Will be talking to RJW it seems later today to get their advice and then put it in their capable hands. Got the driver's name, address and insurance details yesterday - and was very impressed at my ability not to go straight round there seeing as they are about 10 mins away at a guess! Maybe I did listen to all those things about being the bigger man lol.

bigbelly wrote:

Wow, glad to hear you still have your faculties and able to coherently progress your claim.

I recently moved to WGC so am interested where the "incident" happened. Are you able to divulge without affecting your impending legal case?

Don't think there's any problem in naming the locale as long as you don;t expect super details, as my knowledge is currently coming 3rd hand. It was coming north on the A1000 - I think, just after the roundabout at Welham Green, about where the little run of light industrial units/ homes is, before you get the filter off to the left to take you to Hatfield rather than staying straight ahead to go to WGC.

Rich

richred_uk

UPDATE

Today was the criminal case - 4 charges:

Failing to Report an Accident - she pleaded guilty
Driving without Due Care and Attention - she pleaded guilty
Failing to Stop and give details after an accident - she pleaded Not Guilty and was convicted
Driving while over the legal alcohol limit - she pleaded Not Guilty and was convicted

Sentencing in about 3 weeks - will lose her licence and at 105 mg the alcohol level will make the sentencing at the upper end according to CPS. Great relief to have this out of the way, doesn't affect my insurance claim, but it takes an unsafe driver off the roads, I just hope that she comes to terms with what she's done, as she seemed totally in denial to herself, and this is a chance to improve the safety of our roads.

Will update on sentence and when the insurance side finally gets settled. Been able to start riding at weekends again - next step is returning to commuting

Rich

jonny_trousers

Glad to hear the good news. Hope you're mending well.

richred_uk

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

Glad to hear the good news. Hope you're mending well.

Cheers mate - hope yours is going/ went well too.

Rich

Long_Time_Lurker

Nice update RR...
Good to hear that the CPS did their job and she is off the road.

richred_uk

Sentenced today:

£620 Court Costs
£615 Fine
200 Hours Community Service
26 Months Driving Ban (I would guess that she'll be offered the chance to reduce that with a drink drive education course)
13 weeks custody suspended for 12 months

To be honest, at the upper end of what I thought it could be and reasonably content with that - takes a dangerous driver off our roads for the best part of 2 years.

Rich

Wrath Rob

Sorry to say I'd forgotten about this. Glad to hear you seem to be taking it in your stride.

Did you get a nice bike after all of that?

richred_uk

Still awaiting the insurance settlement for a nice bike

In the meantime I've got a job change coming which means that I *have* to buy a new luggage carrying bike as she wrote off my existing one (I kind of know you guys are the only ones who really understand the relief felt when I was told which bike I'd been riding when hit and found out it was the cheapy folder and not the Caad).

I'm hoping for n+1 to allow me to get a cheapish tourer/ cx type bike from necessity of rack mounts right now and then a blinging roadie with the insurance cash (along with a new man shed to put them in).

Rich

thecrofter

richred_uk wrote:

and then a blinging roadie with the insurance cash (along with a new man shed to put them in).

Rich

Nice!

MonkeyMonster

Good riddance off the road of her and best of luck getting a good claim, my brothers broken arm is slowly coming through the system and only now, 6 plus months are some future problems rearing their head (lost of range of movement etc).

fenboy369

richred_uk wrote:

Great relief to have this out of the way

Isnt it just! I remember from my accident of a couple of years ago where I was knocked off by a van on a round about that the worst bit for me was the waiting for the court things. I almost felt like a fraud, even though the ambulance crew, who I met a year later at an awards thingy, told me that when they heard it was a cyclist that had been hit by a van side ways on at 25+mph they slowed down as they thought I would be dead. Its nice to have it verified that you were not to blame. Good luck with the recovery and the claim.

noodles71

Good to see you back to nearly 100% and the driver done. I hope you don't get any insurance grief over it though. I got wiped out in my car by a drunk back in Australia (Queensland) and because they were drunk their insurance was invalidated and any property damage had to come out of their own pockets. As they couldn't afford to pay I got left with the bill to fix my car.

I really hope your outcome is different

sketchley

richred_uk wrote:

Sentenced today:

£620 Court Costs
£615 Fine
200 Hours Community Service
26 Months Driving Ban (I would guess that she'll be offered the chance to reduce that with a drink drive education course)
13 weeks custody suspended for 12 months

To be honest, at the upper end of what I thought it could be and reasonably content with that - takes a dangerous driver off our roads for the best part of 2 years.

Rich

She will end up paying more than that fine. Her motor insurance will have drink driving exclusion in it they all do. The road traffic act means that he insurance will pay out to you in full, but they will then seek to recover the money and their costs from her, if she has assets they will take them, if not she will either have to pay back in instalments or go bankrupted. She will end up paying directly for your new road bike. Hopefully it will be a lesson learned I have little sympathy.

Glad to here your well on the road to recovery.