Bike accident - what to do ?

bianchibob

A couple of nights ago I was out cycling and managed to end up in a long queue of traffic. As I didn't want to stop/ start with the traffic so I decided to overtake the traffic and as I saw the lights turn red in front of me cut inbetween two cars returning to the kerbside. Unfortunately I misjudged the manoevre and hit the back of a BMW.
The contact was my front tyre and nothing else resulting in a small series of scratches in the paintwork and the grey plastic trim.
The owner got out and although I was shaken starting telling me how he had just had it resprayed etc. I said I thought the marks would easily polish out.
I had no ID on me or mobile phone so I gave the owner my mobile number and said contact me through my phone.
He rang the number to check it was working and with that we went on our seperate ways.
He has now contacted me to say that, unsurprisingly, the marks have not polished out and he is taking the car to his bodyshop for them to look at it !
He is now asking to meet me to discuss.
I am not prepared to go any further than deal with this amicably but over the phone, I know I damaged the car however what is the extent of my liability, my gut feeling is to say I am happy to make a payment towards this accident, (say £50) but not for a respray and replacement bumper parts, which is what I think he is angling for.
Anybody had a similar experience and how would you deal with it.

Gazzaputt

IMO you caused the accident therefore your libel for the costs. Check your household insurance doesn't cover you.

If it was a prang in a car you wouldn't get away with offering £50 towards the cost.

amaferanga

How does an impact with a tyre cause scratches? Either the damage wasn't caused by you or more than your tyre must have hit the car.

slowbike

Did you take any pictures of the damage?

Vesterberg

Gazzaputt wrote:

IMO you caused the accident therefore your libel for the costs. Check your household insurance doesn't cover you.

If it was a prang in a car you wouldn't get away with offering £50 towards the cost.

what?

You are negligent for having caused the accident and are therefore 'liable' for *reasonable* costs. Costs starts and ends with the damage you caused and any contingent costs. It's true that costs might be more than you thought but it's also true they may try and fleece you. £50 sounds fair. Make a reasonable offer and if he gets nasty, don't return his calls anymore.

essjaydee

I think you should call him and discuss it.

If a cyclist hit my car and caused damaged, I'd expect them to pay for any repairs or replacement parts, to make it good again. If that went to several hundred quid, then tough luck! It was your fault, so you should sort it out.

bianchibob

The marks the tyre left on the car were due to the bits of grit that were on the tyre, and the scratches were caused by the pressure of th etyre / grit against the bumper. I do quite alot of car detailing and to my mind they would polish out with a decent polishing machine etc. Thats whyn I am so wary of his claims that it was newly repainted and he needs to go back to his bodyshop ?
For further info. I have contacted the company that deals with my home insurance and they are happy for me to hand the whole thing over to them and they will deal with it.
If this guy starts coming on a bit strong I will just hand the whole thing over to the insurance company and we will all get ripped off then !! and that is something that really upsets me. Must be an age thing !
But I suppose that is what insurance is for in this day and age.

bianchibob

Tend to agree with Vesterberg, but look forward to Essjaydee repairing the complete rear end of my car when he taps into it !!

rolf_f

bianchibob wrote:

But I suppose that is what insurance is for in this day and age.

Exactly. You are paying insurance for peace of mind so don't get the worst of both worlds and pay for the insurance and not get the piece of mind

You could always offer him the fifty quid and offer to go over it with your polishing kit yourself.

essjaydee

If you do a lot of car detailling, why don't you offer to make it good?
If they are reasonable, then they should accept this, but if not then at least the insurance companies will sort it.

If this happened to you, wouldn't you want it put right?

BigJimmyB

essjaydee wrote:

If you do a lot of car detailling, why don't you offer to make it good?

This.

Seems the most obvious choice. A bit of time and effort on your part to make good. No-brainer (at least in terms of making the offer).

snoopsmydogg

essjaydee wrote:

If you do a lot of car detailling, why don't you offer to make it good?

same thoughts here.

OP if its something you're good at then agree to go to his place of work/home and offer to try and get the scratches removed. If it doesn't work then at least you know that it couldn't be done.

The Ors

essjaydee wrote:

If you do a lot of car detailling, why don't you offer to make it good?
If they are reasonable, then they should accept this, but if not then at least the insurance companies will sort it.

If this happened to you, wouldn't you want it put right?

TBH I wouldn't let some random stranger work on my car just to save them a few quid after they hit me!

It might be different if the guy had a website/business cards etc.

cookdn

bianchibob wrote:

He has now contacted me to say that, unsurprisingly, the marks have not polished out and he is taking the car to his bodyshop for them to look at it !
He is now asking to meet me to discuss.
I am not prepared to go any further than deal with this amicably but over the phone, I know I damaged the car however what is the extent of my liability, my gut feeling is to say I am happy to make a payment towards this accident, (say £50) but not for a respray and replacement bumper parts, which is what I think he is angling for.
Anybody had a similar experience and how would you deal with it.

The notion of making an offer for your estimated value of the damage is flawed and will lead you into a disagreement. As The Ors says it is not realistic to expect him to let you try and rectify the damage unless you can independently demonstrate your competence. He is perfectly entitled to be returned to the position he was in before you collided with his car with minimal inconvenience.

Check your household contents insurance, most provide third party liability cover. Assuming you are covered this way call your insurer and report the accident. You then only need to contact the BMW driver once more by telephone to pass him the claim reference and insurance company details. He then deals with your insurance company and leaves you alone.

If you haven't got any third party liability cover then this incident may encourage you to get it. A British Cycling Ride membership costs £24 (you can reduce this by £10 by purchasing through Quidco, there is a similar discount at the moment if you are a London resident through TfL). This gives you £10m third party liability cover and free legal support among other benefits, if you commute or cycle on roads regularly it could be worthwhile. The liability cover will not help in this instance but you maybe able to use the legal support for advice.

I hope this works out ok for you.

Best regards
David

bianchibob

Thanks for all the advice.
Yesterday afternoon I contacted my household insurance company, who informed me that my policy covers this incident. I have reported the details to them and they have logged it on my file. They then told me that if the person contacts me again to give him the name of the insurance company and the policy number and they will deal with it.
For extra " peace of mind" I have taken Davids advice above and become a member of British Cycling !

Tricycleboy

cookdn wrote:

bianchibob wrote:

He has now contacted me to say that, unsurprisingly, the marks have not polished out and he is taking the car to his bodyshop for them to look at it !
He is now asking to meet me to discuss.
I am not prepared to go any further than deal with this amicably but over the phone, I know I damaged the car however what is the extent of my liability, my gut feeling is to say I am happy to make a payment towards this accident, (say £50) but not for a respray and replacement bumper parts, which is what I think he is angling for.
Anybody had a similar experience and how would you deal with it.

The notion of making an offer for your estimated value of the damage is flawed and will lead you into a disagreement. As The Ors says it is not realistic to expect him to let you try and rectify the damage unless you can independently demonstrate your competence. He is perfectly entitled to be returned to the position he was in before you collided with his car with minimal inconvenience.

Check your household contents insurance, most provide third party liability cover. Assuming you are covered this way call your insurer and report the accident. You then only need to contact the BMW driver once more by telephone to pass him the claim reference and insurance company details. He then deals with your insurance company and leaves you alone.

If you haven't got any third party liability cover then this incident may encourage you to get it. A British Cycling Ride membership costs £24 (you can reduce this by £10 by purchasing through Quidco, there is a similar discount at the moment if you are a London resident through TfL). This gives you £10m third party liability cover and free legal support among other benefits, if you commute or cycle on roads regularly it could be worthwhile. The liability cover will not help in this instance but you maybe able to use the legal support for advice.

I hope this works out ok for you.

Best regards
David

Sorry if i'm being thick, but why wouldn't BC liablity insurance cover this if the OP was a member. I thought thats what it was for?

slowbike

Tricycleboy wrote:

Sorry if i'm being thick, but why wouldn't BC liablity insurance cover this if the OP was a member. I thought thats what it was for?

It would - but he wasn't a member at the time. His household policy will though ...

Although I'm getting a little fed up with "insurance" being the answer to everyones prayers.
Heck - you can even insure against higher premium as a result of insurance claims - it's called "no claims protection" ...

Insurance is just a gamble. They (the insurance co) gamble on your premiums being higher than your claims. Somehow insurance has become a huge market and as such everyone wants to try and cash in as much as possible when it comes to claims ... ie get out more than they put in ...
Its a sad sad sad sad world we live in.