accident with vehicle

revolutionedi

Hi
I bumped into a car on my way home. I was cycling through the slow moving traffic, dual carriage way. I made room for a motorbike, the traffic stopped and I couldn't avoid bumping into the car in front. There was noticeable damage to the car but I was reluctant to give my details.

The police did turn up and I passed on my details to the PC.

The question is am I liable for the damage? I was making room for the motorbike and I was genuinely caught out. There was no damage to my bike and I think I am ok. The motorbike didn't stop, he probably had no idea what happened.

mattv

At the end of the day, you didn't give adequate space to the car. If you were in a car, you would be having an insurance claim against you. As you are probably not insured, the only way the poor driver can have his vehicle repaired is by pursuing you through the small claims court. Not likely.

revolutionedi

I think that's the way he will go. The light costs £40 online + fitting so I will wait to see if he claims through my home insurance. It's a crap situation hence why I didn't leave the scene. The worry now is they claim against me for past damage to the car e.g. old bumps and scratches etc.

adambutterwick

I think you'll just have to be honest, own up to the damage you did and hope he returns the good faith. If he does try and claim for damage you didn't cause, contest it and threaten to take him to the small claims court. He'll probably drop it at that point but if he's a real b*****d and continues, you can either accept his claim or follow through and take him to court.

Good luck!

Headhuunter

Sounds like you'd be liable. I hit the back of a BT van earlier in the year, broke my arm on it. Basically as I was checking behind me for traffic so that I could move into the next lane, the BT van (and traffic in front of it) braked sharply and I ran into the back of the van. BT sent me a bill for damage to the rear light cluster, I just paid up (£80), not sure if I could've somehow claimed for damages back from them for my arm but I assumed it would be difficult as I hit the back of the van... I didn't give my details directly to the driver, gave it to the police who obviously sent the on to BT...

junglist_matty

I had a similar thing happen about 10 years ago, I was riding to college and thanks to a dangerous chav driver flying down a narrow 30mph road, I dived between two parked cars, couldn't brake in time and hit the front of the parked car head on (better than getting hit by some idiot going 50mph+).... Snapped my forks in two and cost me £150 for new forks.

Turns out the neighbour saw and came out, I had to give over my details and then about 2 weeks later my parents had a phone call demanding payment of £1000, bearing in mind at the time, this was a 20 year old Renault 5 and had only had minor damage to the grill! ....Didn't pay him, my parents gave the details of the house insurance that covered such incidents, but they didn't believe him after sending someone to assess the damage, and ended up voiding the claim as outrageous (considering the car was worth £500 tops). Then he tried to sue but it went nowhere.

bails87

As has been mentioned/alluded to above, if you've got home contents insurance then you'll more likely than not be covered on there. It was your fault, doesn't matter if you were being nice and pulling over to let a motorbike through, it's your responsiblity not to crash into the back of people.

Let the home insurers deal with it. If you want cycling specific 3rd party cover in the future consider joining British Cycling or the CTC.

slowbike

bails87 wrote:

Let the home insurers deal with it.

Is it worth the excess?!

bails87

Do you pay the excess when someone claims for third party liability?

Maybe not. It's up to the OP to decide I guess.

revolutionedi

Thanks for the kind replies. I will wait to see what happens with the home insurance. I do have home contents cover so it is likely he will claim via that.

slowbike

bails87 wrote:

Do you pay the excess when someone claims for third party liability?

No idea!

The Rookie

revolutionedi wrote:

There was noticeable damage to the car but I was reluctant to give my details.

The police did turn up and I passed on my details to the PC.

The question is am I liable for the damage?

Just as well you did, failing to give details is a seperate offence.

As others have said, of course your liabile, why would you think you shouldn't be, not his fault you crashed into his car.

Would you think the same if he'd driven over your bike?

unixnerd

If you want cycling specific 3rd party cover in the future consider joining British Cycling or the CTC.

Best 2 or 3 quid a month you'll spend and if you do claim it won't send your home insurance price through the roof.