Doored by a SMIDSY - do I pursue?

daddy0

Yesterday I was on my way home from work and a chap opens his door on me. I almost managed to avoid it, but it caught the very end of my handlebars. Wasn't too bad - luckily it had rained in the morning so I was on the hybrid with regular pedals, so the worst I got was a pedal to the right shin causing a few little cuts. Bike is fine, no damage to clothes or anything. I managed to ride home and back to work this morning fine. After 10+ years of BMX my shins are used to being a bit smashed up.

We exchanged details, and the guy seemed like a reasonable chap. So my question is - would you take it any further?

The reason he didn't see me was because his side view mirror was smashed, and I pointed this out to him. I also said something along the lines of "you'll always check in future before you just open your car door, right?". So I feel like thats good enough - whatsayyou?

tgotb

I wouldn't. Genuine mistake, minimal harm done, the World's a much nicer place when people cut each other a bit of slack...

daddy0

Cheers for the reply. I've sent the guy a text saying not to worry everything is fine.

CiB

Shouldn't a D lock come into the equation somewhere?

rower63

TGOTB wrote:

I wouldn't. Genuine mistake, minimal harm done, the World's a much nicer place when people cut each other a bit of slack...

+1

pblakeney

You could help him by pointing out that driving without a driver's side wing mirror is illegal.

For obvious reasons as you have found out.

mtb-idle

personal choice really, you weren't hurt, he was hopefully contrite and learned something.

Taking it further without any specific need other than some sort of quest for vengeance/payback seems unnecessary.

I've done the same thing (or not done it i.e. not pursued it, so to speak).

daddy0

PBlakeney wrote:

You could help him by pointing out that driving without a driver's side wing mirror is illegal.

For obvious reasons as you have found out.

Yeah, was the only reason why I thought there might be a good idea to take it further - might stop it happening again to someone else who might not be so lucky. But pointing the wing mirror out to him was probably good enough. As I said, he seemed like a nice guy. He was pretty shaken by the ordeal, just hope it was because he was feeling sorry and not worried that he might lose his NCB.

Pufftmw

Minimal soft tissue injury - £50 absolute max. Not worth the aggravation and time taken to get it.

WRT wing mirrors, MOT says you must have 2 rear facing mirrors, so rear-view and near-side mirror would make it legal if he had a smashed drivers side. However, if he was driving a panel van with no rear windows, then a different case.

pblakeney

Pufftmw wrote:

Minimal soft tissue injury - £50 absolute max. Not worth the aggravation and time taken to get it.

WRT wing mirrors, MOT says you must have 2 rear facing mirrors, so rear-view and near-side mirror would make it legal if he had a smashed drivers side. However, if he was driving a panel van with no rear windows, then a different case.

Close.
The far side (driver's) plus at least one other (passenger's and/or internal).
http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual_810.htm

EKE_38BPM

PBlakeney wrote:

Close.
The far side (driver's) plus at least one other (passenger's and/or internal).
http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual_810.htm

"MOT wrote:

Obligatory mirrors are
a. an exterior mirror fitted to the offside (right-hand side when seated in the
drivers seat), or

b, an exterior mirror fitted to the
nearside fleft(sic) hand side when seated In the drivers seat), or

c. an interior mirror.

Unless

"MOT wrote:

All goods vehicles
must have two mirrors, one of which must be option 'a'.

I interpret that as cars should have at least two mirrors, so two out of nearside, interior and offside.
Goods vehicles must have an offside mirror and a nearside or interior mirror.

So the car (if it was a car) was illegal for not having an offside mirror.

Point it out to the driver, lick your wounds and carry on with your life.

Pufftmw

PBlakeney wrote:

Pufftmw wrote:

Minimal soft tissue injury - £50 absolute max. Not worth the aggravation and time taken to get it.

WRT wing mirrors, MOT says you must have 2 rear facing mirrors, so rear-view and near-side mirror would make it legal if he had a smashed drivers side. However, if he was driving a panel van with no rear windows, then a different case.

Close.
The far side (driver's) plus at least one other (passenger's and/or internal).
http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual_810.htm

Obligatory mirrors are
a. an exterior mirror fitted to the offside (right-hand side when seated in the
drivers seat), or

b, an exterior mirror fitted to the
nearside fleft hand side when seated In the drivers seat), or

c. an interior mirror.

That says to me that you only need 1 working mirror, not 2 and it can be any of the 3. However, if fitted, it must not be obscured or broken?

That is to pass an MOT, which whilst it being a legal requirement once a year, for the rest of the year would not be illegal if broken per se. If it were broken, then you might get a 14 days to get it fixed notice unless it were in a dangerous condition.

marcusjb

Sorry to hear about the prang. I would agree that it makes life better if we don't all think of using each other for every minor transgression.

Hopefully he will learn a lesson - so text him, tell him you are fine, ask him to get his wing mirror sorted and to look out for cyclists from now on.

pblakeney

EKE_38BPM wrote:

"MOT wrote:

Obligatory mirrors are
a. an exterior mirror fitted to the offside (right-hand side when seated in the
drivers seat), or

b, an exterior mirror fitted to the
nearside fleft(sic) hand side when seated In the drivers seat), or

c. an interior mirror.

Unless

"MOT wrote:

All goods vehicles must have two mirrors, one of which must be option 'a'.

Sorry Eke, just using your post for ease of pasting.

How hard can this be? The important bits are in bold and underlined.

EKE_38BPM

PBlakeney wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

"MOT wrote:

Obligatory mirrors are
a. an exterior mirror fitted to the offside (right-hand side when seated in the
drivers seat), or

b, an exterior mirror fitted to the
nearside fleft(sic) hand side when seated In the drivers seat), or

c. an interior mirror.

Unless

"MOT wrote:

All goods vehicles must have two mirrors, one of which must be option 'a'.

Sorry Eke, just using your post for ease of pasting.

How hard can this be? The important bits are in bold and underlined.

[/quote][/quote]
Are you deliberately not seeing the word "or"?
Offside mirror OR nearside OR interior (unless a goods vehicle).

The Rookie

Whatever the MOT says the Construction and Use regs (they are frequantly at odds with the MOT) require a right hand mirror, so not having one is a criminal offence.

bobinski

Hope you are healing up ok.

I would leave it too but i would do so on basis he texts you a photo to show he has sorted the mirror.

daddy0

Cheers for the well wishes - have been fine cycling to and from work since Wednesday, so all is good. (Apart from missing out on 2 KOMs yesterday, stupid moaning legs).

I did text the guy back, good idea about insisting that he fix his mirror. shame I only saw your post after I already texted him though. I did mention it to him at the time, so hopefully he'll get that sorted. Maybe I'll text him in a week and ask him if he's fixed it yet.

Must admit I thought that having an offside side mirror was a legal requirement - thought I understood the offside rule.