Rear-ended by a woman

White Line
White Line Posts: 887
edited October 2009 in Commuting chat
Go on. Make your sexual jokes. :(

Waiting at around-a-bout, with a constant stream of traffic from my right, I see a space about to open up. Just a couple of seconds before I am about to be on my way I'm on the ground thinking I was about to get run over. Seeing the bumper I just accept that I'll have a broken leg.

Thankfully, all I got was a scrap on my elbow and one on my shoulder.

I got up, expecting some WVM who had gotten sick of waiting and decided to blame me (and punish me). :roll: Before I know it I've opened some woman's car door and am yelling at her; explaining how round-a-bouts work. :oops:

Apparently she didn't see me. God knows how! I was right in front of her. According to her I wasn't there two seconds before she drove into me. Obviously I got the usual "You were in the middle of the road! Bikes should be hugging the gutter" bollocks. I just had to explain, again, that I was taking the third exit; therefore I had taken primary in the right hand lane. Then went on the explain the benefits of taking primary anyway.

Silly me forgot to get her licence number. I know! What a fool. Although, we exchanged phone numbers - she was very apologetic by this point (luckily my stepdad drove past a minute after I got hit and stopped to take my side)! :D

She phoned me later on at around 2300 hrs, but I couldn't answer because I was in work.

Trip to bike shop tomorrow to get them to "confirm" that the rear wheel is knackered and needs replaced.

Damages: scrapped elbow and shoulder, bent rear wheel, new bar tape ripped, and a bit of shame for shouting the way I did. Thank God my new four day old helmet didn't come into action today - I would have been royally pi$$ed!

Awesome diagram of event!

Blue line = me
Dotted blue line = my intended route
Red X = where I got rear-ended
Yellow line = suggested route from the woman ... and my stepdad. :shock:

Plan of action now? Trip to LBS to get a wee note saying how it is beyond repair. Awkward phone call to woman requesting insurance details? Join BC and get some insurance as there seems to be a lot of window lickers on the roads these days.

I'm sure maybe one or two people might recognise this round-a-bout. On Aikenhead Road - commonly known as the Cuddy Killer apparently. :P

They say near death experiences always come in threes, right? One more left ...

Comments

  • Flasheart
    Flasheart Posts: 1,278
    Glad you're not too badly hurt matey, and the bike will pull through :wink:
    The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle. ...Stapp’s Ironical Paradox Law
    FCN3
    http://img87.yfrog.com/img87/336/mycubeb.jpg
    http://lonelymiddlesomethingguy.blogspot.com/
  • Oddjob62
    Oddjob62 Posts: 1,056
    Don't know what time of day it was, but do you wear hi-viz and have a decent light. Even if it's slightly gloomy i stick my rear light on. It just gives the drivers that bit extra assistance when they are in their car, still half asleep, thinking of that project proposal they need to finish off before lunch, wondering if the other half is cheating on them again, etc.

    Not saing it's your fault, from your account (and her admission) you did everything right. I'm just saying that sometimes people need that extra bit of help.

    PS> Glad it wasn't serious, sounds like it could have been.
    As yet unnamed (Dolan Seta)
    Joelle (Focus Expert SRAM)
  • Harry182
    Harry182 Posts: 1,169
    From your (awesome) diagram, I'd agree that your choice of primary position is the only sensible way to enter the roundabout. The route indicated by the yellow line is asking for trouble...

    Glad to hear you're okay (and that you weren't rear ended by a WVM. :wink: )
  • Harry182 wrote:
    From your (awesome) diagram, I'd agree that your choice of primary position is the only sensible way to enter the roundabout. The route indicated by the yellow line is asking for trouble...
    Asking for trouble is putting it mildly. Any cyclist who takes that route round an island (no matter what the highway code might say) is suicidally insane.

    Mike
  • nielsamd
    nielsamd Posts: 174
    Even in a car, I hate those smaller multi-lane roundabouts, especially ones with raised mounds and foliage in the middle to reduce visibility. I call them Vicious Circles. Too many drivers these days misuse multi-lane roundabouts as opportunities to overtake, or to `get out' of the congestion leading to the roundabout, misusing lanes and actually increasing their speed while on them. Even when it seems `clear', a microsecond later that can all change. Other drivers thus become more concerned about what is already approaching on the roundabout to their right rather than what is directly in front of them.
  • Harry182
    Harry182 Posts: 1,169
    mudcovered wrote:
    Harry182 wrote:
    From your (awesome) diagram, I'd agree that your choice of primary position is the only sensible way to enter the roundabout. The route indicated by the yellow line is asking for trouble...
    Asking for trouble is putting it mildly. Any cyclist who takes that route round an island (no matter what the highway code might say) is suicidally insane.

    Mike

    You're absolutely right.
  • Stuey01
    Stuey01 Posts: 1,273
    Tyrone wrote:
    It was at a funny aahngle
    Not climber, not sprinter, not rouleur
  • vorsprung
    vorsprung Posts: 1,953
    Harry182 wrote:
    mudcovered wrote:
    Harry182 wrote:
    From your (awesome) diagram, I'd agree that your choice of primary position is the only sensible way to enter the roundabout. The route indicated by the yellow line is asking for trouble...
    Asking for trouble is putting it mildly. Any cyclist who takes that route round an island (no matter what the highway code might say) is suicidally insane.

    Mike

    You're absolutely right.

    I use a similar roundabout and the yellow line is good for the second exit (ie "straight over")
    I would probably use the blue line for third exit
    The problem with using the same route as a car is that you have to be moving at the same speed as a car. So it depends on traffic speed.
  • Feltup
    Feltup Posts: 1,340
    The blue line is fine if you are a car but what you should have done is cut across the road at the crossing before the roundabout, hop up on to the pavement, shout at the old lady who got in your way then hop off the pavement just before getting to the big white van and cut across to your blue line again. Distance saved 50 meters.

    Sounds like she was doing the old cruise in to the roundabout with a little bit of speed watching for cars coming from the right and not looking ahead at all. My mate had the same once. SMIDSY from driver - strange as my mate is 6'3 and was wearing a bright orange jacket.
    Short hairy legged roadie FCN 4 or 5 in my baggies.

    Felt F55 - 2007
    Specialized Singlecross - 2008
    Marin Rift Zone - 1998
    Peugeot Tourmalet - 1983 - taken more hits than Mohammed Ali
  • If you were injured, you should report it to the plod. They will do b****r all (no witnesses, not a priority etc etc), but it might help with any insurance claim.
  • Thanks for the replies guys. :)

    It was only about twenty to five / quarter to five, so by no means it was dark. The sun was beginning to go down a little, but only enough to make shadows nice and long. I don't wear hi-vis, but at the time I was rocking a lot of lime green and had a yellow t-shirt on. And my bike was just cleaned, so it should have been very white!

    I do agree though that the yellow line is pretty much suicide route - especially when it is busy like it was yesterday. Maybe that method should be posted in Will's "best way to off yourself" thread. :lol:

    It does seem as though that's what she was doing - looking to the right that is. Although, I would have though a que would have formed behind me by then. :?

    Aye, I think I will have to take a trip down to the police station at one point soon. When I got to work a driver told me to report it too (I work in a pizza delivery shop). I didn't get any witnesses as I forgot, but everybody who was about just drove past anyway. At least the woman isn't trying to ignore it and hoping it goes away, as she phoned me. I'll need to phone her back after I go the the LBS tomorrow.
    vorsprung wrote:
    The problem with using the same route as a car is that you have to be moving at the same speed as a car.
    I do. Often faster than cars when it comes to round-a-bouts as they have to slow down a lot more to go round corners.
  • 3 in one 24hr period? Blimey...

    Definitely report it to the police, sooner rather than later.
  • Indeed. I was shocked when I came on this afternoon and seen the other two threads. Monday 12th seems to be the new Friday 13th.
  • jimmypippa
    jimmypippa Posts: 1,712
    I use a similar roundabout and always use the blue route...

    It is insane not to. In a car or even a moped it would be the expected route.

    Too many of these threads today
  • Jon8a
    Jon8a Posts: 235
    Not that it's any help but having read all three of the threads about people being knocked off I do wonder if just punching the person responsible may help. :evil: It was about this time two years ago I go hit. I wonder if it's the darkness creeping in and people not being used to it. Also I heard that peoples vision is worse at dusk.

    I'm digging out the high vis as off tomorrow.

    Oh and I think your line is correct. Take the same as you would in a car and occupy the middle of the lane. Going round the outside may just invite left hooks by some other SMIDSY
  • fossyant
    fossyant Posts: 2,549
    Not another. Two others down in Mcr on Cycle Chat.

    Had my lights on now for some time - just 'alerts' folk.

    Glad you are OK - if they cause problems, drop a cycle specific lawyer on them from a great height.
  • Jon8a wrote:
    Not that it's any help but having read all three of the threads about people being knocked off I do wonder if just punching the person responsible may help. :evil:
    I think it might. To be honest, I think I would have if it had been some WVM that tried to be a big macho c0ck. :oops: Which wouldn't be the best idea I don't think.

    There was definitely something weird about Monday. Three posts of offs on here and two on Cycle Chat? I think there might be a day coming up soon where a lot of folk get a D-lock through their windows. :twisted:
  • Deegs
    Deegs Posts: 74
    Taking the yellow line would be a good way of getting yourself killed at every exit in turn, if you get my meaning. A stupid, stupid, crappy idea that the highway code, to its shame, used to promote. I think this may be why some people think bikes ought to do this.
  • sicknote
    sicknote Posts: 901
    fossyant wrote:
    Not another. Two others down in Mcr on Cycle Chat.

    Had my lights on now for some time - just 'alerts' folk.

    Glad you are OK - if they cause problems, drop a cycle specific lawyer on them from a great height.

    That is if they have they eyes open as I have had a few close ones when I had my Hi-viz and lights on, one guy said he didn't see me. :roll: