First bicycle road accident tonight.

Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
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I had my first accident on the road tonight, fortunately I wasn't injured but my bike suffered some damage.
I was T -boned literally at low speed at a T junction as I traversed the junction, as I was approaching the junction a suv pulled out as there was plenty of distance between him and me. The next car I made eye contact with the driver and continued on my heading at about 10mph, inexplicably as I was plumb in front of him he pulled out hitting me. The front of the bumper just before the number plate hit my pedal end plumb in the middle as I was on the down stroke and instantly the bike and I were thrown into the middle of the road and I was off. Unhurt and still lying in the road I took in briefly what had just occurred and gave myself time to adjust, gazing around I noticed several pedestrians about and other cars yet not one bothered to see if I was alright or offered any assistance which I felt was very poor.
I got up on my feet and steadied myself by this time with quite a few onlookers but no one even attempting to come over and assist me or to see if I was ok, what is up with people no one cares any more. The car driver who hit me was out of his car and apologetic and looked a bit uneasy and so he should have been, I was calm and cool and we man handled my bike to the grass verge as it was evident the bike was damaged. I then told him to move his car to a more sensible place so we could have a chat and discuss settlement for repairs, passing at this time was a plod car but they just continued on. I was a bit surprised that they carried on as the car was stopped in the road and I with the driver on the grass verge.

The red suv driver had stopped and was a witness and kindly gave me his details if I needed them, I did ring him about an hour or so later to thank him. He said he knew something was going to happen as the guy who hit me was right behind him and was driving quickly and had closed up behind him quickly some metres before the junction.

I noted the car reg of the driver who hit me and got his details, being unhurt and seeing he was apologetic and repentant agreed with him that he would have to pay for any parts for the bike needed and we would talk later in the evening once I had taken stock , I was quite happy to leave it at that as I was unhurt and his pride was hurt more then me and the fact that he was physically shaken as I could see from his shaky hand as he wrote down his details.

Back at home I checked the bike over and damage was not to bad but components need replacing the LHS crank arm has had it, totally bent in so a new Deore SL Hollowtech crank set and BB to be safe is needed along with a set of pedals. The front rim buckled although not directly hit, the angle it hit the road at has damaged it other wise going over the bike all else was ok. I tested the motor and that was working and can find nothing wrong with operation.

I called the guy a couple or hours later and he came round to look (probably not believing me maybe), I told him he could bring his wallet or worse for him we can get his insurance company involved. Not being injured I was quite happy to inform him that I would not get plod involved as long as he recompensed me for replacing my components.
Looking at the bike I settled for a new Hollowtech crank set, pedals and BB which we ordered there and then on his phone for delivery in the next few days and £60 for me to replace my rim. I already have a spare used rim so need to just buy some spokes and rebuild the centre lock disc hub in to the used rim I have.
Both of us were fortunate tonight, I came away unscathed barring some minor bike repairs and he came away without his Insurance and the police be involved. Like me he drives for a living and think he may be a bit more careful about his driving style and by the way if any one wonders he was driving an Audi need I say anymore.
 
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Zincy

Finding my (electric) wheels
May 24, 2019
9
2
So sorry to hear that Nealh. Glad you were unhurt. Sad to see nobody coming over to help or assist...degrading society comes to mind.

Hope you get your bike fixed, up and running quickly
 
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soundwave

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 23, 2015
15,973
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best not crash in to me then my carbon crank arms and paddles cost 500 quid :D
 
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Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
19,994
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best not crash in to me then my carbon crank arms and paddles cost 500 quid :D
He would have missed you SW, you would have been a blur as you passed by the T junction.
 
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RossG

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 12, 2019
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Glad to hear you're ok after your mishap Neal, the first but hopefully the last hiccup you'll ever have.
 
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Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
19,994
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West Sx RH
Thanks everyone for reading and your good wishes.

The front wheel although buckled is rideable, I have had to order a new rim as just realised my centre disc hub is 32h and I have a spare 36h rim :rolleyes:.

Temporary I have robbed the LH hollowtech crank off an unused fsmtb, it is black my current ones are silver grey.

I was back on the bike within hour of the incident to finish my errand I was off to.
A most important errand of going to the railway ops centre to give a couple of my bee colonies a stimulation feed, the queens have gone off lay a bit due to forage easing off. Waiting for the ivy to flower which is currently in bud every where I look and should be available soon. Ivy aroma isn't missable when in flower as it has a strong aroma that hangs in the air.
 
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Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
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Glad to hear that you are ok; like others, disappointed that no one came over to check that you were ok...
Thankyou, yes very poor reaction from all onlookers.

I would have been straight out to check if everything was ok, even if some one looked uninjured. I now recall the first thing I said to the driver (he was in the car door ajar) as I picked my self off the road " Don't you dare driving off".
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
52,765
30,351
he was driving an Audi need I say anymore.
I blame the badge, they think they can run rings around everyone. ;)

I'm glad another car also stopped for you, you're lucky to get that these days when the "bikes are a nuisance" syndrome is still very evident among car drivers.

Long ago when seeing a motorcyclist knocked off by a right turning car, I stopped my car and walked around the corner to where the biker and car had stopped to offer myself as a witness for the biker. He was puzzled, saying he hadn't seen another motorbike.

When I told him I'd been driving a car he was astonished that a car driver was offering to side with him against another car driver. That showed how pervasive the "them and us" attitudes are.
.
 

egroover

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 12, 2016
970
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Sorry to hear of this Nealh, but good to hear you escaped uninjured, which is the most important thing. Sounds like you are not dwelling on 'what could of happened' and have got back on the bike and about your business. The Audi driver was lucky he got such an understanding victim as yourself, hope he appreciates it, and hope it's a wake up call for him to take a bit more care
 
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anotherkiwi

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 26, 2015
7,845
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The European Union
Well I fell off on my own on the way to work. Missed the entry into a round about and took out a road sign...

Of course I fell on the shoulder I luxed years ago in a motor bike accident...

Broke a solder in an XT60 so had to grab the spare battery to get to work where I am now going to suffer through the night.
 

vfr400

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 12, 2011
9,822
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Basildon
Well I fell off on my own on the way to work. Missed the entry into a round about and took out a road sign...

Of course I fell on the shoulder I luxed years ago in a motor bike accident...

Broke a solder in an XT60 so had to grab the spare battery to get to work where I am now going to suffer through the night.
I wish you and your bike a speedy recovery. Nurofen + should do the job.
 
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georgehenry

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 7, 2015
1,426
1,251
Surrey
I am sorry to hear about your accident, and glad that you are OK.

I had a similar thing happen some years ago where a car coming the opposite way turned right without noticing me and I had no where to go but the side of his shiny Audi car and then the lovely soft gravely tarmac.

It was summer so I was wearing highly protective T shirt, shorts and no gloves.

I was also lucky that the driver stopped, was somewhat cowed and apologetic and gave me his details.

How much his attitude was effected by an adrenaline swamped bloodied 100kg plus x rugby playing me springing back to my feet and shouting the abbreviation of to copulate rather loudly a number of times I am unsure.

A old couple in a car also stopped and gave me their details as witnesses.

Remarkably in a validation of chaos theory my intuitive grab at my brakes skewed me sideways so that the first thing to impact with the car was my left rear wheel frame stay, so that the bike and me hit the car with the whole left had side of the bike, then I and the bike was flung away from the car.

The positive side effect of this was that as I did not pile into the car front fork first the bike looked relatively unscathed for an approximate 15mph to zero in a nano second impact.

Now I am not a fan of the personal injury sue everybody you can approach prevalent now.

However, after thinking about the accident afterwards it dawned on me that for the driver to hopefully learn from the experience in a way that they would not forget too quickly and have a greater chance of a lasting change to their driving behavior meant taking a formal approach through the police and a personal injury claim.

My aim in doing so was to get to a point where their driving licence was effected and their insurance premiums went up. I still think this was the best way to get any significant change in their driving.

So to cut a long story short, this is what I did, eventually reaching the point where the police formerly took a statement from the driver at his home letting me know in writing that the accident would be officially recorded and kept on file for five years and that the driver had agreed to pay and attend a driver awareness course, while I also pursued the driver with a lawyer to make a successful personal injury claim against them.

The money in the end after about a year of tooing and frowing with the lawyers was not bad either tipping the right side of 5K.

One interesting aspect of the claim was that the lawyer told me to take my bike to a bike shop and have the damage accessed in writing for her.

As I said I thought I had been very lucky hitting the car with the whole left had side of the bike rather than going in front fork first and was actually able to somewhat gingerly ride the bike home after the crash.

The bike shop noticed that the left hand rear frame stay was slightly bent from the impact. I had noticed this but had kept riding the bike. I rather naively asked whether they could "just gently bend it back to true".

No they said, as the frame is aluminium that is not possible and they gave me a written assessment to give to the lawyer that the damage was not repairable and the bike was a write off.

Now I am sure that the bike shop was right that the frame tube has been weakened and compromised and cannot be bent back, but I am still riding that bike today years and many thousands of miles later.
 

mike killay

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 17, 2011
3,012
1,627
I am sorry to hear about your accident, and glad that you are OK.

I had a similar thing happen some years ago where a car coming the opposite way turned right without noticing me and I had no where to go but the side of his shiny Audi car and then the lovely soft gravely tarmac.

It was summer so I was wearing highly protective T shirt, shorts and no gloves.

I was also lucky that the driver stopped, was somewhat cowed and apologetic and gave me his details.

How much his attitude was effected by an adrenaline swamped bloodied 100kg plus x rugby playing me springing back to my feet and shouting the abbreviation of to copulate rather loudly a number of times I am unsure.

A old couple in a car also stopped and gave me their details as witnesses.

Remarkably in a validation of chaos theory my intuitive grab at my brakes skewed me sideways so that the first thing to impact with the car was my left rear wheel frame stay, so that the bike and me hit the car with the whole left had side of the bike, then I and the bike was flung away from the car.

The positive side effect of this was that as I did not pile into the car front fork first the bike looked relatively unscathed for an approximate 15mph to zero in a nano second impact.

Now I am not a fan of the personal injury sue everybody you can approach prevalent now.

However, after thinking about the accident afterwards it dawned on me that for the driver to hopefully learn from the experience in a way that they would not forget too quickly and have a greater chance of a lasting change to their driving behavior meant taking a formal approach through the police and a personal injury claim.

My aim in doing so was to get to a point where their driving licence was effected and their insurance premiums went up. I still think this was the best way to get any significant change in their driving.

So to cut a long story short, this is what I did, eventually reaching the point where the police formerly took a statement from the driver at his home letting me know in writing that the accident would be officially recorded and kept on file for five years and that the driver had agreed to pay and attend a driver awareness course, while I also pursued the driver with a lawyer to make a successful personal injury claim against them.

The money in the end after about a year of tooing and frowing with the lawyers was not bad either tipping the right side of 5K.

One interesting aspect of the claim was that the lawyer told me to take my bike to a bike shop and have the damage accessed in writing for her.

As I said I thought I had been very lucky hitting the car with the whole left had side of the bike rather than going in front fork first and was actually able to somewhat gingerly ride the bike home after the crash.

The bike shop noticed that the left hand rear frame stay was slightly bent from the impact. I had noticed this but had kept riding the bike. I rather naively asked whether they could "just gently bend it back to true".

No they said, as the frame is aluminium that is not possible and they gave me a written assessment to give to the lawyer that the damage was not repairable and the bike was a write off.

Now I am sure that the bike shop was right that the frame tube has been weakened and compromised and cannot be bent back, but I am still riding that bike today years and many thousands of miles later.
You did the right thing. Because bikes are comparatively cheap compared to cars,motorists do not accord us sufficient care. Had you been driving a car, the damages would have been far more expensive.
It is imperative to bring home ( in their wallets ) the likely outcome of not affording enough attention to cyclists
 

RoadieRoger

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 8, 2010
720
196
Glad you are ok Nealth and avoided the curse usually visited on falling Cyclists and Motorcyclists , namely a broken collarbone . I was knocked off a Honda 90 in 1974 by a car that overtook me on the entrance to a roundabout and turned left . Police and Ambulance were involved and in the Court Case they believed my account , rather than his . As soon as I won my case I involved a Solicitor and had £500 for pain and suffering . I was off work for a month and paid by my Company . The Boss wanted my £500 and I said no it was for pain and suffering . They didn`t insist on me paying anyway . The Medics and everyone said a broken collarbone is nothing , it certainly hurt me and ached for 20 years afterwards . The Nurse that did a sling for me didn`t have a clue and when I got home my Mother-in-Law did a proper support using skills learned in the First World War .
 

ttxela

Pedelecer
Jan 3, 2017
118
66
52
Cambridgeshire
Glad it didn't turn out too bad in the end. Having been involved in a couple of minor shunts (in cars) where the other driver offered to pay for repairs oout of their pocket rather than through insurance and having them become incredibly evasive when it actually comes to it, I would always insist on claiming through insurance.
 
D

Deleted member 25121

Guest
Glad it didn't turn out too bad in the end. Having been involved in a couple of minor shunts (in cars) where the other driver offered to pay for repairs oout of their pocket rather than through insurance and having them become incredibly evasive when it actually comes to it, I would always insist on claiming through insurance.
The downside of that is that your insurance premium could increase because there has been an accident linked to your postcode.
 

georgehenry

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 7, 2015
1,426
1,251
Surrey
I understand what you are saying ebiker 99, but all I can say is that my own car insurance policy was unaffected.

I think if I was making a no fault claim in respect of a car accident I am sure you are right, but as bicycles do not need to be insured the personal injury claim I made did not effect my car or for that matter any other insurance policy I held when they were renewed.