On My way to work this morning and just filtering down the side of traffic nice and slow as i know the dangers and all of a sudden a women walks out not looking in my direction… at this point i have to slam the breaks on… due to the wet surface a small skid but nothing to panic about… but all the way to work im thinking these people never look!!
I actually knocked a women over in the same scenario a few years back when i had less riding experience and i tell you what it hurt her… these people just never learn… Whats the chances i could have claimed for damage to my bike, as i was on the correct side of the road… i didnt but could i have done…
If the pedestrian is a householder there is a good chance that you could claim off their home insurance as many policies now have personal liability insurance included:)
One I felt for, she stepped out from infront of a bus, I was on an XJ900 with engine bars. The bars caught her shins and through her back against the bus which in turn bounced her into my top box…:w00t:
I tried to see if she was alright but she just ran off in shock, I imagine she got around the corner and screamed while rubbing her shins in a real cartoon style.
The second was almost as funny, it was England versus Croatia and I was working, a drunk bloke came through the cars and infront of me, I barely touched him but he fell over (he was fine). The police closed the area and I mangaed to block Whitehall, Trafalgar Sq, Charing cross road, The Strand, The Mall, Pall Mall, Regent street, Shaftsbury Avenue and Oxford St…I felt real popular as everybody trying to get home for the game where stuck. Worst of all a girl on the pavement tried to see what was happening and got hit by a bus, knocked her out cold and she smashed her teeth out on the pavement, still that wasn’t my fault and it could’ve been worse. 2 hours later it was all sorted and I was back to work.
Making a calim is impossible and you are lucky to get away without a charge, Pedestrians have right of way on all roads except motorways where they are not allowed, check your highway code. Scary huh.
They are stupid, load pipes help with this, If I see them I roll up on the clutch till I’m real close then give it a handful of revs, it is so funny watching them mess their pants…lesson taught!!:w00t:
Regretably the courts would probably only award you 50% on the grounds that by hitting them you proved you were overtaking with insufficient time/space/visibility to avoid potential hazards.
As it happened you did have time to stop, which is a good!
No chance mate, I had a cyclist ride into my car a few years back and my insurance co laughed when I asked if we could claim from him. I lost my NCB and the cyclist went to an ambulance chaser lawyer - think they might still be fighting it out now and it was about 2 yrs ago!
This has happened to me 3 times so far this year alone.
Riding up Richmond Hill, road goes to two lanes for a mini roundabout, bus on the inside i’m moving up on outside to turn right, some iPod hero runs straight out from in front of the bus and I anchor on, locking the front wheel, I miss him by millimeters and he DIDNT EVEN NOTICE! Just kept running to the other side of the road looking left. I was so shocked that when I tried to hoot at him I hit my electric starter and just made a crunching sound. Doh! Lesson learnt that day as if it was wet I would probably have lost it and definately would have hit him. Eyes open from now on and its saved me twice…
Coming along the south circular through sheen slowly filtering past stationary traffic, spot a lady on the pavement darting in front of a van. Knew what was coming and anchored on, shure enough she stepped out right in front of me looking left. I pulled up behind her and blipped the throttle she almost shat herself
Same again as above, same road, I was following a scoot this time, bloke darts out and runs straight into the side of the scoot in front of me. Somehow the scoot held on and the bloke fell over. Everyone was fine int he end.
Now I always slow as I approach busses and keep one eye open for movement on the pavement up ahead. You can see why they do it they think the traffic is stationary and are looking left for oncoming in the opposite lane. No thought for bikers at all. I bet this happens 100 times throughout the city each day.
s’happened to me twice this week, once almost identical to your first ‘ipod’ incident except i was lucky enough to have lots more time to react, second one i caught a glimse out of the corner of my eye and sure enough a muppet runs full pelt past my front wheel, lucky i had the anchors on
have a very short commute in central london but see this at least once a week :crazy: sodding lemmings the lot of 'em
I want to mount a bullbar to the front of my bike for just such an eventuality. It’s happened to me a few times, but I actually hit one of them over a year ago. The guy did a disappearing act, and Giuliano and his partner scraped me up off the road and took care of my bike. Ridiculous situation that coulda been avoided if the mindless muppet in question hadn’t decided to leap out from between two parked double decker buses.
My commute used to take in the joys of Catford - every afternoon this used to happen! A daily event of up to 3 or 4 muppets!!!Now I just have the A4 heading towards London and this has to be the ‘best’… there’s a school en-route and there’s at least one car that drops off their 3 little darlings in the outside lane near the Central Reservation:w00t::w00t::w00t:
I have a daily count I tell the office about in the mornings: the number of lives Ive saved by not hitting them.
The last one that did it was really apologetic and actually tried to comfort me in the middle of the road (I was still on the bike). She just didnt look. And I wasnt even filtering - it was on a main road junction and she just walked out. Quite often going through Moorgate, I have my thumb ready by the horn button. I always cover my front brake as I ride - my hand never leaves the lever.
Another one was filtering in stationary traffic on the A1 a few weeks ago. A truck had burnt at the side of the road and there was the usual nosey parkers. This woman threw open her car door right into my path. Though I think she realised, from the look on her face, how stupid she had been. Again - lack of awareness.
I’ve only recently started riding a lot in central london both on proper and push bikes. I noticed that I’ve got into the habit of covering the front brake on both pretty much permanantly these days for exactly this reason.
In the last 4 weeks I’ve had lemmings walk out in front of me and missed them by inches 7 or 8 times. On the push I quite like pulling a huge stoppie as close to them as possible whilst shouting at them, on the proper bike a good loud throttle blip seems to do the trick.
My boss hit someone a couple of weeks ago as well, resulting in him dropping his bike, think the other guy was quite badly hurt but did actually get up and apologise, he knew it was his fault. Good lesson for my boss though I spose as he’s still learning.
A couple of years ago in Richmond I had two 11 year old kids step straight out in front of a bus. It was wet, so I threw my bike down the wrong side of the road to avoid them. They didn’t even stop. Some passers by stopped them, then a policeman turned up with my ambulance. The copper made the boys apologise to me then told me I could sue their parents for damages so what the above posts say is true.
Suffice to say that I didn’t sue the parents for not killing their children and painfully swallowed the cost of the damage myself.
Riding on urban roads you just have to assume someone is going to run out in front of you from between stationary buses etc, just the same as you assume occupants of a stationary car will open their doors on you. Simple solution is to just keep your speed in check and be ready to stop, and never rely on being heard as many people are wired for sound. I never go above 2nd gear in town and that helps keep the old right wrist in check.It’s all part of that wonderful, never-ending learning curve that we call motorcycling :hehe:
