careless piece of driving. but you were following too close. and i cant see his mirrors either.
Hey, the volunteer pub! I know it well.Bexleyheath yeh?
Sorry to see that woozy mate. Hope the bike isnt too bad. I can only repeat as others have said, in that the van driver was too quick to reverse, gave no indication of his intent & you were in his blind spot.
Imho, van drivers are the most hazardous vehicles on the road. They have had no further training (from passing their car licence) and have the worse all-round vision.
We used to have reversing cameras in our lorries & they were good but forever broken. Now we have sensors that just shrill as soon as it goes into reverse. Equally as useless.
Only other thing I can say is, always expect vans to be making frequent stops. From memory there is a builders merchants further up on the corner too and right on a blind bend? Think about who you are following, where they might be going etc. Local knowledge is invaluable.
Fingers crossed the bike is ok for you.
went to my local minor injuries. said i have bruising but that seems all. said if my bones were broken or fractured in the bum area i would be able to sit down and peeing would hurt. so yeah just soft tissue damage it seems. will see how the murmuring pain goes.
as for the bike. it feels the same and looks the same with exception of a couple of stratches on the bar ends / side crash bars. forks appear trim to me
should i maybe write to DPD asking for out of court settlement or something for about £100 for the scratches. I didnt go into work after this of course. I had fallen off a 10ft ladder a week and a half ago landing on the same place and hurting my neck. i didnt get checked over though. but todays fall brought the pain back. though now its back to a murmer feeling. no agony.
Niteowl:
yes bexleyheath. i live nearby near parsonage manorway
Check your gear level/foot peg isnt bent. I had a varadero and remember they were not all that strong.
Bexleyheath was my stomping ground for years. This was before it all changed. I remember when Asda was the cinema and when you could drive down “the broadway”.
So you all agree Woozy was following too close and that we could only see the van’s mirrors on one occasion, yet you still blame the van driver?
Glad you are not badly injured mate but in my opinion there’s at least 50/50 blame here.
Woozy take your time, record it with your insurance company. You may have some issues you have not discovered yet.
If the van driver reversed over a mother with a pram and child crossing the road behind him (i have not watched the video, they are banned on this office network, so i cannot see, but you say he reversed into you) he would be in a lot more sh1t.
But you have learned to be more defensive, right? Stay to the side, or way back -he MIGHT have seen you then. And even if he does not, if he reverses, you can still go forwards and ride round him.
Mate go and get checked, properly. I neglected my injury from December and it bite me in my butt last week (and that was neck and back). I will quote chiropractor, “You would be surprised how much your body can compensate, but everything has it’s limits”. So probably instead of £30 I will pay 3-4 times of that for the visits and sorting everything out. So ask yourself are you have money to do that in 5 months time, when you be barley able to walk.
So go to your local hospital or this minor injury, tell everything to the doctor, if he/she don’t check your spine its a waste of time…
Again, there is no question it was his fault and you will get all expenses covered.
I would say there is slight chance to avoid it by correct positioning but well don’t take it as a pointing you as a party who cause this accident. You were victim here!
R
Yeah I still consider the van driver 100% responsible and I don’t have a problem at all saying that. I don’t think Woozy was riding “unreasonably close”, not was he speeding or driving wrecklessly. However, what I and several others have suggested is a way to be even safer knowing that people do stoopid ****. That is suggesting a “higher standard” of riding - more than is legally required in order to keep him safer. If his driving was below the standard required by law - then yes he would share the blame - but given that Woozy was able to stop with no sudden braking and still have a decent gap between him and the van I don’t see where he could be liable at all.
I agree he was not riding recklessly, but if you stay within a van drivers blind spot and he then reverses into you, how can the van driver be 100% at fault?
"I agree he was not riding recklessly, but if you stay within a van drivers blind spot and he then reverses into you, how can the van driver be 100% at fault? "
Because the van driver had a responsibility/duty to make sure it was safe to reverse and should have indicated his intention to others. Woozy was stationary behind him and had done nothing negligent/reckless to contribute to the accident and could not reasonably have reacted faster/differently once he saw the van reversing. As someone above said - that could have been a mother/child crossing behind the van assuming the van had passed and having no indication of his intention. The van driver selected reverse and very suddenly started the move… even to the point of catching his electronic reversing camera on the hop…
Missed out the lack of indication. Fair enough.
But you have to remember, whilst it might appear to be clearly the van drivers fault (excuse the pun) his insurance might argue differently and go for 70/30 etc.
The only mistake the van driver made, was doing the reverse in haste. I always check mirrors, indicate left, check the junction you are about to reverse into as you pass it, look for hazards. Then mirrors again, then reverse. if someone has been sat behind me, I wont see him.
I doubt even I would have seen woozy following. What else can you do? Get out and check? To a certain extent with reversing, you can only do so much. You are partly dependant on hoping people realise what you are about to do & keeping clear. Hence, hazard lights, engage reverse & pause for a few seconds before moving. This is why it hacks me off when peds still walk behind me when im reversing. If they slip or fall, theyre getting squashed.
That is why, who have better layer will win.
The most fair point is “reverse in haste”. If the indicator would occur, and then reverse light and 1-3 sec gap between these two and manoeuvre I’m sure woozy would have time to honk at him or just shout or something. And that’s why “Your Honour” I would like to ask for prosecution of the driver, for lack of awareness.
I will say that again, my post was not to point out who fault it was or was not, it was for all of us to remember what to do on the road.
R
Yeah but in this case the van driver said (woozy I assume you have that statement on camera?) his reversing camera didn’t even come on in time to see what was behind him. So his van has a system fitted for avoiding this sort of accident and either it was faulty OR he just failed to wait an appropriate time for the camera to be active and then check it. Either way - he (or the van owners) was negligent and therefore liable.
By the way the van has the reversing beepers fitted. He hit woozy on the second beep (and it sounds like 2 beeps a second) - so it shows how quickly he selected reverse and started his maneuver.
Totally agree, the van driver WAS at fault, he rushed it, however the trick to avoiding (most) accidents is pre-empting other vehicle’s movements, anticipation etc and making allowances for their mistakes or inexperience.
As I mentioned before, he is a delivery driver, they make frequent stops. He has blind spots, its an area in which there are delivery yards. Same as buses pull in, taxis doing sudden uturns, tractors near farm entrances. Little clues and signs are there, if we look for them.
Its a lesson we all go through. Everybody makes mistakes, even the best of us. The secret is to learn from it.
Its all been said and the main thing is that you’re OK, now for my two penneth
100% van drivers fault absolutely no question. Because the van driver should have known you was there. He should have noticed you at the right turn by The Volunteer Public House. You could clearly see the driver in the drivers door mirror and through the drivers door window as he made the turn! Your positioning for the turn was perfect and the van driver should have noticed you and seen your right turn indicator and been aware that you where making a right turn behind him. Also he should have remained aware you were behind him 12 seconds later!
One question you will need to give some thought to is why didn’t you sound your horn?
To talk about asking for a £100 settlement is ridiculous, their insurance excess is probably around £1000.00. Contact White Dalton Solicitors as soon as possible, show them the video footage and be guided by their advise. Get your bike checked over by a Honda dealer, what caused all the scuffing to the road surface at 1:04 and what was that you picked up at 1:12 all damage, even minor scratches need to be put right. You’re not taking advantage of being in the right, its simple a question of having your bike exactly as it was before the van driver knocked you off. Also if your suffering any pain as a result take some time off work to recover properly, you’re also entitled to claim any loss of earnings as a result.
For the future self preservation is the name of the game on two wheels, don’t ride so close and watch for the little clues, at 0:31 the van clearly makes a sudden slight swerve to the right, what he’s actually doing is lining up for the reversing manoeuvre and giving himself a better view in the passenger door mirror, which probably had all his attention as he made the turn :w00t:
If you want to be seen hang back, if you want to heard get yourself a pair of these cheap as chips on ebay, very very loud and a nice shade of blue to match the bike 
inter webby wotsit here
many thanks all for the valid advice. I truly will go through it all; again and decide my course of action. for some reason i have felt really tired since this happened too.
Art. i did think horn as he reversed but brain didnt engage fingers on horn button… :ermm:
btw seeing there is a personal injury and damage have you reported this too the police ? within 24hrs
as should other driver
Having got home and seen the video, its easy to see how the kid in the van was was completely in the wrong. You say he had a reversing camera, but he didnt use it. That sucks. If you lose out on this woozy that’s just crap. He reverses in a stationary object (you). There’s no excuse. You weren’t deceiving him. Very good reason to have a video.
People are saying you can’t see vans mirrors but camera is on right side of bike. Left side of bike may have been visible to left mirror of van at other times.
You were not right up close behind him all the time so there were opportunities for him to see you.
As others have said vans may make frequent stops and riding too close may mean you hit it when it stops suddenly and then it would be your fault.
in this case however you were able to stop safely and no collusion occurred until he took the decision to reverse without prior warning.