I hit a pedestrian last week. From stationary at the lights I turned left and saw chummy about 70ft away in the dark, dressed in black running in the road towards me. Did my lifesaver moved right to go around him, looked back and he’d moved to my right too. I hooted and then realised that he has his headphones on and is looking down at his phone. I know we’re gonna collide even with maximum breaking applied, up comes the rear wheel and I flip the bike (yep, that one) end over end head-butting him in the chest before the bike lands on top of me. Good job the bike has a spongy seat! Turns out chummy was straight out the pub and the Police report will say that he’s clearly intoxicated.
The good news is that I will have to inform my insurers, meaning the car and bike premiums will increase regardless of him trying to claim. Given the current compensation culture we currently live in, coupled with the no-win-no-fee firms out there I expect to hear from chummy soon…
Still, I managed not to punch the mouthy mutha-phucka’s head off! Hats off to Plodthough . They, as expected, were excellent…if a little over prescribed, 4-6 vehicles turned up. First on scene a BMW X5 with personnel carrying assault riffles, a van containing sniffer dog (no, explosives apparently), several other cars - traffic and flatfoots. I do hope City of London Police dont invoice me for that lot!
Hope you are ok. What really annoys me about these situations is if this happened in Germany the expectation is that people have public liability insurance, so there’s no dogma about suing stupid pedestrians that have cost you thousands in damage / premiums increase
My GF has come off her bike twice through pedestrians stepping out from behind stationary buses. Luckily no damage in all cases beyond a scratched fairing.
I hate to say it but no matter how inebriated, or lost in his headphones world, the guy was, 70 feet was plenty of time for you to stop your vehicle; especially as you had clear sight of him the whole time.
Yes Michael, had I not done my lifesaver I would have seen him change direction and possibly gone left, but on another day I would have moved to the right without the lifesaver and collided with someone deciding to overtake me cause I’ve slowed down. Given he didnt stop running until I head butting him in the chest, had I been stationary we’d still be having this discussion cause he’d still have run into me.
Aceman, as you know, he’ll still claim to be skint!
This is how the zombie outbreak has started, the mix of germs and rust from that bike is now flowing in that pedestrian. maybe that’s why armed police and sniffer dogs where there to take him off and put a few rounds into him once you left?
Hope all goes well tho George and sorry to hear this xxx
The good news is that I will have to inform my insurers, meaning the car and bike premiums will increase regardless of him trying to claim. Given the current compensation culture we currently live in, coupled with the no-win-no-fee firms out there I expect to hear from chummy soon...
Whilst I am sorry to har about your off, do not blame it on no win no fee companies, believe me, come the day that you need legal representation after a crash, you will be thankfull for the CFA as it is the best way to fund your case compared with legal expenses insurance where you will get ripped off.
On top of that, be aware that there have been a lot of cases where the drunk pedestrian has sue the driver/rider and come away with a judgement in their favour
So the police heard there was a riot? No wander they sent so much enforcement.
On a serious note glad your not too banged up and I hope you not feeling too sore and the riot isn’t any worse for it.
I do hate all this “where there’s blame there’s a claim” culture. Unfortunately chummy may claim, not necessarily claim to get anything out of you but to protect himself in case you claim against him. I think, but am no expert by any means, legally speaking your best bet is to launch a claim against him. The slightly more humane thing to do would be to contact him and see if he’s alright, however that might be risky legally speaking.
I hit a pedestrian a few months back.
The idiot ran out infront of me whilst I was filtering, but not out from between cars, from my right side where there were no cars. He gave me 5 metres to stop.
Luckily my bike doesn’t weigh much and has brembo brakes, I managed to polish off most of my speed and keep the bike up. I hit him, but not hard.
I had several witnesses come forward, including 2 off duty police officers, to my defence. The guy had headphones in, saw me, but bolted anyway. He got a grilling.
Only issue is if the police don’t file a report (as they didn’t in my case) you can’t take him to a small claims court to claim back damages to your bike.
As for suing, he could do so easily but I’m not sure he would risk it, you have a strong case working for you and if he loses he will have to foot a big bill
