Aren’t you entitled to see footage of you recorded on CCTV under the data protection act (or possibly FOI)? Might be worth trying that line with TfL to get their camera footage.
http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_the_public/topic_specific_guides/cctv.aspx
Conrad B. Well it’s up to you to chose to believe it or not. It’s not my problem
My information comes from two separate people who had very similar accidents to you. (Case 1. Car trying to do an illegal U turn on an A road. Case 2. A vehicle exiting a left hand minor road junction through a line of stationary traffic.) One case settled out of court the other went the full route. Similar outcomes. Both 50% to blame under “contributory negligence” as deemed to be “filtering”.
As for the courtesy vehicle scam, try the Honest John, the Telegraph’s motoring correspondent, web site. O.k. it’s car based but the scam is just the same on bikes as cars. The accident management company apparently take a tidy commission from the rental companies for giving business to them.
if you need transport then take it. i have a courtesy bike as far as i know the insurance pay the rental charge and etc you just pay for the petrol and day to day running of the vehicle.
Oldguy is right - there are backhanders going on all over the place from the hire companies to the insurance companies in order to get you to hire a replacement bike.
Honest John is a good site and his advice is;
When should I not accept a hire vehicle?
If there is any doubt as to whether the other party is 100% liable.
If the damage was minor and your vehicle is drivable (you will not be entitled to a hire vehicle except for the actual period during which the repair is undertaken).
If you have an equivalent vehicle you would not otherwise be using (and would not be depriving another person of using - such as your spouse or partner’s car)
arguably, if you have the means to hire an equivalent vehicle for the full period necessary without suffering any deprivation (deprivation being in the legal sense - that you had no other possible need/use or future use for the money).
This accident management business stinks and the OFT are looking into them trying to find out why Insurance companies do not question the huge costs they charge for a minor accident.
I hit a Porscheat low speed from behind years ago - result was a tiny 2cm scratch on the boot taht you could polish out - bill was £3500 because the accident management company hired a replacement Porsche for a week whilst it was being done - cost to fix scratch £250 - cost of Hire Porsche £3250 …:w00t:
It’s not rubbish, but as Oldguy says, up to you if you want to take the advice.
I had a similar off and the guy disputed it but I had two witnesses. Without those I daresay the outcome would have been 50/50. The point is you have a responsibility to ensure your manoeuvre (I.e. overtaking the stationary traffic) is safe to perform - it’s a grey area which most insurance companies would rather deal with by splitting the costs, rightly or wrongly.
He’ll no doubt argue he did indicate and check his mirror before pulling out and you either approached too fast or were in his blind spot. If you can’t explicitly contradict that you can see how things can become murky.
I’m not sure how it could go against me… As far as I was concerned it was safe to pass the stationary traffic and had no reason to believe any traffic would want to pull out without warning. I’ve got a witness and I’ve applied for the CCTV footage which should show the accident in great clarity.
This camera here. Incident took place around about where that smart car is…
If I do end up getting hold of the footage from TFL I think it’s going to be some pretty damning evidence. The driver had no witnesses and admitted full fault at the scene.
Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated
Good choice declining it, I would do the same, I rather take public transport for a peace of mind for the time being… plus public transport is a lot safer although it might takes longer time to go to work for you…
TfL camera footage could be the clincher. I still wouldn’t bet that you are not going to be held partially responsible as this is a very grey area and some very daft decisions still get handed down in court.
O.K., the guy admitted liability at the time, but without a couple of witnesses that heard it and have made written statements, it’s not worth a light. He’ll just deny that admission.
I hope I’m wrong because I’ve always felt that “filtering” is passing between lines of traffic, what we nearly all do is “overtake”.
Even that is not without some risk of blame. "Overtake only when it is safe to do so"is a commonly stated axiom. The opposition defence will be happy to trot that out.
It was safe to overtake at the time would be my counter argument.
I’ve refused the courtesy bike and I’ve now got some solicitors to represent me and deal with the other party’s insurance company.
I’m so annoyed about this stupid bloke. Why can’t people just be honest and admit it when they’re at fault? And why didn’t any one of the many car drivers even bother to stop and see if I was okay? Only two people from the packed bus stop came over to check on me, the rest just stood there gawping. If this happens again then I’ll just not get up and stay lying in the road until the police arrive then at least a proper report can be made and the police can get hold of the camera footage without me having to bounce around between TFL, Brent, and Hammersmith & Fulham council who are all denying that they have access to the camera in question.
Regarding the footage, the cops know where to get that, they’ll know which operating company looks after that particular camera. I used to work with a co. that monitor the motorway cameras on trunk roads in Scotland. Saw some hilarious stuff on there but also some really grim scenes too. In Scotland the outfit is known to the public as Traffic Scotland but the operating co. at that time was Atkins. Now I think it’s a different co. running under the same title. Anyway it makes it tricky for the public to know who they are and how to contact them. And even then they won’t release footage to any average Joe. Down here it could be local council or a private operating co. depending on where it happened and how the area is divied up.
But the cops know, or at least know who to phone to find out.
Thanks Bonnie Lass - I’m going to call the local station today to see if the Police can help me out…
I’ve currently got a loan bike from BLD after an accident 6 weeks ago. When it was offered I asked under what circumstances I could be held liable for the costs and was told only if it was found that I’d lied about the accident could I be held responsible. As the other party had admitted liability at the scene and in front of a policeman (and I believe that he thought the policeman had witnessed the accident, which he hadn’t) I took the hire bike, but had it not been for the police being there then I probably wouldn’t have. It’s pretty shocking that you can be end up having to pay the costs of the bike if you don’t have a dead cert case, a few years ago I had a loaner (also from BLD) and was told that they absorb the cost if the insurance doesn’t go their way, at £110 per day you would think that the risk of this was built into the cost.