I’ve been involved in an accident and I’m looking for some advice on how to proceed.
This is roughly what happened. I was following a car at a good distance. The car slowed to about 5-10 mph and I slowed down too (to around 20-25 mph), the car then moved to the left hand side of the road and as there was a turning to the left I assumed he was turning into it. As I’ve got to his rear quarter he turned right into his drive way without any indication. I veered to the right and have hit his front right wing and gone over the bonnet. I’m ok but there’s some light damage to my bike.
I’ve swapped details with the guy and said that if he pays for the important bit to be repaired I’ll leave it at that. The important bits being the bars and bar mounts, hand guards, and the right foot peg. The brake lever is scratched along with the right rear peg, right rear indicator and rear fender but as I don’t think these are important and I’ve not asked him to pay for them. The quotes are around £300 for the work. I’ve not mentioned personal injury or damage to my jacket or helmet.
I think I’ve been very reasonable and patient as this happened almost 4 weeks ago and the guy hasn’t committed either way. Last night he told me that he thought I was trying to make money out him!!!
I have reported the accident to police and have called my insurance company, but I would rather avoid losing my NCB. I don’t feel the accident was my fault but I think the outcome would be along the lines of 50-50.
Any advice is welcome but I’m specifically looking for advice on what to do next. As for the accident and my riding, I’ve been over it a thousand times and given his misleading information and lack of indication I’m sure I’m not at fault. but if anybody would like to voice there opinion please do, I will at least read what you have to say.
MMMM the bloke says he will pay at the scene and now he is getting funny. Your right to get suspect about this. If I were you I would go through insurance.
It sounds to me like he was at fault. Maybe expecting him to turn left was a small fault of yours but in the end he swung out right with no indication. He was driving without due care and attention and failed to instruct other road users of his intentions before making a turn. Have a long chat with your insirance company and tell them that you take no responsibilty for this accident. In my opinion it’s his fault entirely.
As he was at fault he surely won’t be able to claim from your insurance company?
Ow, midlife, bad luck! It’s clear cut for everyone here to see, though you will have a hard time getting it to side with you, as you have no witnesses. There’s nothing to say he didn’t indicate, and that you didn’t still overtake if he was indicating, so in all likely-hood, it’d end up being classed as a 50/50 blame accident, which isn’t something you want!
But by the same token, you had no intention of your body, bike, jacket and helmet being damaged that day, so why should you put up with any damage, or any cost? No doubt the legal bodies mentioned here can give some professional advice, and you’d be well advised to speak to them.
Sounds like a crappy situation, I hope you get it sorted to your satisfaction.
Thanks to everybody, I’ve had a stack of response to this from various sources and thought it worth giving an update.
I’ve sent the guy a letter stateing that I hold him responsible for the accident and am looking to claim all costs from him.
I’ve been intouch with a few people, and had some great help form a guy on the Mcnninjas.co.uk site who has put everybody straight on the cbr-forum.net aswell as feedback from London Advanced Motorcylists and RoSPA Smart. I’ve spoken to Goodge Law 0207 636 9222 and they have taken on my case.
I feel more at ease with the situation now that the ball is rolling and everybody seems to be on my side.
I’m very critical of my riding and have spent many a sleepless night going though what happened, coming to the conclussion that I was not at fault, which is very frustrating as there’s nothing I can do to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Anyway, my advice to anybody that’s caught in the same situation would be to stay on the floor and get the police and ambulance to attend, then call some one like Goodge Law. I guess this is comonsense to most poeple.
Hopefully, the car driver will learn to look out for bikes in the future.
Good luck. Its seems like its going to be a long haul, so keep your strength up. My accident was 100% the fault of the car driver and its causing me so much hassle and its made worse with my back pain but hopefully its all sorted.
What didnt help was that my solicitor said that she has written to his insurance company and by law the have 3 months to investigate despite the case being so clear cut.
If the legal eagles think you have no real chance, they wont bother wasting anybodys time, if they look at the details and are happy to proceed, you have a really decent chance, the law works in funny ways at times, things that seem innocuous become crucial, other “damning evidence” is totally irrelevant.
As a 3x “winner” with insurance claims over the years I personally think the most imporatant thing is to contact all those witnesses who gave you their details and get them to contact your legal team asap. I was outraged when years ago i had an off in Earls Court that was witnessed by a woman who claimed to be what turned out to be 300m away and could see an accident happening accross the whole very busy A4 junction !!! Amazingly her “view” allowed her to see my bike was speeding [they always try that one, just to get it notched down to attribute some % of blame to you]. Luckily I had 3 [totally genuine] witnesses who were, 18 months later they were still f*******ed off enough about the mad Polish bint’s driving to stick to their stories and offer to attend court if neccesary…
As usually happens, I got offers of £3k, £4.5k, 1 week before court, £6k, day before £7.5k “paid into court”…as I was only after £9.2 my brief advised/told me to take the £7.5k and avoid the risk of court finding me 10 or 20% to blame. Court would then ask what was paid in [7.5k m’lud] calculate £9.2k [if i got every penny] minus 10 or 20% [dangerously near 7.5k] and then ask me why I had been so greedy as to waste courts time trying for every penny…so the charmers take 20% off the 9.2k AND make you pay 3-4-5K towards court expenses. Always take the final offer, 5.30 pm day before, unless they are way off with their offer, but bear in mind if they are way off, it is because they think they have a decent chance of beating you.
Somewhere I have a letter that has been used for exactly this same incident. Appaerently it has never failed. Someone I work with used it and went from 50/50 to complete payout. Think its on my pc at homeso when I get back there I shall look it out and post it up.
Other than that, bad news on the bike front but good that you are ok.
I had an almost identical accident a good few years back, except I had a witness. The guy I was passing indicated and turned as I was actually overtaking. My legal cover took care of it and I came out well. I hope you have the same luck as I did. The car driver that hit you was definitely in the wrong IMHO, whether he/she indicated or not.
i aint no expert, in fact, since im Forums youngest member, i think im worst @ knowing but i think im right in saying that it defo isnt your fault.
this guy had no indicator on and looked like he was turnin left and like what all peeps do, goes past em but here, he didnt ave any indicator and turned the other way.
if it was me, i would get my insurance into it and get sum good earn compensation (if u can 4 this) 4 it so u can sort your bike out.
if this bloke said he thinks u trying 2 bugger him over well try get all u can off him cos i think im right by saying your entitled 2 it!
g/l
