I had an accident at the start of August where i stopped to let a pedestrian cross a zebra crossing. So i stop, look at the pedestrian and the next thing i know, wallop! Mr Merc was not concentrating and went straight into the back of me, so me at 0mph and mr merc at 30 odd mph. To make matters worse, he hit me twice!
Mr merc did stop and i did get his details. I had the usual pains at the time but a few weeks later they took a turn for the worse and i had a slipped disc and trapped nerve which left me bed ridden for 3 and a half weeks.
The police look like they are going to prosecute pending me sending some final forms. Im thinking, should i prosecute or not?? Im not personally achieving anything from having his prosecuted but he really should have been concentrating as it could have been a lot worse.
My bikes’ semi fixed, im nearly back to full fitness and im still smiling so should i or not?
Yes you should. You should also claim on their insurance for any loss.
It’s rare enough for the police to prosecute the person who causes an accident so run with it. Anyone who can’t see a stopped bike directly in front of then wouldn’t have seen a person on the crossing. We all complain about people speaking on a mobile phone while driving or not looking well you have a chance to help penalise someone who drove with their eyes closed.
If you don’t help with the prosecution how would you ever be able to complain again about car drivers not looking?
I’m surprised the decision to prosecute or not lies with you. Surely, the CPS makes that decision. As for any forms, you probably have to, even for insurance purposes, send them to the Police.
In any case, he should be prosecuted. It might be just the kick up his backside he needs to pay more attention on the road. What if you had been knocked forward into the pedestrian crossing, hitting a small child? What if you had been a pregnant ped rider? What if, as has happened before, he’d knocked you off the bike and you’d falled sideways into the path of another car?
He feels so secure in his steel cage that he fails to appreciate that there are other people far more vulnerable on the roads than he is, for whom the steel cage represents a deadly weapon. Sometimes they need reminding of this. Unfortunately, sometimes they only get this once they’re hit where it hurts: their wallets. Just think what his insurance premium will be when he renews it with a conviction for dangerous driving, or whatever it will be! Might encourage him to look at smaller cars…
Snap! We live in a society and there’s a system to take care of things like that! In my opinion you should follow this system and prosecute! Even if you give the money to a charity (our charity for example,lol). but it’s for the moral of it you should go!
The law says that you should drive concentrated! Hit someone from behind on a zebra crossing is wrong, this person shouldn’t get away with that! If he get’s away? He will be spreading the word that ‘sometimes you get away with it’ . No good! I would prosecute it as I would feel like I was doing my bit to keep the order in the society! Committed a crime? Should be judged! Let the cort decide! He pays his insurance for that! So do you!
with out a doubt Mate I’ve i had a slipped disc and trapped nerve in the past and have to tell you the bad news your back will be weak forever Terry so i hope you are taking him for compensation!!!
I agree with Sickpup, he could very well have killed the person crossing the road, so I think you have a duty as a good member of society to make sure bad drivers like this are reprimanded.
deffinately prosecute. i had a car accident a few years ago and nearly didn’t prosecute cos it was dragging on for so long. glad i did tho, cos i still have back problems 3 years on which the treament woulda cost me over a ton a month if i hadn’t claimed. plus, if you weren’t there to hit, he’d have taken out anyone who was crossing the road, might teach him to look at the road he was driving his 4 wheeled legal killing machine on. or then again, it might not.
Snap, do it, how will car driver get any better if no one points out there errors. no doing it will re inforce drivers thought that they can hit bikes and get away with it, or that it’s our fault they hit us.
If your still not sure think about him sitting in a resturant have a meal with friends, he starts to talk about the accident and that he was in the right as nothing has come of it, everybody at the table will agree. If your bloods not boiling now, just leave it.
Call this Guy if you haven’t started to claim everything from the other party. Goodge Law, Mike Greenstein 02076369222 http://www.goodgelaw.com/
He’s handling my claim with the KTM,
Merc driver are the fecking worst in my eye’s. Company car drivers that don’t know how big the car is and don’t concentrate on what there doing, or the Merc driving wife that’s concentrating on what the kids are doing in the back. Didn’t like them before one took me out, hate the feckers now. I assume everybody in a merc doesn’t have a licence. The newer the car the worse the driving. RANT OVER
I am making an insurance claim but i dont expect much since i wasnt working at the time and my soliciter is utterly USELESS!!!
Word of advice to anyone involve in an accident - think twice about using the soliciters appointed by your legal cover! Use rider support and such organisations who specialise in motorcycle injury claims.
snap, wat about the stress and the panic attacks and the general mental anuguish u experience at every zebra crossing you stop at now, and the sore back and the effect it has on your every day life, not to mention the affect a bad back can have on your sex life, and subsequently your relationship etc etc etc if you get my point
whether u were working or not is of no consequence to the damage the accident did or didn’t cause, i’m a freelancer and had just finished a contract luckily i guess so stricktly speaking i wasn’t employed either but it prevented me from looking for work so i claimed for loss of proposed future earnings too, which u can do.
the fecker ran me off the road on a motorway cos he was too blind to see my car, so god forbid if he ever comes into contact with bikes atall! infact he didn’t noticed he’d actually hit my car until he’d driven up the length of my car in his 4x4 complete with bullbars and i shouted at him thro the open window!! and then he tried to say it was my fault… 4x4 drivers need shooting, along with mercs, white vans and volvo drivers.
ok, can someone get me down off this soap box please
snap, the answer is yes, the police like to prosecute everyone where an injury has occurred to another, this may also help with your claim for compensation in the future. providing there is evidence of carelessness (driving at 30 near a pedestrian crossing that someone is using is pretty careless) then the Police would normally recommend prosecution.
whether the CPS would run it is another matter - unless the injuries are serious, they seem to take the view that it is not in the public interest.
an accident reconstruction expert will tell you that it is common for there to be two impacts in a shunt. something to do with the laws of physics and conservation of momentum. when the vehicle at the back hits the one at the front, it pushes it forward (obviously) but the second car also carries on travelling forwards. the car in front comes to a stop, but because of the speed of the second car, it carries on and whacks the first car again.
i was always in the belief that if a person descended by parachute onto a pedestrian crossing and you the driver of a motor vehicle hit that person, then you that same driver were guilty of at least driving without reasonable consideration for other road users.
to add to that view, if a motor vehicle is for the time being stationary on a road at or near a pedestrian crossing in order to allow a pedestrian safe access to cross the road, and whilst so stopped was struck from behind by a moving motor vehicle, the driver of that motor vehicle shall be guilty of the offence of driving without due care and attention. in view of the location of the traffic accident the penalty should be close to the maximum for that offence.
as stated previously above, a conviction will greatly assist in any civil claim against the offenders insurance.
One side of me would say do it for sure but the other says no. Like when I plowed into the back of a merc in the car. Totally my fault and I felt very guilty. However it was a mistake all in all and I really didn’t mean to do it. We have all done it take your concentration away for a second and wollop. It’s easy done. If he was perhaps speeding then maybe so but sounds like he wasn’t speeding. I very much doubt he would do it intentionally and if you prosecute and he gets stung big time his attitude towards bikers could possbly worsen. However at the end of the day mate it’s your call.
Did he appologise and was he genuinely sorry for causing the accident and checking if you were ok? In my book people behaving in an apolgetic manner in this kind of incident goes a long way. However, if he was arrogant with no manners sue his a^%e!
This is something you shouldn’t have to consider. Of course you should if he thinks he can go driving round half asleep or not paying attention then he should have his licence taken from him.
Ihad the same sort of thing happen to me a couple of years back… I had the same form, my decision… I prosecuted the twat… didn’t have to go to court… It was all sorted out without me being there…
Got a £500 cheque through the post a few months later… Compensation!!! Better than nothing I suppose…
