Hit and Run!!

[PBCup]

Well he/she did not actually hit me but they pulled out infront of me which caused me to swerve and come off and then they drove of leaving me on the floor.

Just can't believe someone would drive off.

I'm ok but I have suspected ligament damage in my left knee as I twisted it when I came off. I have a big bruise on my hip and have pain down my neck and shoulder.

The bike will be written of I think cos is is only worth say £1200 and needs quite a few parts.

I dont care about the bike I just want the person caught cos it was not my fault and I dont think I should loose out financial by claiming on my insurance.

[V2]

Sorry to be a downer but ive heard nothing will happen as there was no "accident" (ie vehicle contact), next time make sure you hit them

oh and GWS!

[rhone81]

[G]

See this thread for a very similar situation:
https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=166587&highlight=

If you don't care about the bike, why not fix it up yourself?
I don't know the damage, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could do it for less than your excess on the insurance.

[PBCup]

Well I have 2 witnesses that said I could do nothing about it.

One witness phoned an ambulence and the police and fire brigade. (bit embarassing).

The copper who came said if they find the driver I should be able to claim from their insurance. I may not have hit them but they 100% caused me to come off.

There is aa ok chance of finding them too cos they pulled out of a small area for flats and I know the make model and colour so here's hoping that they get found out!!

[Drew]

[PBCup]

I was not going too quick. The person pulled out from a very minor road on to the main road.

There were no blind spots.

I basically had too options crash straight into the car or try and avoid it. Unfortunately trying to avoid it did not work and a hit the curb and came off.

I know from an insurance point of view I should have hit them but what would you rather do. Hit a car or fall on to a grass verge?

My boss broke his femur hitting a car and I have only got ligament damage.

[V2]

[Towton 1461]

[V2]

[Towton 1461]

[Finglonga]

[V2]

[Towton 1461]

[thegubner]

[Finglonga]

[PBCup]

I'm not holding out much hope on finding the driver. But if they do it will be great.

I just hope that if they are not found I can claim through the MIB so that I dont come out of this worse of than I started.(money wise)

If I get a little extra for having a busted knee and sore neck then I have to be honest and say that will be more than welcome.

Also I have not been biking long (passed test in sept 08 after about 3 years on L Plates) and I have to be honest it has dented my confidence and I'm not sure I'll be getting a new bike straight away.

I have a 6 week old baby girl and I'm worried that my next crash (and there will be one I certain) will be a biggie and I will be properly hurt and I dont think I can let that happen now.

[PBCup]

Might have some more chance off getting the driver.

1 There is a shop on the road and I think they have CCTV so if it points to the road we could prove what car was there at the time.

2 My boss's brother is a traffic cop who deals with accidents so my boss is gonna have a word and see if he can help.

[G]

My apologies, from the initial post it seemed like the swerving caused him to crash, not hitting the curb.

However, I'd be willing to bet the situation could still have been avoided.

No, I wasn't there, but I have been involved in (though mine are pretty much all single-party) bike crashes as well as avoiding a hell of a lto more and seen/read about enough others to have a reasonable idea of what can and can't be done.

Witnesses often don't mean much; I've seen similar situations where the witnesses are happy to swear blind that it was all the bike rider's 'fault' when they are obviously the one that failed to take action to avoid an obstruction caused by another vehicle, etc.

And no, I wasn't saying that every bike accident is avoidable (by the rider) but will happily say it. I'm not claiming I'm perfect, far from it... I've probably crashed bikes on the road more than all the other people in this post put together.
Maybe not every single one, but definitely six sigma or better (99.9999%) of them could be avoided by better skills on the rider's part, I'd say.

PBCup: if you take the attitude that you're certain there will be another accident, then there probably will be. Plenty of people manage to ride their entire biking lives over hundreds of thousands of miles with out crashing.
I'll offer my usual advice, which is to look in to some 'advanced riding' techniques.
Just a thought, but if you couldn't stop in time on the bike, you are unlikely to be able to in a car either... sure, you get all sorts of extra 'safety', but how much that would help your daughter is another matter .

Incidentally, I'd like to make it clear that I'm not suggesting that the driver wasn't to 'blame' on a moral or legal stand point - I'm quite sure they were from what I read.

[thegubner]

[G]

No, I was not posting to 'make myself look clever'. If I wanted to try and 'impress' people, this definitely wouldn't have been the thread to do it in. Nor would I choose this forum at all, thinking about it.
So, I'll bite on your dangling bait... replying with 'bollocks' to half of my points doesn't make you look clever either, regardless of how you may view the intentions of my posts.

The accident, as I said, "I'd be willing to bet" could have been avoided; the assumption was that given the same situation and different actions on the rider's parts. Obviously had the rider been sittin on a beach in South Africa, it would have been unlikely to happen, I presumed this would have been taken as said, I apologise for not clarifying it at the time.
And this, I would have thought, was also obvious when I suggested bike accidents were avoidable - those with over 100k miles under their belts accident free, I would have thought made this quite clear I was not considering people who don't ride their bikes.

You, it seems, think it's rubbish that if you've gained experience in an area that you will have some knowledge about similar situations. I think it's a logical and reasonable assumption to make personally... luckily, otherwise finding any kind of slightly skilled employment would be much harder!

Would you happily support a witnesses view where they said a 400cc sports bike rider going at 25mph in 30mph zone was 'going way too fast'? Unless the witnesses are seasoned accident investigators or at least know well how a bike handles, it's unlikely they'll have a good idea of whether an accident was avoidable or not.
In my experience, most members of the general public have little understanding of how quickly bikes can turn or accelerate, as well as how unstable they can be when put in situations requiring braking and turning at the same time, etc.
A driver at my last company complained that I was a terrible danger to kittens when I was in the middle of the car-park. I moved out of the way of his speeding car coming around a blind corner easily in plenty of time, yet he thought I was being a terrible danger still.

As I've been trying to explain, just because one person is unobservant, doesn't mean the other has to suffer for it if they make an extra effort to compensate.
However it does seem to be the victim-mentality a lot of bikers do have; "Well there's nothing I can do about, it's all these lazy car driver's fault for being unobservant"; ignoring the fact that some effort on their part could save them a lot of pain in the long run.

[thegubner]

[PBCup]

Can I just say that I think it is a bit off saying that accidents can be avoided on the bikers part on a thread about someone being injuryed.

Dont want the violins out or owt but I have seen this in other threads too.

[G]

I regularly do this when people say "there was nothing I could have done" because, as I've said in my experieince there pretty much always is.
In enough cases people have thought about this and decided to reconsider their riding in the future, possibly saving themselves a lot of pain, time and money thus it's something I'm happy to continue doing.

I haven't been in quite the same crash- ituation and appreciate it may not be nice to be told that, however I have (as I mentioned in the thread I linked too) crashed bikes quite a lot of times on the road. Unfortunately a couple of times this has also involved cars acting slightly oddly, but not enough for me to asociate the blame to them.
I have had a hell of a lot of people pull out on me etc, I suspect it's more luck than skill in a lot of cases that I've avoided them. However I'm well aware of the possibilities for riding in a more defensive manner and the way that accidents can be avoided even if I am may not actually react that way in a panic situation.

[thegubner]

Give it up for G

his experience has taught him everythking about every biking situation, he doesn't even need to be there, what a bloke!