ALtercation with a car just now- what next?

mrtEE · World Chat Champion Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Karma :

About half an hour ago I had an accident with a car in Richmond.

My view of it is as follows: i overtook the car on the right hand side and as I was overtaking she saw a parking space on the other side of the road so suddenly swerved over to the right without looking and thus I impacted the car on the right hand side.

Luckily I somehow kept the bike upright and pulled over. THe damage to my bike was just a very bent footpeg. My body hit her car quite hard and left numerous dents on her A-class 2004 mercedes. She said to me afterwards "I didnt see you" and we exchanged details.

Another biker saw what happened as he was following and pulled over. He left me his details as a witness. He said to me "She only indicated just as she was turning, but also you were overtaking aggresively". So at thsi stage he hasnt confirmed whether he would be a favorable witness to me, and only I have his details.

Theres no way she did any observation before she turned, she wouldnt have had time and as she said she didnt see me.

My feeling is that she may try and claim off me as her expensive car has some dents in it.

My question is how shall I proceed from here? and what do you think will happen with this woman? will she try and blaim me?

dainesefreak · World Chat Champion Joined: 04 Apr 2003 Karma :

mrtEE · World Chat Champion Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Karma :

Kickstart · The Oracle Joined: 04 Feb 2002 Karma :

Hi

Car that new is almost certainly fully comp, and she will almost certainly put a claim in. Her insurance company will quite possibly try claiming from yours irrespective of whether you inform them or not (ie, short of you paying for the damage to her car irrespective of fault there is little that you can now do to affect whether you loose your no claims or not). They will likely try it on claiming from your insurance company even if they know they are liable.

Take pictures of the damage to your bike. Take pictures of the road. Inform your insurance company. Write it up with diagrams.

Fault wise it is difficult to know. As such it might well go 50 / 50. The witness will probably help your case.

All the best

Keith
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mrtEE · World Chat Champion Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Karma :

Kickstart · The Oracle Joined: 04 Feb 2002 Karma :

map · Mr Calendar Joined: 14 Jun 2004 Karma :

I'd see how it goes.
Report to the police just to say it's done.
Can report to insurance but make clear there is no claim on your part.

Overtaking is a valid manoeuvre. However, if it was at junctions (doesn't sound like it was) then you'd be in the wrong. Also bear in mind that one persons 'aggressive overtake' could ba another's 'making progress'. So unless your witness has some qualification (police rider, possible advanced certificate, IAM, RoSPA) then it is only his opinion that can be argued against.

Whilst not the law the highway code is often used as a reference for such incidents. You could have a look. Although it's on a filtering accident this link - click click - from sv650.org may be of some use, especially the observation before manoeuvre bit.

Hope this helps Thumbs Up

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yambabe · World Chat Champion Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Karma :

Just as an aside, if the claim is for damage only and no injuries you might not lose your no-claims.

When I backed our car into one of our neighbours' by accident, I reported it to the insurance straight away. I know they paid out (think she got about £700) but I didn't lose my no-claims because they said (I think) that it was a loss, not a claim? And my premiums didn't go up either, in fact I changed insurers last year and despite disclosing the bump my premiums went down by a considerable amount!
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illusion · Scooby Slapper Joined: 04 Apr 2005 Karma :

Same thing has happened to me before however I was in a car overtaking and they went to do a u-turn and smacked into me. They treid blaming me but I won in the end because it all came down to the fact that she did not look before she made the u-turn so it was her fault. By the sounds of it you should be alright.

Ragdoll · Spanner Monkey Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Karma :

Don't contact her yourself. This could work against you. You need to do everything above board just in case it jumps up and bites you on the bum.

Do what map says and report it to the police. Even though everything seems hunky dory now, by the time she's got home and thought about it she may have a different view of things. Do it all while it's fresh in your mind and write down notes of anything you think is of importance.
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Ragdoll · Spanner Monkey Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Karma :

Don't contact her yourself. This could work against you. You need to do everything above board just in case it jumps up and bites you on the bum.

Do what map says and report it to the police. Even though everything seems hunky dory now, by the time she's got home and thought about it she may have a different view of things. Do it all while it's fresh in your mind and write down notes of anything you think is of importance.
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mrtEE · World Chat Champion Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Karma :

Thanks for the replies so far... but I jsut had an interesting phone call from the girls mother. She started the call asking for my insurance details etc, and then went on the defensive saying "oh you were probably speeding (the slag wasnt even there) and you hit the rear side of the car so its your fault".

I then said I had a witness who said otherwise and she changed her tune saying she would rather not claim if possible.

She left it saying that I should ring her back tommorow morning to see if I want to claim or not, and if I dont want to claim then she woudl rather not.

This could work out nicely- I jsut need to use a steel pipe to bend the foot peg back on my commuter hack bike!

dodsi · Dirty Carny Joined: 06 Aug 2004 Karma :

Brick_Top · Spanner Monkey Joined: 20 Oct 2004 Karma :

MINT nice one bro - all sorted then Wink

London...

mrtEE · World Chat Champion Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Karma :

heres the damage to my hack

mrtEE · World Chat Champion Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Karma :

just had an interesting thought... i ahve the details of the only witness, she doesnt. If she decided toi claim against me whats to stop me saying I was never even there?

Wink

Brick_Top · Spanner Monkey Joined: 20 Oct 2004 Karma :

You gaver her your details...

mrtEE · World Chat Champion Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Karma :

paulthewitt · World Chat Champion Joined: 17 May 2004 Karma :

she only indicated as she swerved out, and had no real reason to swerve (from my understanding the parking space was on her side of the road)

the witness will help you.
claim off her for damages and injury. (your shoulder hurts...doesnt it!! as does your neck! any ache or pain, inform them of, dont lie, but make them aware of any discomfort)

This is her fault, overtaking "aggresivly" (presumably he means hard acceleration) is not illegal, and is normally safer. So shouldnt factor in

PS: Who is she insured with

Paul

paulthewitt · World Chat Champion Joined: 17 May 2004 Karma :

froggy128 · World Chat Champion Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Karma :

if the damage to your bike is not bad and worse to her car and she has allready said she didnt look i would try and not claim of anyone at all.

dainesefreak · World Chat Champion Joined: 04 Apr 2003 Karma :

If you can I would leave it, walk away and put it down to experience. Report it to the Police so that you are all above board then see what happens. If she doesn't claim then no probs. If you try to claim against her for injury or whatever you can guarantee that they will counter claim and it will get messy. Leave it be if you can. I wouldn't claim it wasn't you that can be very dodgy.

As for the witness, you don't need to disclose any of their details to her, that's her problem.

Ragdoll · Spanner Monkey Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Karma :

If you do ring her back, be careful. It could come down to your word against hers
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the grim reaper · World Chat Champion Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Karma :

If she has your details then you would have to PROVE that you weren't there. Do it by the book and, hopefully, she'll see sense and not claim.

Cheers

Grim
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Hotdog · Nearly there... Joined: 28 Sep 2005 Karma :

Nice to see you practicing defensive riding Mr.T.

Before I can offer any advice, you are going to have to furnish more information....

How wide was the road ?

How many lanes ?

Any road markings or signs ?

Were you over the white line ?

Speed of vehicles ?

Did you carry out any indication ?

How much damage was there to the car ?

Hotdog.

ps. that CB250 ? it isn't a Night Hawk is it ?
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