Not-so Near Miss of the Day 401: Driver pulls out on Guernsey cyclist who has no chance to brake

I hope you've claimed against their insurance at least?

Outrageous but, it would appear, commonplace. This is one of the reasons I joined Cycling UK several years ago. We sadly cannot expect the justice system to give us our rights as cyclists so we need the support of Cycling UK who are, above all, a campaigning body for cyclists rights. Can I please urge all of you to join and use their legal help scheme if faced with a situation like this one. 

What SCUM they are in so many ways!

Police ;-(

my advice is as below, or above. The one that saysget a solicitor and follow it up as theres definitely evidence here for prosecution. I'll let you know two things that happened to me. One, i filtered past traffic, car stops with big gap, i assume its a phone user so carry on passing at 12 mph, then bang, a car has pulled out on my left to turn right, so i went into the drivers side of the bonnet. Driver refused to give details, foreign lady, rang her hubby, she said in broken english, he say, because you have no insurance, we just say sorry and go?   after many minutes of me trying, i watched her drive off, not knowing who she was, but knowing my helmet cam had everything on it. My front wheel was buckled in, as were the forks, so i pushed it home and did a report online. Attached the video footage. Six weeks later i got a call from an officer, telling me she had tracked the driver down and explained to her that she couldnt just drive off from the scene of a crash. She basically asked me to call it quits as her car was damaged, and so was my bike. I agreed, as it was 30 quid to get some spares and put them on[ old 70's bike]. So i was happy enough with that, as technically i was in the right and she was wrong, but then i was filtering and going too fast to stop. So i left it at that. Now another time a very angry man got alongside me , called mea cunt and yelled about a cycle lane. I shouted back that it was shared with pedestrians and i was going 30 mph. He didnt like that, blocked me in, got out his car and we got into a fight. After we'd landed blows on eachother i stopped, realised how stupid it was and rode off. Statement and clear video footage taken to police. Their response.'' We find had you been using the designated cycle lane, the gentlemen would not have become angry with you and the argument would not have occurred, not that you have to by law use such a lane''.  Along those lines.  My response of you want me to cycle at 30 mph on a shared path which makes you go INTO pedestrians just because some dope in a 4by4 cant understand why it might be dangerous, and you think im the one in the wrong? so i hung up and from that day, i never report anything. Rate driver it is for me. The police are just as misinformed as the general public, unless theyre traffic cops. 

I was really hoping for some immediate justice like this one.

https://road.cc/content/news/246199-near-miss-day-165-close-pass-followe...

Does not encourage me to go to guernsey if you can fail to stop at an accident and not even be charged.

"The motorist hung around just long enough to accuse me of not looking where I was going before driving away from the scene without providing his details..."
This is an offence. The driver of a vehicle involved in a collision must provide their name and address, the vehicle owner's name and address and the vehicle's registration number to anyone with reasonable grounds for asking for those details.

If another person is injured, in addition to the above, YOU MUST:

Produce your certificate of insurance to a constable or anyone else having reasonable grounds to see it.

If you don't, you must report the accident at a police station or to a constable as soon as you can and in any case within 24 hours (this does not mean you have 24 hours in which to report the accident) and produce your certificate of insurance. 

https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q894.htm

Get yourself a solicitor.

If the Criminal Justice Unit won't prosecute with video evidence, supported by a policeman, where the driver flees the scene without providing their details, it isn't fit for purpose.  I've been there, but not on a bike; I won't be going back, ever.

Has Alex tried taking this further, perhaps by making a complaint?  I don't know what the system is there, do they have a Police and Crime Commissioner?

I would ahve thought failing to provide any details for an actual collision and injury carried more then failure to report a non injury collision. At least tell me you managed to claim from his insurance in the end?

"You weren't looking where you were going!", says motorist who's pulled out over a cycle lane without looking whether anything was coming along it...  Would appear to be me that the driver was only looking to their left, for any oncoming motor traffic.

Institutionally anti-cyclist.

It would be a different story if they had hit another car.