Pedestrian injured in crash involving cyclist in Weston-Super-Mare

Secret_squirrel wrote:

Stopping to help is a difficult one. I put an old man in hospital with a broken wrist after he stepped out on me into a cycle lane with the pedestrian light still on red.  Mine flicked to orange from green just before I went through to. 
In retrospect I was going too fast for the conditions but that's with hindsight. 
I came off the bike with cuts and bruises but called an ambulance and gave the chap first aid and gave my details to the police. 
Even sent him a get well card. 
For my sins he set an ambulance chasing lawyer on me and because it was 50/50 my house insurance company paid out £30k against my wishes. 
2 lessons learnt for me.

Take it easier on the commute. 
Think twice about stopping after an accident. If there's too much grey - I probably won't stop bar a quick check  ☹️ 

£30k for a broken wrist seems excessive, but at least you did the right thing.

hawkinspeter wrote:

£30k for a broken wrist seems excessive, but at least you did the right thing.

It certainly seems excessive in a 50/50 fault case (does that mean if it was ruled 100% SS's fault it would be £60k?), but not necessarily for a broken wrist per se: twenty-odd years ago I broke my wrist twice in quick succession, firstly in a motorcycle crash (my fault) and then by stupidly returning to rugby before it was really properly healed. Still aches if I play racquet sports, play the piano for too long etc, if I relied on it for my occupation, e.g. bricklayer or similar, I can see how that level of compensation could be justified.

Longer version. 
Police said NFA against me.

One witness said I jumped the lights, one said I didn't.  Former was prepared to go to court, other wasn't.  
Man was in early 70's & deaf - I would have probably got screwed in court regardless. Still wanted to push ambulance chaser a bit harder though. Insurance couldn't be arsed. 

That is deeply annoying, when we had a motor Mrs H hit someone from the side (very low speed) who had decided suddenly to pull a fast 3-pointer out of the traffic jam on his side of the road with no indication. After trying and failing to get her to settle for cash at the roadside, he put in a claim for whiplash and damage to his car (there was no damage on ours and the damage to his (apparently, I wasn't there) looked pre-existing). Sainsbury's insurance rejected the whiplash claim out of hand, thereby effectively acknowledging that he was a fraudster, but still settled the repair bill on a 50/50 fault basis. Took a lot of argument to force them to acknowledge they shouldn't have and to have the incident removed from Herself's record and get her no claims reinstated. At the end of the day, insurance companies couldn't give a damn, it's easier to settle and whack our premiums up than to actually see justice done, it's one of the best win-win games around.

No-one wants to get burned.  I'm always immensely glad when I find that there seem to be a preponderance of folks like yourself with good intentions though.  As opposed to a world of cold and/or suspicious strangers, or those looking out for number one to the exclusion of other considerations.

However it's always open to others not to reciprocate good-faith gestures (I'm not a communist).  I'd also say that "must stop after a collision" should apply universally.  Even though to your detriment here.  And be effectively enforced.  So not just for motorists and I think we're all fed up of the "I was going to help / report but I got startled" excuse.  Also appearing with "...I even had to have a few stiff gins once back home to settle my nerves".

Sadly for "good intentions" - as seen from any "mass activity" e.g. "mass motoring" there has to be some way of keeping those who may be less community-minded in check.  Too little "keeping honest folks honest" and the cheaters move in.

As for taking it easier that's wise advice.  Making the commute multi-functional is good but keep the all-out efforts for play time.

chrisonatrike wrote:

...(I'm not a communist)...Sadly for "good intentions" - as seen from any "mass activity" e.g. "mass motoring" there has to be some way of keeping those who may be less community-minded in check.  Too little "keeping honest folks honest" and the cheaters move in.

🤔

Too little "keeping honest folks honest" and the cheaters move in

Hence the association between Lancashire's Complete Rest Advised Policing model and the very high rate of MOT/ insurance and VED evasion around here. PE64 OGY- no VED since 1.10.21, but still keeping up with MOTs, so DVLA idleness also apparent

I bet if the police were a bit more lively it would turn out that Lancs folks were naturally consciencious about these matters!

As you are well aware - two ways to make your stats look good.  Solve more crimes, or detect fewer crimes.

Mind how you go, sir!

Many years ago I had a collision with a Danish couple who stepped out in front of me on my morning commute to work. They'd instinctively looked the wrong way. Luckily I'd seen them stepping off the kerb and hauled on the brakes and hadn't been going that quickly anyway as I was nearly at my destination. They were uninjured and apologetic, so it was all good.

Only about three years ago, my wife had a crash when a woman stepped out in front of the stopped bus my wife was passing. The woman looked the wrong way and my wife had no time to brake. Luckily my wife had a basket on the ront of her bike that actually took the impact and was squished totally out of shape. 

The woman got up and apologised but he she must have had some pretty severe bruising. My wife bashed into her crossbar and handlebars and her legs and arms and wrist were very severely bruised. but luckily she had nothing broken. I'm convinced that if my wife hadn't had that basket on her bike, the woman would've had a broken hip or arm or collarbone.

My wife said the woman's accent was Eastern European, so the look in the wrong direction was probably instinctive also.

It's worth remembering to pass stationary buses as wide as you can as it's not unusual for peds to step out in front of them. Going wider gives both them and you time to hopefully avoid any collision.

StanleytheBear wrote:

Reverse the picture shot and probably 25m away the cycle lane and footpath merge to cross a side street - then the footpath moves away from the kerb and the cycle path which looks like the footpath continues at kerb level.  Then there is a bus stop situated on the cycle path - understand why people are confused.  However, if you hit some one you stop.

Locking Road is horrible for cycling along even though there's the magic paint lanes for cyclists to use. As you say, there's places where the magic paint tries to get cyclists onto the pavement for small sections (best ignored in my opinion), but the big problem with the road is the heavy traffic and multiple side roads. It also suffers from being a major route into and out of Weston, so at peak times, there'll be lots of bored motorists stuck in long queues and invariably some of them won't be paying attention to people on bikes.

However, none of that is any kind of excuse for riding into pedestrians and not stopping to render assistance is despicable.

brooksby wrote:

Quote:

The bike rider was described as a woman aged in her 60s with short, grey hair and wearing a blue or grey anorak, and the bike she was riding had a basket on the front.

Is it bad that I'm glad it was an older woman riding the bike and not some Evil Teenager? 

(I don't envy anyone fractured ribs, mind...).

No I can see 100% why you'd say that. If a teenager had a basket on their bike, I bet their mates would relentlessly take the pi55.

11 of my ribs were broken when I was hit by a car driven by an elderly driver.
I had some other complex injuries too ... but nothing had me hitting the morphine pump more than the ribs.
I thought that coughing hurt ... and then I sneezed ... that didn't just hurt; it was excruciating pain.
Good thing is that it doesn't take long for ribs to heal.

I had a crash at my BMX track while training a few months back and bruised a few ribs. Yep, sneezing was agony. And that was just 2-3 bruised ribs, not 11 broken ones!