Sheepsplitter

Just had a stupid tart pull in front of me on a roundabout while on the bike.
Just got it back from 1st service as well.

It was up on the Bracknell roundabout before you go along the single carriageway back to Camberley.

Luckily I had anticpated she was a bit lost and was hanging back a bit and I pulled across towards the centre of the road to give me more options, intending to pass her when she was off the roundabout, but she had actually started to go down the only exit she should have been going (given she was not indicating), so I thought, ok she's seen me and has decided to go straight on, then she sort of did a mini-u-turn (only way I can describe it, but more of a swerve I guess) and tried to go round the roundabout further, yikes!
I didn't have enough space to stop completely (as she'd turned in front of me)so I decided to turn the bike to go around the roundabout then body slam her using my knee slider and body armour on my elbow as I knew we were only doing about 10mph max by then and I didn't want to drop the bike !! This worked because I was able to lean against her car and stop the bike toppling over, which was nice :-)

The result was 1 broken left indicator for my bike and not another scratch to me or the bike (result or what). Her car got a nice imprint of a well used slider and a few scratches from the slider and I broke her mirror off.
She stopped initially but didn't get out of the car. She asked me if I was OK and I said she hadn't killed me. I pulled the bike over to the side of the road and by the time I'd got off she'd pissed off. The cheek of it.

Well a Nova 1.2 v's a GSXR1000 wasn't much competion so I gave her a bit of a head start while I put my gloves back on and gave chase, when she saw me (and the witness) behind she pulled over after about 3/4mile.

She still refused to exchange insurance details (don't think she new them, or maybe didn't have any), but I got her phone number (mobile) and Reg number of the car, then I dialled her to make sure it was for real.

She gave me the usual "you were travelling too fast on your bike" bit, but then I pointed out that in that case how come I'd stopped in about 8 feet and done so little damage and she shut up quickly!!

It was all her fault of course, she should have gone straight on, or been in the right hand lane and indicating to go around the roundabout, then I would have kept out of her way or got onto the left hand side of the roundabout to let her get on with it.

I've also got a witness (a bloke on a bike behind me who saw everything, and was mighty impressed I managed to save it :-), what a nice chap for stopping)

Seems to me like she managed to get 3 offences in in as many minutes:-
a) Driving without due care and attention.
b) Failure to stop at the scene of an accident.
c) Failure to exchange insurance details.

She says she will call tonight when she's spoken to her parents with the insurance details, if they say it's OK, for ***** sake!!

I'll give her until tomorrow morning to offer to pay for my indicator (£23.42 inc VAT), but after that I will tell the insurers and get DAS involved (they will prosecute her for driving without due care and reclaim my damages, cos that's what they did about 10 years ago when someone pulled out on me).

Also if she doesn't call by tomorrow I will go and report it at the local cop shop (as my arm and knee are injured - well a bit ;-)), then they will prosecute her as well for due care and most likely failure to stop and exchange details at the scene of an accident, if they think she was trying to do a runner.

Of course the only reason I will do this is in case she tries to come back and claim it was my fault or something, although with me having a top quality witness I doubt that she'd be so stupid.

Silly bitch, as the witness said "Didn't you know where you were going, and how come you didn't see the bike ?"

I consider myself to be rather lucky though to get away with so little damage, but also rather grateful to the IAM police training I had many years ago, which definately put me in a position to reduce the risk significantly.

I'm not really bothered about the indicator cost, I just want to make sure she doesn't try and claim the door and mirror off my insurance, as at the end of the day she only had herself to blame.

Any police types like to comment on the incident ?

I can tell you it's a strange feeling grinding your slider into a piece of steel while you are upright :-)

IWatkins

Nothing to add other than "Nice save"

Good luck getting it sorted.

Cheers

Ian

NeilT

hi

again nice save - bet it got the heart rate going a bit eh!! I'm originally from Woking and know the Camberly area fairly well. I also did the Police Rider training course some years back and reckon it probably saved my bacon on a few occaisons.

personally I'd call the cop shop now as I think you have to report an accident (however small) within so many hours (not sure tho!) if you're intending to take it further...


Neil
www.scoobyworld.co.uk

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

I second NeilT on that one. You have nothing to lose by calling them in the end. At least you didn't drop it or worse.

TBMeech

Sheepsplitter,

Good luck with it m8...

Glad you didnt drop it

Any of us who ride bikes as well as drive nice cars can appreciate wot happened to you, so many times have I been on a roundabout on the bike and some tw@t has indicated right and ended up cutting me up severely, or just not looking and then nearly taking me out.

Take her to the cleaners m8, bet she coughs up for a new indicator to avoid this mess!

Dream Weaver

Well done on the save, make sure you ring the rozzers.

Now I am a bit older, i am beginning to think that 17 is a bit too young for people to pass their tests. She obviously wasnt sure what to do.

There is a roundabout near me similar to this one, where people take the left hand lane to go right, then cut accross the right hand traffic at the last minute - very dangerous.

DW

Phill

Hi there,
I'm from around the Woking area and know the roundabout well, always a nightmare it's blind bints( male & feamale )and boy racers.

Well done for staying up bloody near genius (i didn't think of it or else it might be !!!!) and to state what most of hear has, call the police. It happened to me and i got stiched(no witness).

Although it was only a FZR 400RR it killed the throtle body over reved and droppoed a valve, expensive !!!

Good luck and keep riding,

N.B have you hit the pirbright ranges recently (brookwood - mychett)

Phill

NeilT

the brookwood - mychett road is top on a bike

my mate got taken out in his neighbours Impreza around those roads and very nearly messed himself - said he'd never ever been so scared in his entire life. Thankfully his neighbour got rid of the car (I think)

I sold my bike to buy Scoob and still miss it.....

Phill

Neil,
I live in Dorking and still go to those roads for blat !!!

I learnt to ride there, well you know learnt to ride properly at least, and i no longer have a bike either !!

Still I intend to shed the VW and buy a scoob and a bike so hopefully before too much longer i'll get to use my kit again !!

Phill

rr_ww

Not entirely related but...

The other day a man at work came up to me and told me someone had hit my car in the carpark. He'd heard the alarm going off and had stoped the driver from leaving the scene.

When I spoke to them a woman (driving and man passenger (owner)I asked of they wanted to give me £100 towards damage or go through insurance. After the argument had finished during which he claimed it wasnt £100 worth of damage I said I'd phone them the next day to get insurance details. When I phoned he was arsy saying it was acompany car and heis office was closed. (At 1500 on a Wednesday) I said I'd go to the police for trying to leave acident and fialing to give details. He told me to do what I like and hung up. All the police did was give me aform to fill in. 2 problems he said.
1. A carpark is private land
and 2. Effectively the police have got better things to do than trace people for a small amount of damage. I agree but it does mean this ***** have got away with it. Possibly they don't have insurance. So i've got to pay for a respray to my bumper and wing!!! Might be easier to write the £25 off and put it down to experience. Your call though.

p.s. Good Save

ScoobySnack

Be lucky mate............

If your around , theres a few of us going to SuperBikes at Silverstone on Monday from Bracknell..

J

Sheepsplitter

Thanks for the support all, much appreciated.

I've made a report at the local cop shop (and very helpful they were to, maybe prompted by the PC filling in form having been taken off his bike a few weeks ago !!).
Also reported to my insurance company, who waffled on about it might be knock for knock as she could say anything in her statement, blah blah etc

Given that I have a witness though and she should have been indicating to go right if that was her intent, then I feel fairly sure I have a good case against her. Either way she drove off after the accident without exchanging details (initially).
I've just spent 20 minutes trying to explain to the insurance company how it's not possible to quickly change direction at a 45 degree angle on a bike and that's how I hit her door, but they are suggesting that may be enough for her to suggest I was overtaking her at the time. I don't really understand this though, as even if I was overtaking her (which I wasn't), what right did that give her to turn in front of me if she wasn't signalling to do so ?
Also when she finally stopped (after the pursuit by myself and the witness) she admitted she had known I was there because "I had stopped her moving into the right hand lane" - which makes things even worse in my opinion, because she's basically saying "I knew you were there, but I was going to go where I wanted regardless of any injury that might have come to you".
Anyway I guess the insurance company will sort things out now, I just hope I don't loose my long term no-claims bonus(as my policy cannot be protected), especially given that I know she was so wrong and had a witness.
I think she's gone to ground now though as she's refusing to take my calls, so she still hasn't produced her insurance details or address (which the police are now considering as a seperate prosecution).

Phill and NeilT: I regularly get down to the Brookwood bends, so I will keep an eye open for you guys, and yes that is a good bit of road, but mind out for the cars that keep lobbing themselves into the ditch, I saw today a Black Escort has gone over the edge recently, taking out half the trees with it.

rr_ww: Thanks for the related info mate. Sorry for your incident as well, there are too many scumbags around. It's not the £25 quid for the indicator that worries me, it's her claiming off me, or worse me loosing my no claims bonus as that would certainly mean I would stuggle to insure the bike next year, as it seems nobody is touching people without 3 years no claims on the GSXR1000. I had no claims ever, which they counted as 6years max,and I'm damned if I will let her cost me money or worse loss of my bike as a result of an accident that was clearly her fault for not knowing where she was going.
So I will pursue this case as I have good legal protection and I'm pretty sure with a good lawyer and the witness I should be able to win.

ScoobySnack: Might be going up to watch the Superbikes myself with a few mates, what sort of time you leaving and from where in Bracknell.

Thanks all, take care and watch out for the unexpected.

scrappydoo

Sorry to hear about the accident mate. Problem is the insurance companies and police see that you have a GSXR1000 and instantly its all your fault. Simple as!! High powered machine ='s your own fault..

Take the cow all the way mate.

Regards
scrappy

Sheepsplitter

Well the young PC who has taken the report has put forward a case to the CPS for a Driving without Due Care and attention and leaving the scene of an accident without exchanging details.
My legal protection insurance is also persuing her for my minor injurys, but they say I will get a few hundred quid for the 'shock and trauma'.
I got the replacement indicator fitted today and the bike is back as good as new again.
I've been instructed to not even talk to her if she calls, she tried to get me to withdraw my report to the police and insurance today by paying for the indicator, but the insurance company say it's a clear cut case (cos of the witness mainly) so they want to make a few quid out of her (or at least her insurers). Fair enough as long as I don't get a bill or loose my no-claims bonus.
She does deserve a bit of a shock for her bad driving, maybe it will teach her to be more careful in future.

Once again thanks for all the support from you bi-wheeled Scoobyers ;-) (or maybe mono wheeled now and again?).

druddle

Good on ya mate. I am not a bike rider (yet) but it winds me up how many bad car drivers there are around that dont even look for bikes. Grrrrrrrr. Seems like you will get it sorted in the end.

Dave

Jolly Green Monster 2

Glad to find that there looks to be a good result at the bottom of this thread.

Glad you are okay which is the main thing.

I had a fairly similar thing happen last year.

I was filtering between cars and someone changed lane without indicating.. hit my right leg and exhaust pipe.
Bruising to leg and rip to leathers and exhaust scrapped.
No witnesses as no one else stopped... he admitted liability and said he'd pay.. as he didn;t want to go through insurance..
I said at the time it would be about £450 for a new can and leather trousers etc... he said fine.. all was happy exchanged details and phoned him with solid quotes of £450 and £400. Said I was happy to accept £400.. then the stalling started and in the end he said he couldn't afford it and that we should go through the insurance. With no witnesses and not wanting to risk my no claims I did nothing.. so I had to fix the damage myself...
From now on if someone says they will pay for the damage then I shall suggest that I follow them now to the bank.
Also I won't try and get out of the way after an accident so quickly to give me a chance to grab a witness.. literelly as they all just drove off.
Sill at least I managed to keep the bike upright and I was okay once the bruising went down and the bike was still rideable..
It removed the bumper off his BMW

Good luck with the case

JGM

Dirty_Den

I might be talking total and utter sh*te -

but isn't it an offence in itself to refuse to disclose your insurance details at the scene of an accident?

Den

[Edited by Dirty_Den - 3/28/2002 10:02:13 AM]

Jolly Green Monster 2

I think name and address is enough...

Phill

sheepspiltter,
Thanks for the warning, but you kinda get used to it some four wheeled trolley always takes the hard route on that road, usually once a month apprently as i got talking to an on duty police rider in area but he cools with bikers he goes up there for a good thrash himself !!

The other thing i find is brick or large stones in the middle of certain corners, probably from the cars going the hard way !! I always do a slow run first.....Nearly always .....

Cya out there, and keep it safe, which apprently you are very good at !!

Phill