my first accident...

Digweed .. ;) said:

OK, my bad .. I mis-read it as though you had moved then stopped.

My apologies .. 😉

That's quite alright, I'm no award winning word-smith, so it is entirely possible that I didn't
explain myself very well :-)

--
Giles Paterson

[to reply, replace nospam with my first name]

"Giles Paterson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

I disagree that this was my fault as I was stationary at the time. Although perhaps I am at fault
because if I had turned right into the path of an oncoming cyclist then the car pulling out of the
side street would have missed me. Of course then I would be responsible for knocking another
cyclist off their bike...

Of course, you didn't do anything wrong, but perhaps with the benefit of hindsight there was a third
option - to have proceeded with turning right slowly as the car indicated an intention to allow you
to turn, just enough to move across in front of the car but then, if necessary, stop, and wait for
the cyclist to pass on the inside. It's a sort of incremental turn, taking advantage of a gap or
concession by one part of the oncoming traffic, to complete the turn when the rest of the
carriageway is clear or gives way. That way you also clear the intersection for traffic coming out
of the road you want to move into.

Rich

"marc" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Tony W said:

Flashing headlights is a warning -- as such it alerts you to the actions

or

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

intentions of the driver flashing.

NOOOOOOO!!!!

The flashing of headlights's only proper function is to indicate the vehicles prescence, anything
else is telepathy based.

Headlights are, whatever one may consider to be their 'proper function' flashed in a variety of
circumstances - as a warning of presence, as an invitation to proceed, or as a thank you. Obviously
to some extent interpretation is always going to be a matter of telepathy, and even if you 'know'
what the other driver intends, what you do about it still has to be judged in the light of _all_ the
circumstances related to road and traffic conditions in your intended path. You can't defer
judgement on a decision whether to proceed to someone else, whatever the signal was intended to mean
and whatever you think it was intended to mean.

There is a court decision which found that where a driver flashed his lights to indicate that he
would give way to another driver, and a motorcyclist got injured as the other driver inevitably
pulled out, that a flash in such circumstances simply means "come on so far as I am concerned".
Which seems reasonable. A driver may choose to give way to another road user, it doesn't mean
everyone else has to or will.

Rich

Richard Goodman said:

Of course, you didn't do anything wrong, but perhaps with the benefit of hindsight there was a
third option - to have proceeded with turning right slowly as the car indicated an intention to
allow you to turn, just enough to move across in front of the car but then, if necessary, stop,
and wait for the cyclist to pass on the inside. It's a sort of incremental turn, taking advantage
of a gap or concession by one part of the oncoming traffic, to complete the turn when the rest of
the carriageway is clear or gives way. That way you also clear the intersection for traffic coming
out of the road you want to move into.

Yes, that's more or less what I was going to do, it's just that in the time it took for me to look
over my right shoulder to make sure no other vehicle was trying to turn right also, the driver
pulled out of the side street. Perhaps I should have been a little quicker off the mark.

--
Giles Paterson

[to reply, replace nospam with my first name]

Richard Goodman said:

Headlights are, whatever one may consider to be their 'proper function' flashed in a variety of
circumstances - as a warning of presence, as an invitation to proceed, or as a thank you

They may well be, but it is a breach of the HC to use them for anything except indicating your
prescence.

Dave said:

Quoted message said:

Post-accident is a strange time mentally. All reasoned thought generally goes out of the window.
If I find myself in that situation (and I seriously hope I don't), I think I might use the
adrenalin rush to convert the 4 wheeled vehicle into a two wheeled ;-)....might as well make some
use of it besides masking the pain.

I do worry that if someone hit me, I might get so mad that I'd duff up the car.

Would that count as a defence ?

--
Andy Morris

AndyAtJinkasDotFreeserve.Co.UK

Love this: Put an end to Outlook Express's messy quotes
home.in.tum.deoe quotefixOpen ↗

AndyMorris said:

Dave said:

Post-accident is a strange time mentally. All reasoned thought generally goes out of the window.
If I find myself in that situation (and I seriously hope I don't), I think I might use the
adrenalin rush to convert the 4 wheeled vehicle into a two wheeled ;-)....might as well make some
use of it besides masking the pain.

I do worry that if someone hit me, I might get so mad that I'd duff up the car.

I'm surprised at how much I have mellowed since my daughter was born three months ago. I used to get
irate at the slightest wrong doing by motorists when I was out cycling. Now though I (usually)
manage to calm myself a bit before explaining their faults to the motorist.

When I got hit yesterday, the worst I did was bang on the bonnet of the car and yell "what the hell
do you think you are doing?" at the driver.

The fact that the driver was apologetic and not aggressive helped though. If he'd started to get
arsey then I'm not sure I wouldn't have said/done worse.

Of course, on inspecting my bike I can take a small amount of satisfaction in the fact that there
is a large amount of blue paint on my right pedal, so he must have a nasty scratch on the front
of his car.

Quoted message said:

Would that count as a defence ?

probably not, in fact you'd more than likely end up with some sort of criminal damages charge. Sod's
law and all.

--
Giles Paterson

[to reply, replace nospam with my first name]

Giles Paterson said:

When I got hit yesterday, the worst I did was bang on the bonnet of the car and yell "what the hell
do you think you are doing?" at the driver.

Hi Giles

I'm glad to hear that you're more or less OK. "What the hell do you think you are doing?" sounds
extremely civilized.

Quite recently I was almost hit in the very same place where I'd been the victim of a hit and run a
few months earlier. I shouted out: "Don't you even think of turning left here!" It worked. The
driver stopped. However, I doubt the driver would have stopped had I not shouted.

I've yet to read the rest of this thread, Giles, so I don't know how you're faring post-bang. But,
for me, it's the aches and stiffness that follow even a minor "off" that are reasonably
debilitating, albeit for a shortish time. As I mentioned above, I'm glad that at first probe around
youself you seem to be OK.

James

--
"Sorry mate, I didn't see you" is not a satisfactory excuse.

James Hodson wrote:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Quite recently I was almost hit in the very same place where I'd been the victim of a hit and run
a few months earlier. I shouted out: "Don't you even think of turning left here!" It worked. The
driver stopped. However, I doubt the driver would have stopped had I not shouted.

Just as well the driver wasn't talking on their mobile or listening to music at high volume or you
might have come a cropper again...

Quoted message said:

I've yet to read the rest of this thread, Giles, so I don't know how you're faring post-bang. But,
for me, it's the aches and stiffness that follow even a minor "off" that are reasonably
debilitating, albeit for a shortish time. As I mentioned above, I'm glad that at first probe
around youself you seem to be OK.

Thankfully I'm alright. My left ankle was a bit sore the day after but is okay now. The bike is
unscathed which is rather a relief, I hate to think what the bike and I would be like had the driver
accelerated more rapidly out of the side street.

--
Giles Paterson

[to reply, replace nospam with my first name]