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Tesla

Tesla

Tesla

Soldato
Joined
19 Jan 2003
Posts
17,599
Location
Bristol, UK
Hi guys, my Mum's had a bit of a bump with a moped. Waiting to pull off of her drive into a traffic jam (temp. lights on the parents road at the moment). A car gives way to mum so she edges out just as a moped comes down the outside of the traffic jam straight into Mum's OSF wing/headlight.

Firstly the guy seemed OK, ambulance took him away but he walked his bike to the pavement and was moaning at Mum to pay for the damage.

Unsure of who is at fault. 2 witnesses stopped and assisted. Both gave statements to the old bill saying the bike flew past them on the outside and mum edged out cautiously.

The police have informed that the bike's reg returned a different owner and the guy has been given a producer as had no doc's.

Assuming insuarance what is the likely outcome?

Assuming no insurance I'm thinking it could be cheaper to retain ncb and have it fixed seperately.

Mum's car is a mk5 fiesta. The headlight is functional but the plastic clips have all smashed. The wing has crumpled and the bumper scuffed/scratched. With a torch I cannot see any mechanical damage.

I have repaired similar damage to a rover 200 which was fairly easy as all bolt on. I think the fiesta wings are welded though?

The parts will be cheap enough and I think a respray on the bumper would be sufficient.

Thoughts and advice appreciated. Cheers.
 
Probably a 50/50. Pulling out of a driveway in to traffic is a risky thing to do but filtering is equally dangerous
 
Had a very similar accident in the bikers position about 6 years ago. Hit the driver side wheel as they were pulling out through traffic across the road. Luckily I saw her stop so I managed to decelerate to almost a stop. Still wrecked the bike.

Filtering is perfectly legal as long as it is on normal white lined roads. Your mum should have checked that the road was clear before pulling out.

Although with regards to the insurance, advice is to inform your mum's insurance company in case it comes back to bite her with injury costs etc.
 
My thoughts have also been 50/50. The police unable to establish insurance casts a shadow though.
 
cookiem0nster said:
Filtering is perfectly legal as long as it is on normal white lined roads. Your mum should have checked that the road was clear before pulling out.
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While this may be so it's also down to the motorcyclist to check that it is safe to do so. If the cars in front were moving but then one stops and leaves a gap you should see it and think "why has that happened?" and be prepared to stop. Filtering may be legal under certain circumstances but it's still extremely dangerous, I've done it enough times to know :p
 
Finglonga said:
Agree with the above, the insurance will claim they both should have seen each other.
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Witnesses may sway this.

if the independant witness said the person in question was speeding and riding wrecklessly she coud be in the clear.

Cant say for sure without knowing what the witness statements said though.
 
Cyanide said:
While this may be so it's also down to the motorcyclist to check that it is safe to do so. If the cars in front were moving but then one stops and leaves a gap you should see it and think "why has that happened?" and be prepared to stop. Filtering may be legal under certain circumstances but it's still extremely dangerous, I've done it enough times to know :p
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It is the responsibility of the car driver to check that both directions are clear of traffic before pulling into traffic. Not the motorcyclists responsibility to be telepathic.

I do get a sense that the motorcyclist was driving irresponsibly and by the sounds of it should have been driving more cautiously. I can't see the insurance company seeing it this way however.
 
Yea if theres witnesses saying he 'flew past' slow moving traffic, and if the damage sustanined to car and moped shows he was then not going to look good for him.
 
Another thing to bear in mind is if the motorcyclist doesn't have a full licence they're not allowed to filter.
 
Unfortunately your mum is liable as she is joining traffic. +the fact that since the first thing they teach you at training school is never take anything for granted. ie, if another car indicates for you to go and you go and hit someone, its not the "someones fault".

I doubt that in this weather and with a scooter, it can be described as "flying past". 10-15mph to stationary traffic could be deemed flying.
 
actually, after re-reading the op, i am sure that your mum is 100% liable.

For the scooter to hit the Ofside mirror and headlight, your mum must have pulled into his lane suddenly when someone let her go.

This is the same as someone doing a right turn into a junction and a moped hitting him straight on.

your mums car could have been obscured by another car. Therefore the first thing the moped would see is the edging forward of the car and if your mums vision was obscured by another car or not paying attention to that direction, then she would not have stopped in time.
 
Dimitris said:
Unfortunately your mum is liable as she is joining traffic. +the fact that since the first thing they teach you at training school is never take anything for granted. ie, if another car indicates for you to go and you go and hit someone, its not the "someones fault".

I doubt that in this weather and with a scooter, it can be described as "flying past". 10-15mph to stationary traffic could be deemed flying.
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But the moped was overtaking which also makes the driver liable, hence it'd more than likely end up 50/50

I appreciate that said biker cannot be expected to have psychic powers but if I'm filtering and notice a car sized break in the traffic I'll think "hmmm... someone could be pulling in there" and slow down. If you don't notice a decent sized break in a line of stationary traffic then you're either not paying enough attention or going too fast.
 
Gribs said:
Another thing to bear in mind is if the motorcyclist doesn't have a full licence they're not allowed to filter.
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Random nonsense award tbh. :)

Cyanide said:
But the moped was overtaking which also makes the driver liable, hence it'd more than likely end up 50/50

I appreciate that said biker cannot be expected to have psychic powers but if I'm filtering and notice a car sized break in the traffic I'll think "hmmm... someone could be pulling in there" and slow down. If you don't notice a decent sized break in a line of stationary traffic then you're either not paying enough attention or going too fast.
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I believe there's a legal difference between overtaking and filtering. Whilst overtaking is an entirely at-risk move, I don't believe filtering is.
 
Dimitris said:
Unfortunately your mum is liable as she is joining traffic. +the fact that since the first thing they teach you at training school is never take anything for granted. ie, if another car indicates for you to go and you go and hit someone, its not the "someones fault".
Click to expand...

She was probably edging out for this very reason. I have been in this situation loads of times before, the traffic is often too dense to be able to see if there is a motorbike filtering, you just have to pull out very slowly and keep looking.

Worse than this, on lots of residential streets around here, cars are often parked on both sides of the road (allowing only 1 car through at a time) but more importantly parked right up against junctions, so when pulling out onto these roads, looking left and right is only useful for seeing what is <10m either side of you.

The point im trying to make is that both parties have to be careful
 
thats the thing. it might not have been a car sized space. OP stated that was heavy traffic, so if her mum was to pull out, she only need the space of the width of the car and not the length.

Filtering is legal. And we do not know if the edging forward of op mums car happened as the moped was about to pass or etc.

It could be that moped was "flying by" and the op's mum had saw him and stopped.

Or it could be that the op's mum edged forward right into the moped or only 1-2 meters away from the moped to which no bike can stop or avoid something in 1-2 meters.
 
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