Knocked over a cyclist today

You are at roundabout
Start pulling away
You hit a cyclist that comes from BEHIND/OUT OF NO WHERE

How is this even your fault? Surely it is down to the cyclist to make sure it was safe to do this...same with a motorbike & filtering...legal to do as long as safe to do so?
 
GinG said:
How is this even your fault? Surely it is down to the cyclist to make sure it was safe to do this...same with a motorbike & filtering...legal to do as long as safe to do so?
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That's the difference with a motorcyclist, they/we don't put ourselves in danger by doing something like this cyclist did.

Another good reason to have a dash cam as the OP could be claiming from the cyclist for any damage.
 
Why are you paying for anything? It's not your fault. Giving him a lift to his office was generous, but there's no reason you ought to be out of pocket for his moronic actions. Cyclists shouldn't just zoom in front of waiting traffic, they should queue like the rest of the road users or if filtering do it in a safe manner. He didn't.
 
I am a cyclist and a car driver (primarily the latter). I'm quite confused as to why you think you are at fault? Had the cyclist been in front of you from the start then you'd be at fault. However, they appear to have filtered between cars and ended up in front of you as you started moving, which would suggest they were at fault.
 
For all we know there could have been a cycle path on the pavement which goes around the roundabout. The cyclist should have waited till it was safe to join the road though. It doesn't sound like he was filtering if he cut across the car. Link us to a google maps of the roundabout?
 
spoffle said:
Like literally literally?!

*looks at signature*

Hmm...
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Whatever. It's as close to "literally" as you're going to get in the case of an accident because - newsflash - no one ever comes out of nowhere, and anyone saying that they did is making excuses for not having looked. If the cyclist was on the pavement and then joined the road, then as far as looking at the road goes, then he "literally" came out of nowhere. Now, of course he didn't come out of nowhere really, he came off the pavement, but at this point you're brushing up against what you can reasonable expect to account for as a driver. How much are you expected to look out for? Can you reasonably drive as though all the pedestrians on the pavement might suddenly leg it into the road? That'd be like driving around with Hyacinth Bucket in the car WHOA 90s REFERENCE.
 
I would strongly advice you inform your insurer and make a report to your local police with 24 hours of the accident. Any RTA resulting in an injury, no matter how minor has to be reported to the police within that time frame by law, you could find yourself in a bit of hot water if the chap decides to make a claim later on (he has up to 3 years to do so) and you haven't reported it. A few minutes now might save you a lot of hurt later.

From your version of events it doesn't look to be your fault anyway, so cover yourself.
 
miniyazz said:
For all we know the cyclist might have been going round the roundabout and the OP happened to not see him, which unfortunately happens sometimes.
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Agreed. An unfortunate placement of pillars and blind spots can cause this if you're not extra careful.

The same thing nearly happened to me last week when a woman on a bike flew across a roundabout (her right of way) as I was pulling away. Would have been completely my fault if she had hit me.
 
Accidents happen and it sounds like you are both dealing with the situation in a very amicable way which is rare these days so good on you both. Whatever the reason for the crash you will be about £100 down and they are a bit battered and bruised, in the grand scheme of things it ain't so bad for either of you :)


Howard said:
Agreed. An unfortunate placement of pillars and blind spots can cause this if you're not extra careful.

The same thing nearly happened to me last week when a woman on a bike flew across a roundabout (her right of way) as I was pulling away. Would have been completely my fault if she had hit me.
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I nearly had some bloke off of a 125 in the same way. I stopped just in time, not sure his underpants survived intact though as it was a pretty close call and wet roads meant he couldn't really change course with any aggression.
 
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Lots of conjecture in the OP. Bicycles don't zoom - but they can catch motorists by surprise when they're moving at 20mph+ because mosts motorists think cyclist wobble along at about 8mph. I've never seen a bicycle "flying" either.

I don't advocate cycling on the pavement and if he's jumped off the pavement into your path he's in the wrong. However you've admitted you didn't look to your hard right. The cyclist could have followed the preceeding car onto the roundabout and been hidden from your view if he was alongside or behind it. You've seen the car go by and pulled out.

I've had this happen to me many times on roundabouts - following a car, car takes the first exit left, I'm continuing straight on and vehicle on the other lane of the exit road taken by the car pulls out in front of you. People don't expect to see cyclists going around roundabouts. There is one particularly bad one I have to cross on my way to work that I take very slowly in the centre of the lane with my front light on flashing because people just don't see you - riding a 60cm framed bike, at 6ft 4 tall and wearing an Altura Night Vision hi-viz jacket! And drivers think it's OK if they slam on and wave at you once they've seen you!
 
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