Anyone struck a cyclist while driving?

[Slick]

My Dad did back in the 60s, an old chap came out of a side road straight in front of his car, went though the windscreen and bled to death on my parents' laps. He'd gashed his neck open on the wing mirror. His bike had no lights, no brakes, he was drunk, quite deaf and had poor eyesight and had been warned many times by his family not to ride back from the pub. The Police checked every single safety point on my Dad's car but luckily it was all in good order; which is why I have always been punctilious about keeping my car in good order. In the end no blame was attached to my Dad but it shook him up very badly indeed and after that he would always flinch when he saw a cyclist.

Ffs, I thought that was going to finish with a punch line.

 

[jonny jeez]

Yes, once about 20 years ago.

Totally my fault for not looking properly. Low speed, no injury, no damage, rider got up...apologised...which was bizarre...and rode off. A massive learning experience. We were both very lucky.

Experience was something I lacked back then.

Thinking about this incident, awareness seemed much lower then, cycling wasn't a "thing" like it is now and this rider seemed to ride like he had been given permission of some sort.

Progress.

 

[Cuchilo]

I left hooked a guy in my van once right outside the bike shop i had no idea where he came from and soon witnesses where telling me he crossed the road behind me , went up on the pavement and then tried to get across the road before i turned into it I was going slow as i could see a group of toddlers running towards the turning so was ready to stop if they carried on running into the road . Next thing i know this fella without a top on went flying across my windscreen and skidded along the floor . He got up and said he didnt have any brakes on the bike and was trying to get away but his back was a mess with road rash . I convinced him to let me put some germaline from my first aid box on his back , when he turned around i just squirted the whole tube onto a bandage and covered his whole back with it

 

[hopless500]

No, but have come close once. Dark and foggy and the cyclist was cycling towards me on the wrong side of the road and was basically invisible. Not sure what made me slam the brakes on, but lucky for him I did.

 

[User33236]

I so very nearly did a few years ago...approaching a roundabout in the dark, lots of traffic on it then a gap...I started to go and something caught my eye....not a cyclist but a shadow in the shiny tarmac. I held back....and right in front of me passed a fella on a bso. So very very close only that shadow on the road saved him, he might as well have been invisible.

Not a cyclist but a drunk in my case. Hadn't been driving long and was coming along an unlit road near my home. Something caught my eye and I slammed on. Got out the car and there was a drunk, dressed in black and sitting in the middle on the road, leaning back on my front bumper. Terrified me at time the thought of what could have happened.

 

[Tin Pot]

I've never struck anything while driving, not even 'lucky'

 

[jefmcg]

I was driving a big sedan down an inner city street. There was a kid, probably about 6, wobbling all over the road, clearly having no bike skills at all. I slowed and then came to a complete stop. He wobbled into me. Despite the fact that I was not moving, and the collision was low speed, it's was still horrifying. The kid wobbled away again, and I found a different route to my destination.

 

[Drago]

only that shadow on the road saved him...

 

[Pale Rider]

A mate of mine had a cyclist hit him on a roundabout.

The cyclist, who rolled over the bonnet but appeared uninjured, apologised at the roadside.

However, he later made a complaint to the police who successfully prosecuted my mate for driving without due care and attention.

 

[jonny jeez]

Has anyone struck a driver whilst cycling ? That's the question.

I high fived a guy who was hailing a taxi on Westminster bridge once, does that count. He had his hand out so I shouted something corny like "awesome dude" and high fived hm

His mates thought it was funny, he went with it and styled it out well.

 

[dfthe1]

[QUOTE 4783544, member: 9609"]I don't drive now without a dash-cam

Out of curiosity how much do you think you wll have paid in extra insurance contributions over the following few years because of this ? Any excuse now insurers seem to massively load premiums.[/QUOTE]

After a lot of correspondence with the managing director of Churchill, they finally saw my point that a no claims discount is given for the absence of claims and that, as no claim had been made by anyone, they couldn't actually withhold it on the off-chance that someone did make a claim. I then promptly took my discount elsewhere and my business elsewhere.

 

[Salad Dodger]

I have.

I was in Brighton, driving a hired van and about to deliver some furniture to my daughter. She lived in a flat in a side road, accessed from the main road. I was in a traffic queue on the main road, which had one of those 2 foot wide cycle lanes painted down the left side. As the traffic moved forward and I was able to turn into Miss Salad's road, a cyclist undertook me at a fair pace and clipped the front wing of the van. He/she didn't crash or stop, and there was no damage to the van.

Who was at fault? As I was driving the vehicle, then obviously it must be me....... the merciless cycle slayer in 2 tons of metal.

But because of the road design, it would basically NEVER be safe to turn left into that road, unless you had a "banksman" outside the vehicle, checking for undertaking bicycles. Which I didn't have, as I was alone in the van.

Actually, I think in that particular case it was foolhardy of the cyclist to ride fast down that cycle lane, and thus give themselves no chance of being able to stop if a vehicle turned left across their path. I certainly wouldn't have cycled along there at any more than walking pace, in case of a vehicle turning. But then I don't have the automatic assumption that cyclists can never be in the wrong.

 

[mjr]

But because of the road design, it would basically NEVER be safe to turn left into that road, unless you had a "banksman" outside the vehicle, checking for undertaking bicycles. Which I didn't have, as I was alone in the van.

Without a link to the location, I'm sceptical: you've got a mirror on that side and could check the lane for overtaking (undertaking is a propaganda term) traffic.

Actually, I think in that particular case it was foolhardy of the cyclist to ride fast down that cycle lane, and thus give themselves no chance of being able to stop if a vehicle turned left across their path. I certainly wouldn't have cycled along there at any more than walking pace, in case of a vehicle turning. But then I don't have the automatic assumption that cyclists can never be in the wrong.

No, you just have good old cycle-infrastructure-hate, which I expect will be as popular as usual on this site! Not that I'd be using a two-foot-wide cycle lane, but the two-foot is the problem more than turning traffic which really ought not turn across another lane without looking.

If one cycles along a cycle lane at walking pace, as well as it taking longer to get anywhere, you can easily find yourself in the mouth of a junction when someone turns in because you'll be mid-junction for a lot longer but without even the limited protection of a highway code rule that tells others to give way to you. I feel a better approach is to try to time passing a junction mouth so that it's improbable that an overtaking vehicle can physically turn into you without rolling - and that applies whether there's a cycle lane or not.

 

[User16625]

Anyone struck a cyclist while driving?

I have. Not a pleasant experience for anyone. About 10 years ago, I was driving through a university campus late at night, at about 20mph. A cyclist was ahead of me at about 10mph and I went to overtake. No other traffic, no turnings, junctions, or dropped kerbs.

As I drew level with the cyclist, he suddenly veered right into my path, without looking or signalling. I braked but hit the bike and the cyclist landed in a sitting position on my bonnet.

I got out, checked he and the bike were ok, which they were. He was apparently intending to bunny-hop the kerb and ride down a footpath.

The next day, I reported it to the police and my insurers. The cyclist hadn't made a claim, but my insurer treated it as though they had and sent out a claims investigator to my house and those of my 3 passengers. They froze my no-claims discount and my premium the next year was through the roof -- despite no-one ever making a claim. And I had a buttocks-shaped dent in my bonnet for ever more.

I'm confident it wasn't 'my fault'. The cyclist turned into me without looking and was making a manoeuvre I couldn't realistically have predicted. But had I been going faster, or I had struck him differently and he had fallen under my car rather than on it, it could have been a very different story. Either way, I and my passengers would have been fine.

I wasn't 'a cyclist' at the time, but it made me think very differently about how I drive when close to cyclists and to respect their vulnerability.

Any other experiences?

Why did you report it to the cops and insurance?! Never EVER report things you are otherwise able to get away with. If you didnt report it then nobody would have been any the wiser and you would have saved yourself time and money. If the victim raised a claim then you would have had no choice and the situation would have been the same. But I see no point in dropping yourself in it for the sake of.