Gaz down in Streatham

[Banjo]

Glad your injuries werent too bad GAZ get well soon.

IMHO Gaz was riding in acordance to the highway code perfectly legally in a bus lane. The car crossed that lane without checking so should be fully liable and 100% responsible for the accident.

BUT in that situation the presence of the van should have set alarm bells ringing in Gazs head. It was obvious he would have been invisible to drivers of anything coming across from the right,

I am not claiming I would have done any better hopefully we can all learn something from the video.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Glad you're okay, Gaz...

And, the 'fault' lies squarely with the driver. Sure, one can always hope to anticipate the idiocy of others and we all try, but the fact that we are not perfect at doing so, does not makes us morally or legally to blame... someone turning across two lanes of traffic must make sure that both lanes are safe to cross. In this case, the driver had no clear view of the second lane, but decided to take a chance. That's a chance he's taking with other people's lives.


... although, clearly if you'd had better lights, the driver would have seen you.

Seriously, very glad you came out of this alive and reasonably well.

 

[BentMikey]

Hey Gaz, could you tell us a bit about whether the driver noticed your camera? Did you try to film his face for identification, and film everything around to record it?

What did the police have to say about your footage?

 

[arallsopp]

Really sorry to read this, Gaz. Hope you make a swift recovery.

 

[thomas]

As I said on youtube, get better! Sounds like you're ok and will be riding soon so that's great

This accident was completely the driver's fault. They should of checked the bus lane was clear before driving across. Even if you were filtering through the cars it would still be their fault imo.

From a arm chair (or hungover in bed) critic, I would say that in the future it might be wise to look across junctions like this before proceeding. I know it's probably a faff in London, but got to be worth it! I know on one of the police motorbike training videos I watched before doing my CBT it showed them slowing or stopping at junctions when they couldn't see if someone was going to do something silly like what happened to you.

I'm not saying stop at every junction and check, but just make sure that someone doesn't do something like this to you again!

Anyway, those views aren't blaming you at all. This was completely the drivers fault for not checking it was safe to go. All this 50/50 is nonsense!!

 

[Origamist]

AKA the Lake Wobegon effect

Having been there, I'd agree with maggers and O that hindsight is a wonderful, rose-tinted, time-travelling X-ray thing. Saying that you would have avoided that incident is like me watching Lost In Translation and then describing what I'd do to Scarlett Johansson if I'd have played the aging actor instead of Bill Murray. Irrelevant, pointless, wishful thinking and not in great taste.

Missed this. I imagine in my case, premature ejac.....ohhh, not in great taste, sorry.

 

[Tynan]

if you allow for cars turning right through gaps in traffic then you might as well get off and push, there's so much stopped traffic, so many turnings, so many cars turning through traffic without bothering to allow for cycles that you've have to slow down to a crawl endlessly

I do my best to open the gap by moving to the left, slowing a bit but you simply can't protect yourself every time, sometimes a gap opens and someone turns through it at speed at once, perhaps triggered by a nod from the driver that you can't see

it's a terrible maneuver and I have no idea how any sensible driver can possibly justify it, it's the single accident that I dread, one that i at least feel you can;t avoid when the circumstances align against you

 

[Lizban]

Drivers fault and it also highlights why we all should be careful in bus lanes by junctions. Defensive cycling can help but sometime it's just that your luck is out.

Most importantly I hope Gaz is recovering well.

 

[gaz]

... although, clearly if you'd had better lights, the driver would have seen you.

As it is, the driver said he wasn't sure if i had lights on, but this is just down to how fast it happened and how you forget certain things in stressful situations. I said to the police officer that i haven't touched my lights since we collided. Do you think i had enough? he sniggered. I had my steady helmet light on and a flasher and constant light on my handle bars. and 2 steady and 3 flashing lights on the rear (not that they apply in this case)

Hey Gaz, could you tell us a bit about whether the driver noticed your camera? Did you try to film his face for identification, and film everything around to record it?

What did the police have to say about your footage?

I got clear images of his face on camera but i could have got a better shot of the crash scene. You can just see how his car was and where my bike was lying.

The police that came to the scene weren't traffic, which was a shame, but they where interested in the video and my whole setup. Unfortunately we couldn't view the footage there and then. They put it in the notes that i have CCTV evidence so hopefully it gets passed to traffic and they will want to see it. It would be interesting if it went to the head office in fulham and i get one of the traffic officers dealing with it that work on road safe london. But i expect it will either go to croydon or catford.


In answer to your previous question, it was my genesis day one.

 

[perplexed]

Agree - Gaz was not filtering.

And the whole point of bus lanes is that things (buses, taxis, bicycles) will be moving along them when other lanes of traffic are stationary. So the car turning right should have been even more careful than just turning right through a line of stationary traffic.

This is the thing. Gaz was behaving himself and minding his own business.

The car driver just went for it without being able to see properly because the vans in his sight line.

Your average taxi driver would have been going down there at a fair rate of knots. That would have made a big bang.

Drivers fault.

 

[400bhp]

if you allow for cars turning right through gaps in traffic then you might as well get off and push

Exactly.

Drivers fault - he should have been edging across but didn't.

Anyway, that's not the point. Gaz is OK and lives to tell the tale.

Accidents do happen. I suspect more than half of all drivers do the same kind of thing when crossing traffic.

 

[400bhp]

It's an interesting point though. Does the risk of cycling in a bus lane such as that outweigh the benefit?

Is it worth filtering on the right??

Don't know as I don't know the roads involved.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

It's an interesting point though. Does the risk of cycling in a bus lane such as that outweigh the benefit?

Is it worth filtering on the right??

Don't know as I don't know the roads involved.

IMO I'd say not - you have to keep an eye both on the traffic you are overtaking (u-turns / right turns / letting traffic out from side roads etc.) as well as being wary of oncoming traffic which may have to alter their line to overtake parked cars / cyclists etc. I'd also be inclined to think that you'd have less of a leg to stand on if you are involved in a similar type of accident (with traffic pulling out in front of you to join the oncoming traffc from a side road perhaps) due to your position too.

The bus lane is wide, used by other vehicles and should therefore be safer in terms of people checking what's in it before they cross/use it. As can be seen though, not every driver checks.

 

[dellzeqq]

People seem to be getting very confused.

Yes, maybe Gaz could have avoided it (and on another day he may well have). That doesn't make the incident even 1% his fault.

If someone took a short cut through a dark alley and got mugged, is that 50/50 their fault?

thankyou. It's taken me a while to get to this, but it was worth the trawl. The law can do with the fault thing. The 'could Gaz have done anything different' bit is a different thing entirely.

Which junction was this on Gaz?

 

[dellzeqq]

It's an interesting point though. Does the risk of cycling in a bus lane such as that outweigh the benefit?

Is it worth filtering on the right??

Don't know as I don't know the roads involved.

No and no is the short answer.

the longer answer is that they vary. The layout of the A23 (which was, I think, the road that Gaz was on) restricts visiblity. There are more side streets, and, therefore, more turning across, than the adjacent A24/A3/CS7. If there's a traffic jam on the A23 I will crawl down the bus lane (this is an out-and-out lie, but it's one I repeat to Susie frequently), whereas I feel free to pound along almost all of the A24, however thick the traffic. I'd never right filter down the A23 (that bit is true).

(Gaz will probably react to this by saying that Streathamudlians are just naturally thick, and should not be used for reproductive purposes, but, Gaz, if we are so thick, why do you traverse our fine suburb?)

And get well soon