Pedestrian looking at phone hit by cyclist gets compensation

[Bonefish Blues]

He had more witnesses saying she was at fault, considering we aren't the most popular road users that speak volumes to me.

I have been victim of someone else causing an accident due to their bad mistakes, and I was found at fault, so I have sympathy with the cyclist here.

I was backing onto my driveway with the flow of traffic, and someone came round the corner speeding, he massively over steered and swerved across the verge and pavement on the other side of the road and took out a telegraph pole. crash investigator said he was travelling way to fast and if was dong the speed limit had ample time to stop, my insurance said I was in the road and an obstacle, yea I barely had my front wheels on the road as I had almost completed my maneuver, but they basically didn't want a court battle.

Get better solicitor and do as you please pretty much.

Just apropos of your incident, remember in future that you don't have to allow your own insurers to handle it. I have personal experience of this where mine wanted to go 50-50 (because cheaper) and I told 'em to stuff it, and went to a Claims Mgt company, and won.

 

[PK99]

Spot on. And pending that, any cyclist (and driver, needless to say) should commit to doing everything in their power to avoid hurting other people, even stupid ones.

As a general principle of life:

"...every person should commit to doing everything in their power to avoid hurting other people, even stupid ones."

 

[glasgowcyclist]

As a general principle of life:

"...every person should commit to doing everything in their power to avoid hurting other people, even stupid ones."

Or as the Highway Code puts it:

The rules in The Highway Code do not give you the right of way in any circumstance, but they do advise you when you should give way to others.
Always give way if it can help to avoid an incident

 

[benb]

It's not the speed that mattered here, it's the actions of the cyclist. If a car driver had honked, not braked and tried to squeeze past the pedestrian, pretty sure the judge wouldn't be letting them off Scott free.

That's a rather odd way of interpreting the facts of the case, as we know them.
What makes you think the cyclist didn't brake?

I completely agree it's incumbent on all road users to make allowances for the mistakes of others, but I can't see how the cyclist is at fault at all from the account. The pedestrian stepped directly into the cyclist's path - it's not really different from someone pulling out from a side road is it?

 

[MichaelW2]

The Starling Crossing is an intriguing and possibly useful update of the pedestrian crossing, adapting to users.

http://umbrellium.co.uk/initiatives/starling-crossing/

 

[icowden]

I agree that this:

He had more witnesses saying she was at fault, considering we aren't the most popular road users that speak volumes to me.

is important. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there is an appeal.

 

[T4tomo]

That's a rather odd way of interpreting the facts of the case, as we know them.
What makes you think the cyclist didn't brake?
?

The bit where its reported he sounded an airhorn and swerved and the absence of any reporting that says he tried to stop.

As I also said earlier in the thread, we're all guessing a bit, as we weren't in course to see and hear the evidence.

 

[Johnno260]

Like you said, it’s all guess work on our part, but swerving is still trying to avoid the person, we don’t know distances if it was wet etc maybe he felt there wasn’t time to brake.

 

[benb]

The bit where its reported he sounded an airhorn and swerved and the absence of any reporting that says he tried to stop.

As I also said earlier in the thread, we're all guessing a bit, as we weren't in course to see and hear the evidence.

I guess you missed this part from the article then:

"Mr Hazeldean had come through a green traffic light, and had sounded a loud airhorn attached to his bike, as well as shouting, swerving and braking in a bid to avoid the pedestrian"

 

[numbnuts]

I wonder if a helmet/bike cam would have influenced the judge as she has amnesia (rather handy for her) and then everybody could have seen what really happened, it will be interesting to see how much she gets.

 

[Kempstonian]

It may be that if he hadn't sounded the horn he would have been able to swerve behind her. After all it seems to be the horn that frightened her into jumping backwards.

 

[Johnno260]

It may be that if he hadn't sounded the horn he would have been able to swerve behind her. After all it seems to be the horn that frightened her into jumping backwards.

I think he would be damned either way, ring a bell with all that background noise, not be heard as everyone has noise cancelling ear/headphones and hit her anyway.

This is why I love my rural routes and avoid town centers as much as possible.

 

[Kempstonian]

Probably best to give no warning at all because if she had taken another step forward, instead of backwards, there would most likely have been enough room for him to get through.

 

[Origamist]

Seems like an equitable judgment to me.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Probably best to give no warning at all because if she had taken another step forward, instead of backwards, there would most likely have been enough room for him to get through.

When we used to be younger and even more foolish, one learned to throw sharp objects directly at friends, lest they moved into said sharp object's path when one threw to miss them.