Rear-ended at a roundabout. Nice lady looking for cars had not noticed me. I'm ok, Brompton is mostly ok apart from piece snapped off rack. We exchanged phone numbers. Posting to make myself tell someone. Not planning to report it, should I, for stats?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting
Just been rear-ended
(29 posts)-
Posted 10 years ago #
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"should I, for stats?"
Probably.
Any 'infrastructure inadequacies' or pure SMIDSY?
Posted 10 years ago # -
I take it you came off? Hope you're still feeling okay later tonight/ tomorrow.
Take it easy.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I would suggest you report it and thoroughly check your bike for damage - may even be worth popping into a shop to ask them to give it a look over, as if the impact was enough to damage the rack it could have damaged other parts.
Anyway, hope you are okay.
Posted 10 years ago # -
If you don't report it, it didn't happen - for national stats, for the maps of road incidents or for the driver's insurance company. All of which are top quality reasons to file the paperwork (however soul destroying it may be).
Personally, I'm also not sure I'd bother.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Here's the damage:
(Looks as though you'll have to click on the photo to see it!)I think I wasn't actually sitting on the bike when it was hit - I think I had a foot on the ground and was poised to move off. The bike ended up on the ground and of course the rear wheel folded under and I think that folding process absorbed a lot of the impact. One bum cheek was a bit sore for a while, saddle impact I assume, but I didn't hit the ground with anything other than my feet.
Yes, SMIDSY. Infrastructure "just" that roundabouts are a Bad Thing... no bike-specific infra involved.
Will post properly in the morning.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Glad to see you're OK, if you're going to be hit
this seems to be the way to do it.Posted 10 years ago # -
Eeps. Assuming you'll be handing it in somewhere to get the rack replaced so get them to check it and have them cc the rear-ender into the results of their inspection and issue of invoice.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Eeps too. Was demonstrating the Brompton at the weekend and a couple of people asked whether it was safe having the back wheel folding spontaneously like that (I don't have the catch, and it has 'sat down' occasionally under emergency braking conditions) - never thought of it as a crumple zone though!
The nice thing about the Brompton is the very low frame so there's much less to get tangled up in if you do get a knock.
Hope there's no significant damage beyond the rack.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Sorry to hear that and hope you continue to feel fine! Def, def def report it first thing tomorrow morning! Dunno if you have any legal obligation to, but the car driver does and their insurance may take the view that you don't care enough/can be fobbed off. Also, many car drivers think all bikes cost less tha £100, the cost of even a minor repair to a brompton may come as a fright and elicit all sorts of denial and prevarication. Finally, can't see the pic on this ancient phone, but the Brommie rack is pretty solid, if it's been hit hard enough to break I'd be quite concerned about the risk of unseen damage to the rear wheel or subframe, and there's no way you should be paying that when the guilty party has the much vaunted (by trolls lol) car drivers insurance!!
Good luck and stay safe anyway.Posted 10 years ago # -
@Smudge I believe that there's only an obligation to report an accident to the police if someone (or certain animals) is hurt.
OK, I've failed to work out how to make a link to the roundabout in question on Google maps. Anyway, I go that way every time I take the Brompton, so 4 or 5 times a week. It is quite a big roundabout, with several exits, but I'm taking the first left. So I'd drifted towards the kerb so that there was space for two lanes of traffic to my right. I rolled up to the line and stopped as there was a car coming, and was then hit from behind - I think the front left bumper of the car hit the right hand end of the rear rack (recall, it is a Brompton, the rack is low to the ground). There was a good scratch on the car there.
As Sallyhinch says, the fold acted as a "crumple zone". I have a slightly sore spot on my @rse which fits perfectly with having been hit by the nose of the saddle.
I know exactly where the driver was looking - to her right to look for traffic on the roundabout. I wonder if I had been slightly obscured from her by the car in front of her (which had overtaken me). It was about 5:40, still daylight (in fact, there was a good strong sun which had been causing me problems as I looked behind me, i.e. the sun was behind us).
Infrastructure? Well, cars and bikes and roundabouts don't mix - ask the Dutch... and while there are ways to get from my office to the station using off-road routes, they are indirect and muddy in places; the road is direct and convenient.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"I've failed to work out how to make a link to the roundabout in question on Google maps."
Yeah Google seems to lack some degree of consistency.
If you're using a smartphone use the app rather than a browser.
Hold screen until a pin appears.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@fimm@smudge someone will correct me (this IS cce) but wasn't it posted recently that you're required to report any accidents where there is contact/impact rather than 'injury'.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"you're required to report any accidents where there is contact/impact rather than 'injury' "
Don't think that's right - think every car/car scrape.
But bitten in the bum by externally activated saddle sounds like "injury" to me!
Posted 10 years ago # -
And I'm not talking 'pride'.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Yes, if I was going to be stroppy about it (for example, the driver had driven off/tried to blame me/claimed that my furry hat made me invisible) then I would definitely be making an issue of the sore bum. As it is, I'm just going to go for the "please Mr Policeman, record this on your stats" angle, especially as I didn't say I was hurt at the time.
I can't get a reply from her phone (it is definitely the right number, she rang my phone from hers). I get a message about calling "customer services" so I assume it is a work phone! I was going to let her know that I was going to report to the police, but I think I'll just go ahead and do it.
I'm going to go to BikeTrax on Saturday & see what they say.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Reported to the police. I'm incident number 293...
Also had a quick chat with the driver (partly because I thought it was polite to let her know that I was going to report it to the police) and she still seems happy to pay for the damage.Posted 10 years ago # -
That's good, fimm. Your Brompton rack, which is now missing an essential roller, will be surprisingly expensive to replace with a brand new one. Fingers crossed the rear pivot hasn't been affected in the process.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Good to keep driver informed. Hope you and bike get sorted quickly!
Posted 10 years ago # -
Has your back rack not got a drilling for light brackets on the right hand side?
Including the mudguard you're looking at £97 for parts alone.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Good that driver knows they were in the wrong and hope driver is aware of Brompton prices
Posted 10 years ago # -
Yes, I checked the price... I didn't tell the driver that but I did warn her that Bromptons come expensive!
Thank you all for all the support/good wishes.
Posted 10 years ago # -
A new bromtom would still (potentially) be cheaper than losing her no claims discount.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Glad you've escaped with easily fixable/recoverable damage...
When I had a slow-speed head-on on the recumbent I just passed the bike straight over to my handy repair shop and got them to do everything. Received quote; emailed scan to driver saying 'are you happy with this?'; and their email back served as a written record of them agreeing to the cost/liability.
Dunno if that's of any use!
Posted 10 years ago # -
Sorry to read this thread, fimm.
"When I had a slow-speed head-on on the recumbent I just passed the bike straight over to my handy repair shop and got them to do everything."
That's exactly the tact I took when I had my incident. I told them if there was any sign of damage, no matter how minor or minimal, I wanted repair/replacement quoted for. The driver's insurance company ended up paying for the lesser of two evils which was a new bike. Saying that though, it helped that my bike was less than 6 weeks old at the time of the incident so they could make a clear comparison against new.
Posted 10 years ago # -
It is quite an old bike (well 6 or 7 years I think) and the rack didn't come with it - I was given the rack by the friends who got me into Bromptons in the first place - that rack came off an old B that died. The black thing on the right is an attachment for a light to run off a hub dynamo - which I don't have.
It is just as well the bike wasn't badly damamged as I've no idea how you'd work out the value of an old Brompton and a new one would set you back £1000 (and surely losing your no-claims discount wouldn't cost you that much?).
Posted 10 years ago # -
(and surely losing your no-claims discount wouldn't cost you that much?).
Back of an envelope calculations suggest my NCD is worth £600-£800 over 5 years so it would be a close one for me in that situation wether to pony up or just leave to my insurance.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I don't think they had stripey mudguards 7 years ago. I've got a 7 and a half yr old S6L with the solid silver couloured mudguards. My 5 yr old S2L-X has stripes.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Well the driver spotted me as I was wheeling the Brompton away from Haymarket this evening - I have to assume that that is where she was headed. She called out to me - I hadn't noticed her. So I was able to explain about the break to the rack which I don't think either of us properly understood when we were both shaken. And I could reassure her that that was the only damage. It was good of her to speak to me.
Posted 10 years ago #
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