Came down Orchard Brae and was crossing the roundabout to go towards Crewe Toll when a car came out of Craigleith Road on my left hand side without stopping and struck me. Fortunately it was the side of the car that I struck rather than ending up under the front wheels. No real damage to the bike but I am feeling sore and bruised, nothing broken. I was wearing my high vis jacket and have lights front and back and helmet mounted flashing lights. The lady driver said she just didn't see me! What more can I do to be seen? The driver was on her way to the police station where she works in some sort of support role (she was wearing police uniform) Not really the sort of person you expect considering the amount of plonkers on the roads. I have had cars pull out towards me before on the Crewe Toll roundabout, again coming from my left. Does anyone have a light mounted so that it points in that direction? Fortunately I can get a lift home tonight, too sore to cycle.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting
Knocked off my bike this morning
(35 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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Gosh! sorry to hear that but glad it was not worse. Did you get driver's details just in case? I think I saw some lights for wheels at the co-op sale
Posted 13 years ago # -
Hello and Happy New Year. I've only just found this site and it looks good. Thought I'd comment on the most recent post as it's such a familiar story. "Didn't see you" is driver speak for "I was driving without due care and attention". Thought I'd let you know about a great piece of kit I got for Christmas. Helps to avoid the situation above. Nightrider MiNewt 250 LED front light. Not cheap but it speaks to motorists in no uncertain terms + you can charge it through your PC!! Looking forward to engaging with my fellow velocipedists on this forum.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Eeep. What time/daylight level?
I'm not invisible from the side but my current selection of lights doesn't pointedly collimate anything sideways, though I deliberately have at least one at each end with a lot of spill.
I've one surviving spoke reflector that I need to clean and move so that it imbalances the wheel a bit less and some wintery tyres to fit, one of which has Scotchlite sides. Reflective sidewalls should be pretty visible even to a car only running its sidelights but they'd gunk up fairly quickly at this time of year. Flashing valve caps are quite cheap...Posted 13 years ago # -
Must be a shock. I have only been hit once by a car before and that was a SMIDSY (you can report at http://www.stop-smidsy.org.uk/). In your case could it be that the driver didn't look properly?
Posted 13 years ago # -
Really sorry to hear about this! Come this evening you will almost certainly be hurting in various places. Will you have the confidence to cycle tomorrow? Will the injuries make it difficult for you? If you think there is anything amiss at all, get yourself over to the Station to make a report, and consider getting a check from your GP. Edit: In fact, please do make an appointment to get checked out. I didn't, last time I ended up on the road, and I spent several days worrying I'd broken my shoulder and my shin bone.
Will the driver be too shaken to drive to work tomorrow? I doubt it.
"I just didn't see you!" was almost exactly the same line I heard when I was once struck by a car that didn't stop on approaching a roundabout. How can you not see someone on the Orchard Brae roundabout? The sightlines look good to me.
I was wearing my high vis jacket and have lights front and back and helmet mounted flashing lights. What more can I do to be seen?
You're already doing far more than the law says you need. But no quantity of bright stuff and flashing things can compensate for someone who isn't looking in the first place.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I have been cycling slower the last couple of days because of the icy roads, especially when I have to deviate from going straight forward. It makes you shudder when you think about the cyclist you see on a daily basis with little or no lights. Oh, the collision would have been at about 06:40 this morning. I deliberately come in early to avoid the build up of traffic, unfortunately the traffic didn't avoid me. Think i'll leave it till Monday to commute again. Don,t think I could manage tomorrow. Thanks for your concern folks, take care out there,.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Glad you're reasonably alright. Let us know how it goes on Monday.
Posted 13 years ago # -
"about 06:40 this morning"
Asleep at the wheel(?)
Surprising number of songs with that title!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Horrible. I agree with others that unfortunately there is nothing that can be done to make yourself visible to drivers who do not bother to look in the first place.
I am coming round to the idea that a death laser front light is the way forward. Makes it harder for them to ignore you.
Glad it wasn't worse and hope you are able to ride again on Monday.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Ouch! (literally) Sorry to hear about this - touch wood it's something I've avoided so far. SMIDSY, as others have pointed out, is a poor excuse, and just another way of saying they weren't paying attention properly.
As Arellcat says, I'd go to the doc and get a quick check over just in case, and it will almost certainly hurt more tonight, and you're going to to wake up stiff in the morning. I'd also check the bike very very carefully - all too easy for something like this to have cracked a frame or twisted some bit that you didn't notice originally.
And with that in mind did you get the make, model and registration of the car just in case?
Posted 13 years ago # -
That's rotten, as the others say, be sure to report it (as I'm sure the other road user has... maybe!) and hopefully you got their details.
It's always scary and mostly sore, best advice I can give is have a good hours soak in a hot bath tonight, as hot as you can bear, and then an early night. Hopefully that will help to limit the aches and pains, then, very important, get back on the bike asap before your brain convinces itself that riding is scary!As with the others, commiserations and hope there is no other damage (nor a repeat!)
Posted 13 years ago # -
Sorry to hear this, Numptie and hope the damage is indeed cosmetic and limited to inevitable bumps and bruises. Most importantly I hope the steed is healthy.
I know it's hard to exactly remember what happens in situations like this - but do you know if the driver had actually stopped and checker her exit was clear, or had she just slowed slightly and proceeded across the double-white stop line and assumed as there wasn't a car coming that it was clear? If it was the latter then she was clearly in the wrong.
By saying "sorry, I didn't see you" what my mind thinks she is actually saying* is "sorry, it's usually very quiet at this time of morning, so I didn't take the 10 seconds to come to a complete stop, check my exits and then proceed when it was clear".
Unfortunately, being in the employ of the Police is no guarantee of better driving standards as the apparenthit-and-run on Hogmanay tragically illustrates.
* personal opinion from my experience of these situations
Posted 13 years ago # -
@kaputnik I'd agree with most of that, however there is no need to come to a complete stop, unless it is a "Stop" sign of course, not being familiar with the junction I had assumed it has double hatched give way lines?
I have a little retro-reflective orange tape on the side of the bike but as has been pointed out it doesn't help when a SMIDSY is actually a SMIDL (sorry mate I didn't look), as usual... (airzound is however quite effective if you spot them in time and use your audible warning in the manner instructed by the Highway Code ;-))Edited to add, whilst being a Policeperson/employed by the Police is of course no guarantee of good driving I would have to say the vast majority of Police I see driving set a far better standard of driving than most road users, witnessed by the fact that they tend not to be noticeable!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Hopefully you got the driver's details. I could be wrong but I think you're obliged to report all injury collisions to the police, even if you're only ("only") on a bike.
Whether you can actually be bothered, of course, is another matter. But it will help build up the picture of bike accident spots around town if nothing else.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Would agree with previous posts by recommending that you report the accident as soon as you are able. If it is not reported, it never happened as far as the statistics are concerned. Also, if you do later decide to claim compensation, this could help. This is particularly true if there is a problem with insurance or identifying the driver as a claim may fail if the accident has not been reported.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Thanks for all your comments, I have an appointment at Restalrig police station next week to give a statement. Probably like most people I wasn,t sure if I should report the incident considering the lack of damage to myself or the bike, but as you say if it isn't reported then that statistic is lost.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Yes, should definately report this stuff. And good news that you haven't discovered latent damage anywhere (bike or self)!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Sorry to hear about your collision. Best wishes for a swift recovery.
On the topic of side-on visibility, I've got a pair of flashing pedals from EBC. They have an internal dynamo of some kind, and start flashing as soon as you start pedalling.
They have an orange LED pointing out sideways, as well as a white front and red rear flashing LED. They are quite visible as they flash brightly and move up and down/round and round.
The right pedal has recently stopped flashing reliably. and needs to go back to the shop, though...
Posted 13 years ago # -
Thank goodness you weren't injured, and that your bike wasn't damaged. You definitely ought to report it, but unfortunately, I think that even if you're lit up like a Christmas tree, if the driver (as sounds like it in this case) isn't really looking properly, there's nothing more you can do in the way of visibility. In this case, it really looks like it was an unavoidable accident and 100% not your fault.
Posted 13 years ago # -
"
Cyclists 'left unprotected by police and courts'Drivers who claim they couldn't see bikes are too often believed, say campaigners
"
http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=2002#post-20935
Posted 13 years ago # -
Plenty of people pull out in front of, and are t-boned by, regular cars, white vans, double decker buses and even ambulence/police cars with their sirens going.
Plenty of people nail into the back of a stationary police or AA recovery car with their lights flashing and a barn-door's worth of reflective paint.
It's too much to hope that being on a bike will make you more 'visible' than an ambulence with sirens on, I think.
People don't look, they won't see.
The real problem is that there is (in practice) little enforcement or punishment of dangerous driving. Someone who knowingly gets behind the wheel of a large goods vehicle with defective eyesight and kills someone gets the same fine as his neighbour who let their dog foul the pavement three times at £100 a pop.
Imagine if a police marksman failed to own up to defective eyesight and shot a random passerby during an armed incident. Would they get "3x dog dirt fine" and told not to do it again?
Posted 13 years ago # -
Would agree with @Dave's comment that if people don't look they won't see.
In anyone is not aware of the case I think @Dave is alluding to, its the Eilidh Cairns case: http://bit.ly/etaiBfPosted 13 years ago # -
Has anyone mentioned these. My neighbour has them fitted and they make him highly visible from the side.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Hmm. Try to imagine riding along for an extended period of time being lit up from the side by a moving car.
You'll find it's quite hard geometrically, because if the car and you are heading towards the same spot, their headlights will be shining at the place where you're going to be (but aren't there yet).
My experience is that a driver who pulls out in front / into you will be exposed for a good length of time to your front lights, but to a side reflector? Not so much.
I mean, it probably won't cause you to have *more* crashes, but the money might be better put towards a front light, sort of thing.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I am glad it is not just me that struggles to see a proper benefit to side visibility. If anyone can enlighten me please do!
Posted 13 years ago # -
I like it more for when Im pulling out into traffic from a side street, Its also one of these easy to recognize things, like pedal motion, two round circles mean bicycle to anyone.
Other good situations, roundabouts, converging country roads, flash photography :)
I love my High Viz, I dont think it makes me any safer, i still ride as if nobody can ever see me but I love the effect when i see someone from the future ride past ;)
Posted 13 years ago # -
Sideways visible on my bike because I went for the more-lights-than-the-ISS option and added blue LED lights to the valve caps. Creates a nice ring of blue and given the batteries have been going since September or October (whenever it started getting dark) and came supplied with a set of spares I think that was £10 well spent
Posted 13 years ago # -
where from spyte?
Posted 13 years ago # -
Just going from experience, my brushes with traffic where I have had to break hard to avoid a collision have all been on roundabouts where I have checked for traffic coming from my right, entered the roundabout and whilst in the middle of the roundabout a vehicle has driven towards me from my left. Would a vehicle be able to see a front facing light especially when there are streetlights? In the situation I have described, you have very little time to react. One driver crossing Crewe Toll roundabout who made me brake heavilly and yell at him carried on as if I wasn't there and was oblivious to the fact he had nearly caused an accident. I for one intend to add a flashing rear light to the LHS of my bike.
Posted 13 years ago #
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