Be Excellent To Each Other

Ok, to cut a long story short its been a difficult week and a half for me.

Last sunday (4th) I was driving to work down a country A road (60mph limit) when a pedal cyclist in his 70s came from a B road at a right angle without looking or stopping at the give way lines straight into the front of my car. I avoided him as much as was humanly possible, but my car hit him around the front of his bike and he went absolutely flying. I stopped asap and called 999 and the guy was is in a very bad way.

One of his arms had more or less come off at the elbow, and he had a large compound fracture on his leg and both other limbs had fractures also. His stomach, chest and head had managed to come out of it almost unscathed thankfully and he has survived although he is still listed as critical but stable. I have no idea if they have managed to save the arm.

Now obviously this cyclist has no "insurance" as you would if he was in a car, and i've reported it to my insurance company and they've now tried to contact regarding the claim. no blame has been put on the cyclist as yet or myself, and the police are involved due to the nature of the accident.

Now if this had been two cars colliding, he'd be at fault and his insurance would pay out for the damage. I have a protected no claims on my policy and only a £250 excess so I'm happy enough to use my insurance company to pay for it, but will they do this? The cyclist will be spending months in hospital and possibly never be the same again, so I don't want the poor guy and his family being saddled with a bill of a few thousand £s for repairing my car to go with what they are already going through but we cannot afford the repairs ourselves.

What do Beexers think will happen?? Many thanks for any assistance.

Mr Hobbs

Do you have legal cover on your policy?

A very tough situation and you have my sympathies. Unfortunately not having been in exactly the same situation I'm not in the best place to advise you. I was involved in a nasty accident when a motorcyclist hit my car, but as he was insured it was a lot easier to sort out.

Best of luck!

Hope this doesn't cause you to much stress whilst you get it sorted, but again no advice to offer here, sorry.

We do have legal cover on the policy yeah

As someone who has worked in insurance for a decade, I should probably know the answer.

But I don't.

I'd guess it'd be the same as being hit by an uninsured driver, perhaps? Your insurance policy pays out whatever it has to, but you lose your no claims (unless you have one that doesn't get nailed if hit by an uninsured driver).

Might be worth asking the insurance company if you can speak to their lawyer and see where you stand. They'll know how it works much better than some chumps on the internet.

Shitty situation to be in though bud. Good luck.

If the police investigation decides that the cyclist was at fault your insurance company may well seek to recoup any money they pay to you from him. Not a lot you can do about that.

I think the police investigation conclusions will be the key to how this is resolved. This is based on my experience within the court system and not from any insurance experience so I may be wrong.

That sounds absolutely awful.

I think DavPaz may have suggested the best course of action for you at the moment. And I have nothing to add other than, good luck and I hope it all gets resolved as soon quickly and painlessly as humanly possible.

The short answer is "leave it all to your insurance company" as that's what you pay for.

Based on your description the police *should* come to the conclusion that it was 100% the fault of the cyclist, and your insurance company will get a copy of this report.

It's very likely you'll get contacted by some ambulance chasing lawyers acting on behalf of the cyclist - just forward them to the insco and don't be tempted to reply directly.

Hopefully he will make a good recovery. Even though it's not your fault it wouldn't be a nice thing to have on your conscience.

Crikey, not good

Sorry to hear about your situation. I can't offer any more help than what others have already said, let your insurance company deal with everything.

thanks for the replies folks.

I'll wait to see the outcome of the cops findings first before doing much else.

Sorry to hear about your situation.

Really sorry to hear that. Sounds terrible.

That must have been a very traumatic experience. Sorry to hear it.

Yeah, hope you get over the shock and the bloke makes a good recovery soon.

I hope everything turns out alright for you mate.

Jeez, not nice. Does your company have a helpline you can ring, mine has an advice line with solicitors on the end who you can speak to and they have no vested interest, unlike the insco solicitor.

I have been in a similar situation, thankfully the idiot that ran into the side of my car from behind a bus was ok.

I had damage done to my car totaling just under 1k, the insurance didn't do anything as they don't pursue pedestrians and if I wanted to get compensation then I had to take him to the small claims court. I could claim off them but would have lost my no claims, this peeved me no end as I was not at fault.

Don't know exactly how similar this is to your case, there are always slight technical differences and differences between companies. It was also four years ago, so things might have changed.

Again, I have no actual advice to offer, but that sounds absolutely horrific. Hope everything turns out okay dude.

My father in law spoke to the cops yesterday while I was in work, they have saved the guys arm but the other one was so smashed up that they don't think they can rebuild it.

The cop in charge is ringing me later today to discuss things.

Hi MrHobbs

I work in insurance and the general consensus amongst my colleagues is that if the cyclist has contents insurance on his home he should be able to claim for third party property damage for the damage to your car.

Hope it all works out

thanks Ange!

Quick update on this

I'm still without a car as the insurance company and bodyshop are really dragging their heels. The car is almost 100% a write off but the two of them are now arguing over who provides the courtesy car.

I spoke to the senior insurance guy and he was told by the copper that the guy I hit has been in an induced coma since the accident and can't breathe without a machine so things aren't looking good for him unfortunately.

So sorry to hear that. Can't imagine how you must be feeling.

A bittersweet day for me today (almost 3 months on) I have been contacted by the police to say that after their physics tests, reconstructions etc, that I was at no fault whatsoever for the accident, I was under the speed limit, and they have calculated that due to how he hit my vehicle, etc. that I had no way of avoiding him and so on... so I am to face no action as far as the police are concerned. The chap I hit is also out of his coma, his injuries have healed and he is now back home with his family.

Good news.

Then 3 hours later, my friends wife passes away aged 45 from cancer. Isn't life just a cunt sometimes?

Well, glad all the accident business was sorted, but ... yeah, life sucks at times.

Good lords this is heavy. Good news about the guy, must be a big relief. So sorry to hear about your friend Cancer's a horrible thing that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

The most distressing thing about all this to me is that someone here has had to wait 3 months to be told he won't be bollocked for something he didn't do wrong. I'd have been a nervous wreck by this stage if there was even a shred of a possibility of copping for it, no matter how convinced of my innocence I was.

Glad its all resolved, MrHobbs. You are made of sterner stuff than I.

The cops told me unofficially a few weeks back that the worst I could expect were points on my licence and a possible fine so that was the main thing I was concerned about. For the first month I was told if I was found to have been speeding or using my mobile then I could expect a jail term of up to 2 years, more if he died. That was a hard month.

The worst thought was missing the next few years of watching my then 9mth old son growing up. That was really upsetting.

I've met people whose lives have been completely dismantled through the pressure of months like that first one you had there - well done for not losing it completely.

Now that the bloke is recovering and back home with his family, the decent thing to do would be for him to make some sort of apology to you.

I won't hold my breath for an apology, I just hope his family agree with the police findings and they don't try for one of those "where there's blame there's a claim" things. I can do without that.

I don't know how those things work, but would he have a case? Sounds like the only blame you have is driving down a road.

yeah, there is surely no blame here, otherwise it would be a crime. "blame/claim" things work against public liability insurance and things like that, not wreckless driving/non wreckless driving, the law is there for those!

So sorry to hear about your friend Mr Hobbs. It must be a great relief to have finally had the accident resolved though and what a weight of your mind to hear that the guy has recovered well. I think even if you had been cleared by the police, it would have been hard to deal with if the guy had died.

Bloody hell, stuck in my own world of (minor, very minor) stress I missed this thread of huge actual stress. Glad things are coming out the other side MrHobbs. Here's to a relaxing xmas for you, cos you deserve it! :hug:

Glad to hear it's panned out this way re. the the police, sorry to hear about losing someone though.

I'm so sorry about your friend.

I'm really glad that the findings are in ánd that the man made it through pretty well

I hope you get the chance to relax a bit now, in spite of the sad circumstances with your friends

Sorry to hear this

Btw, here in holland, any collission with a cyclist would be your fault... See where the power lies..

Glad to hear that you can now start to put the accident behind you now, MrHobbs. Can't imagine the stress you've been under the last few months.

Sorry to hear about you're friends wife.