Dd hit car whilst riding her bike

[Sfuandtired]

Dd 17 has collided with a car tonight whilst riding her bike, she was crossing the road and from what I can make out didn’t see the car turning, she hit the car with her wheel leaving a dent and was thrown over the handle bars banging her head on the window, the driver got out, asked if she was ok, took her name and phone number, then said he was late for work and drove of!
Dd has since had a text saying she will be sent a bill and bank details for the damage to the car! WWYD?

Whatever vehicle you are driving or riding you should be aware of the stopping distance - the time it takes to bring the vehicle to a complete stop. Thinking time and braking time. Aside from the fact that she shouldn't have been on the pavement, if she couldn't stop in time, she was obviously going too fast .

She should pay. She caused the accident

If she doesn't, the driver will claim on his insurance and the insurers may pursue DD

Not only that but the driver will have to take an at fault claim hit on their insurance because the insurer is unable to claim from the at fault party’s insurance. If the diagram is correct there’s absolutely no doubt that it was her fault, she was on the wrong side of the road for a start. I’d be so pissed off if I was the driver.

You started by claiming, wrongly, that insurance means the driver has no loss so would not be able to sue OP's daughter. This is wrong.

The courts do not take assets into account when ordering compensation. If you have caused £5,000 worth of damage, that is what will be awarded even if your total assets are 50p.

Being a minor is only relevant inasmuch as a the bar for proving negligence may be higher. For a 17-year-old, it makes little difference.

I am not being melodramatic. I am setting out what the law really says, as opposed to your fantasy that insurance takes away any liability.

@CrispieCake didn’t see the car turning and the driver got out car was moving!!

Have a look at the diagram @Beekeepingmum

This isn't a case of a driver not stopping at a junction.

The DD was on the wrong side of the 'road '(ie the pavement- illegal.)

She was unsighted by a high hedge.

She didn't stop when she got to the junction- rode straight across it into the path of car she'd not stopped to see.

Think of it as the same as a runner coming out of the pavement, and carrying on straight into an oncoming car which couldn't see behind a hedge.

A few years ago, my boss (solicitor), hit a teenager riding to school on his bike, when he was driving his BMW, in the countryside near where he lives.

From recollection they were both at fault, didn't see each other and settled it between themselves (parents of the boy in this case), minimal or no damage to boss's car and teenager just shaken, not really hurt, bar cuts and maybe bruises.

I can't even recall if it was reported to the police or not. Boss was scared because he'd been stupid for years, speeding whilst over the limit drink-wise amongst other driving offences, but never being caught and he thought if parents knew who he was or it got into the press, he'd lose his career (own business) which was a strong possibility.

He may have even paid the parents off. It had the effect of making him safer with driving anyway from then on anyway. He rang me on my mobile just after it happened (I was on my way into work) and was really shaken up.

In this case, don't be bullied by this man. Go to the police and report it and go through normal insurance channels if need be. He did commit a crime as pp's said by leaving the scene of a crime where someone is injured. I hope your DD is ok OP. A nasty shock and she's bound to be shaken up.

Not read all pp's but if anything this makes people aware of if you are riding a bike, you should take a Cycling Proficiency Test at the very least or know rules of the road.

Countless times I've seen bikes being ridden towards me as a pedestrian, on the wrong side of the pavement, along a pavement, giving me no space to pass (one way system/street) and once with a father and his teenage son with him.

The primary school near where I live runs cycling lessons (presumably cycling proficiency ones) in our local park and that is how you should be taught how to ride a bicycle and stick to it. I see them sometimes on my lunch break practising. Yes, I know some car drivers are dicks too before anyone starts. I'm a car driver too.

@Sfuandtired Your daughter needs to contact the Police as others have stated and report the accident to them. The driver has potentially committed an offence by leaving the scene of an accident and not reporting it, especially as your daughter suffered an injury. The new law that came in effectively puts the blame squarely on the (car) driver when a pedestrian or cyclist is injured in an accident, so stop worrying about his repair costs. That’s not your daughter’s responsibility.

He’ll have to claim from his own insurance and hope that he doesn’t get prosecuted for careless driving!

Not if he checks they are okay and they appear to be. She can go to the GP- the police don’t have time to come out every time someone falls off their bike fgs. I have been injured in minor car accidents before and the police weren’t called. You’re confusing it with hit and run type scenarios.

They are not going to sue a child who got run over, stop being melodramatic.

you’re accusing other people of being melodramatic? Why are people dramatising what actually happened?!!

She was riding on the pavement and couldn’t stop in time as he stopped at his junction and she bumped into the side of his car banging her head on his window (which he may not have even realised if he was at the junction looking the other way checking for traffic) but she did NOT:

Get run over
get thrown over the bonnet
hit her head on the windscreen.

and while we’re at it the driver didn’t flee the scene, he stopped to ask if she was okay, for her details and carried on, she told him she was uninjured, as the op even states that she was not injured in her op.

can people stop making things up!!

But if the car was already turning, then it means the car had actually got to the junction and was proceeding out of the junction before the OP’s kid flew off the pavement and into his side. At the point, the driver couldn’t have seen her, couldn’t have stopped and couldn’t have avoided her. He was past the pavement point, the pavement was no longer diagonally in front of him, it was to his side.

As there was a hedge, he wouldn’t have seen her approaching from any distance away. By the time you get close enough, and no pedestrian is standing there, it’s safe to go. No one thinks a cyclist is going to come flying out from being a hedge, illegally on the pavement and then continue to cross the road despite there being a car already pulled across that point. If he was actually in the turning phase then he was already past; she came out after and hit his side. There was nothing he could do, and if she didn’t see him then she just wasn’t looking or did see him but was going too fast to be able to stop.

Poor guy. Some idiot cycles into him, damages his car and now he’s being reported to the police as well. Hopefully they will think it’s nonsense and won’t charge him and he can then press on with getting the money from you, now that he will have your full name and address and stuff (whereas now he just has a phone number and little means of tracing your DD).

Not if the cyclist is irresponsible and clearly at fault it doesn't, which is obviously the case here since she was cycling on the pavement (illegal) and shot out from behind a hedge without stopping (idiotic).

But nice to see the militant cyclists are out in force and blaming the Evil Car Driver for something that obviously wasn't his fault. As usual.

You can't just detain random people just incase they are lying about not being injured. He asked if she was OK, she said yes, he took her word for it. There's not much more he could do.

As one was injured, it is not a police matter, and he is not required to report. She did however brake the law by cycling on the payment.

@gettingbackonit23
@AE9766

He collided with a cyclist and she fell and injured herself. He was legally bound to report the accident to the Police and his insurance company.

If he’s done neither of these things and thinks he can harass a kid for money, I hope the OP does get the Police involved. I would if I was the mum.

It doesn’t put the blame on them. It puts higher responsibility on them to avoid an accident. They have to be more cautious, and when an accident occurs, it’s first looked at through the lense of the driver having a higher burden to have avoided the incident. But from what the OP has said, this driver couldn’t have.

A child was recently run over on one of the roads round my area. Dash cam footage from the driver showed everything. He was driving around 20mph in a 30mph zone and as his bonnet passed by a large SUV, a child came running out. They literally ran in front of the bonnet as the driver passed the gap in front of the SUV. There wasn’t anything that driver could have done, the child was right by the front corner of his car as they basically ran into it. He was found not at fault. There was nothing he could have done to avoid it. He had a higher level of responsibility to avoid any accidents, but he was driving at 20mph because of all the parked cars, so was already being as safe as was reasonable. He couldn’t have predicted or avoided a child literally stepping into his path as soon as he lined up with them.

How did she dent his car? Is her bike damaged? I’d be suspicious personally… having been hit by a car at low speed myself (not my fault before people start piling in…), my bike was written off and there was barely a scratch on his car.

Always go through insurance - his can contact you if they so wish to but if he hasn’t filed a report with the police it would be hard for him to get anywhere. You can report it yourself online to the police - this is worth doing as if it is a hazardous junction (the high hedge which obscures drivers seeing the pavement would suggest it is), then the more reports of accidents the greater the chance that something will be done.

She ran into him. She wasn’t injured. Nothing to report.

I've had a few near misses with cyclists in the past year (late last year), once at a busy junction (lots of lanes, mini roundabouts), with one idiot who wasn't wearing any sort of reflective clothing (dressed completely in black), I maybe saw a reflective part on his pedal but that was it! Riding his bike dangerously and swerving towards me. And it was very dark with only street lighting around in a main road area (plus if there were any road signs with reflective signage).

The vast majority of cyclists are safe and fine but not all car drivers are evil shits.

Absolutely astounding the number of people who are supporting someone who drove off after a cyclist was thrown over the handlebars and hit her head on his car.

It doesn’t matter whose fault the accident was, he should have stopped and made sure someone was contacted. She should not have been allowed to keep cycling after hitting her head! If she’d had some kind of delayed reaction to that, a dent in his door would be the least of his worries.

How does he have the ability to stop her from cycling? She can do whatever she likes, he checked she was okay and she said yes. Clearly she didn’t lose consciousness and was able to give out her phone number. He doesn’t necessarily know she hit her head - it’s a total blur when something like this happens. And seeing as she came from the pavement and drove into his side, he didn’t even cause the accident in the first place so no it’s not really his worry.

Except that's not what happened, is it? Or is your dislike of drivers so vehement that you'll actually reimagine a situation in reverse to suit your agenda?

(Probably. That's what I see from most cyclists, encouraged by morons like Jeremy Vine)

Was she cycling on the pavement?

You have insurance in case something happens TO YOU. Not just in case you do something to someone else.

If something happens to you and the other party can’t pay, your insurance covers it. Thats what it’s supposed to do.

And your premium goes up. Because your risk has gone up. It may not be your fault, but you now represent a higher risk, because you have put yourself in the situation where this incident happened. The driver is now “someone who drives where there are no cycle paths”. Or “someone who lives in a town where cyclists cycle on pavements”. Higher risk.

That is my one pet hate. Whether it's e-scooters or bicycles. E-Scooters often travel at speed towards you on pavements too.

Highway Code rules changed in January 2022. Depending on the situation, the driver may have been at fault https://www.cinch.co.uk/news/2022-highway-code-changes-explained