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?

Hazard perceptions and awareness. If you're approaching a crossing point, then you need to be aware of your surroundings. If it was a pedestrian then they could have done the same?

Bike and car. But come on.... unless its a blind corner, how are you not going to see someone hurtling down the road/pavement on a bike? I have no idea of the location so can't talk specifics, but I doubt the OP's DD was doing 30+MPH to be visually missed.

The driver may have been driving into the turning/road, again in highway code the vehicle entering the roadway has a duty of care to those already using the roadway.

There is also a legal obligation on behalf of the car driver to report incidents like this, just in case of the need to make a claim. If there is no evidence, CCTV or witness statements, the driver won't be able to automatically claim the cyclist were at fault. And with no liability insurance (unlikely and my assumption) they will have to claim on their own insurance through a non-fault claim. Unlucky and unfortunate, but true.

Id be fuming if I was a driver and someone had negligently /purposely driven into me on a bike - total accident though? I'd suck it up as chances of successful claim are slim.

And you are misunderstanding lots of it.

Only where the HC says "must" is the law. Where it says "should" is advisory only.

Pedestrians/cyclists don't have carte blanche to do what the hell they want. They still have to be responsible and act with due care and attention and not be negligent.

The OP has already stated her DD was on the pavement and infact not as her diagram shows, so she wasn't riding on the main road, which is a good job as DD would have been riding her bike towards on coming traffic.

Was your DD aware that she was approaching a road she'd have to cross.

At the very least DD should have started slowing down when approaching the side road she was coming up to instead of just continuing at the same speed, especially as you say she couldn't see what approaching from her right on the road due to an obstruction.

OP would have been better off putting this in legal rather than chat/AIBU with the resultant pile on from people who seem not to have read and understood what happened.

I agree. The fact that she happened to be on her bike is a red herring. She was crossing the road from one pavement to the other. He didn’t see her. She didn’t see him. He drove into her.

I'm in Germany & we have many cycle paths.

There are places where you have to get off & walk across the road.

Even if you have right to cycle across the road you check for traffic & that drivers have seen you.

Generally because even though you have ROW you'll likely come off worse in a collision.

No he didn't. She rode into the SIDE of his car when crossing a road. It's physically impossible to drive sideways (normally anyway)!

I think if the cyclist was off the bicycle and the bicycle had lights and the cyclist/pedal was taking due care to allow traffic to pass, the cyclist has a case.

If none of the above is true the driver has a case.

Troll hunting is not allowed and trawling previous posts is bad form. Perhaps the OP doesn’t always give correct ages etc in order to remain a bit anonymous. In this thread the OP said the DD is 17, so I’m responding on the basis that she’s 17.

That is how the law works, yes. You can’t drink alcohol or vote on Monday but you can on Tuesday because you turned 18. If you committed a crime on Monday you’d be tried as a child, although they would take into consideration that you were nearly 18.

They collided. If he had seen her coming from the left he would have stopped.

For the people that can't seem to comprehend that the cyclist was on the pavement, NOT the road.. maybe a visual would help?

The car was rolling to a stop, the cyclist was intending to ride straight across the road, as they couldn't see past the hedge and didn't know a car was there.

At any point in the road, if she was crossing first she had priority. If it was at a junction, and he was turning into the road, then even if she was waiting to cross, she had priority.

I'd speak to the police. He shouldn't have driven off as well.

On another note, if she's nervous about getting back on her bike, please check in your area for free cycle training from local authorities or charities. She might benefit and be safer for next time.

Or maybe the OP has two daughters, both ND and very close in age…….

Or has changed a DS into a DD for privacy.

Hope your daughter is fine !
You mentioned she was worried she’d have to pay for the damage.
Can you come back and let us know
whether you will be or
whether you’re going through your house insurance or
whether you’ve blocked and have decided not to pay.

Tell them to put it through their insurance or deal only with the repair garage not through the driver who might inflate the cost.

👏👏👏
thats marvellous
did you do that!

The fact she didn’t see him indicates the car was further down the road coming up to the junction. Otherwise she would have seen the car in front of her.

At any point in the road, if she was crossing first she had priority. If it was at a junction, and he was turning into the road, then even if she was waiting to cross, she had priority.

He should have been looking out for pedestrians crossing.

As the hedge was in the way not necessarily. If she was going too fast as well she wouldn’t have been able to stop.
The brain also is not fully developed at that age and in times of ‘emergency’ younger people do not react the same as older people. Because of this an immediate reaction to danger will be to spreed up rather than try to stop.

( One reason 17yr olds should not be allowed to drive )

I’ve seen a case where the cyclist shot out in front of the driver (caught on dashcam) and was killed. The car was written off.

There was no wrongful death case because it was clear the cyclist was at fault. Police investigated but decided not to prosecute.

The driver still didn’t get a single penny towards the cost of her car, or any personal injury compensation. Despite the cyclist being fully responsible for the collision.

I am super paranoid and careful around cyclists now. And the fact is, if the car driver had limited visibility at the junction because of the hedge, he should have edged up to the white line very slowly while looking around. Not shot up to the junction fast enough that a pavement user behind the hedge didn’t see him in time and collided with him.

The car has to be blocked by the hedge as she rides towards the edge of the payment. So it must have been further back than that.

If he had been driving more slowly and with due care and attention he might have seen her.

it seems he appeared a split second before she got there from OPs descriptions, neither would have seen each other because of the hedge, but he was rolling to the junction as he should have been, doing nothing wrong, the problem was she was going far too fast to check the road was clear, and when she realised the car had appeared it was too late for her to stop when she saw him she she ran into the side of him.

If he was further away from the junction he would have knocked her off (or she would have made it over the road in front of him), he was at the junction when she hit him, so it stands to reason he got there first, she just didn't see him because of the speed she was going and lack of visibility.

It was a mistake on her part.. but he did nothing wrong.

I agree.

yes, I wasn't going to bother, but the absolute blends on here insisting she was riding on the road and talking absolute bollocks made me do it!