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?

She was not crossing. On the diagram, neither had yet hit the junction. She would have been further in on the pavement giving him less time to stop if she came straight over without looking. She should have stopped, looked and waited.

No, she only had to be at the kerb and have started to cross when he doesn’t stop and she goes into the side of him.

Then why cross if you see a car coming?!

There is no way he could just magically appear in 2 seconds.

The diagram isn’t a police scale representation of exactly where each vehicle was at which point and what precise speed. It’s simply a diagram to show the layout. They both should have looked.

And why turn if you see a bike?

What do you mean turn? No one turned.

She said she didn’t see him, so we know she wasn’t at the kerb.. good try though 👍

In the OP it says DD didn’t see the car turning. It’s a T junction, the driver can only turn.

Just pay the poor bloke. I know how utterly infuriating it is when someone causes damage to your vehicle then shirks all responsibility for it.

In this case, how the hell can you not see a car turning into a main road straight in front of you?

I'm bloody confused.

She was at the kerb at the point she was at the kerb and that was just before she drove into the side of him.

She didn’t see him previously as he was hidden behind a hedge.

no she said from 'what I can make out (she) didn’t see the car turning' that is what she thought had happened when first told, when the daughter drew a diagram showing the direction of travel it becomes clear no one is turning anywhere, he is approaching the junction, she is approaching him from the side on the pavement, like so:

You cannot be serious. No-one could possibly take a line drawing of the layout so literally. OP said the impression from DD’s words was that she didn’t see him turning, ergo DD may have said exactly that. The diagram does not negate this. It simply shows the road layout and directions of each.

So by your reasoning she’s a child when she’s on a bike and an adult when driving a car? Logic’s not your strong point, is it?

The speed absolutely is the issue. That is what prevented the cyclist from stopping before hitting the vehicle and contributed to the force with which she struck the car which in turn contributed to the damage. I am also in London and haven't seen people on scooters going fast enough to damage a car on pavements.

As for not seeing the car because it was hidden behind a hedge, the cyclist was also hidden in that case. Except the cyclist should have been on the lookout for cars coming along the road behind the hedge and slowed down as advised in the highway code because what comes along a road is mainly cars which travel faster than pedestrians, scooters or bicycles.

The car should also have been on the lookout for pedestrians (and yes, maybe scooters or bikes) coming along the pavement and perhaps was (we have no way of knowing). But the car was expecting people travelling at pavement speed whereas the cyclist should have known that any car approaching in this blind spot is likely to have been travelling faster than that.

No cyclist or scooter user should be travelling so fast on the pavement that they can damage a car. And nobody on any part of the road or pavement on or in any vehicle should be going so fast that they cannot stop if they spot a problem.

He was on the road slowing to a junction FACT
she was cycling at speed on the pavement FACT
There was a hedge on the corner FACT
she definitely didn't see him and doesn't think he saw her FACT
She collided with one of his doors FACT

My opinion based on the description and drawing is that neither saw each other and he got there a second before she did, BUT, he was doing nothing wrong, he would only have stopped and given way to her if she was there waiting, or already crossing, which she was doing neither by her own admission. He was not to know she was coming at him at speed and couldn't have moved out of her way in time to stop a collision if he even realised because at that point he was already unwittingly in her path waiting to pull out.

It seems as though that she thought the road was clear, so she could go straight over the road without slowing down or stopping, she had no intention of stopping at the road side otherwise she would have done, the only person in control of her cycle was her.

MY personal gripe with all this is that anyone could have been coming round that corner out of that side road, a toddler, an elderly person, dog walker, another cyclist on the road instead of the car, if that was a more vulnerable user then herself then she could easily have killed someone going at that speed unable to see what was coming, so yes it was a mistake, but it was HER mistake, no one elses.

She wasn’t. She couldn’t have hit the passenger side of the car if she was crossing.

If the car was already turning into the main road this increases further the likelihood of the collision being the fault of the cyclist since it means that the car got to the junction even earlier (it was already early enough to mean that the cyclist impacted the side of the car rather than the front which means the car was there before the cyclist).

@sandyhappypeople No these are not facts they’re your interpretation.

For all we know he may have stopped and have started moving to turn when she ran into him. We don’t actually know at what point the collision occurred.

We don’t know if she was cycling at speed, OP doesn’t mention that.

OP thinks there was a hedge, but it’s won’t have been on corner as it would behind the pavement.

OP doesn’t mention the door, she could have collided with the side of his bonnet and it may have been the front window she bounced off for all we know - OP just says “window”.

1/4. Cba to read the rest.

It was as she was crossing that she hit the passenger side.

' she hit the car with her wheel and her head hit the window' I think means the passenger side (or she would have been on the bonnet) which indicates that the car was already at the junction.

in which case driver must have swerved to avoid. There's not a whole bike's width normally between a curb and a car.

How did he drive into her when she hit his door? He was already there when she came flying out from behind a hedge.

Given the damage to the car, she has to have been approaching the road at speed and she can't have stopped. If she had a bush obstructing her view to the extent that she couldn't detect a car that was there, then she absolutely should have slowed to something approaching a halt on coming up to the junction and edge of the pavement. If she couldn't see a car there, what hope did she have of seeing a smaller vehicle or even a child in time to stop hitting them?