Accident. Who's at fault

[Covidcovid]

I witnessed this as a pedestrian.

Teenager on bike comes out of a side street moving at speed. A van is on the main road coming in the same direction as bike. Behind the bike. Van is doing at least 30mph. Road in opposite direction is clear but van only pulls out about 3ft while going round cyclist and doesn't slow even though he could have moved much further out.

There's a small tesco on the right and cyclist without looking veers to the right to go to tesco. Van was still some point behind him and braked/swerved.

Can ended up on the pavement opposite side of the road. Nearly hit 2 pedestrian and took the kid on the bike out at the same time.

Obviously the kid should have looked but I feel with more thought to hazard perception, going slower and wider this could have been avoided. Driver said to me when I told him he was going too fast that he was only doing 30.

Well don't do 30mph and pass a cyclist so near. Even before the kid veered to the right I was watching and thinking the van driver was driving like an idiot. I wouldn't have overtaken until past the tesco turn.

Cyclist absolutely at fault. Shouldn’t be cycling along on a 30mph road if he doesn’t know basic road safety/road signals. I don’t blame the van driver for ranting, he probably got the fright of his life, poor guy.

Cyclist at fault

The van attempted to pass far too close. He left no room for the cyclist. The minimum space he should have allowed was 6 feet.

The cyclist should have looked before he attempted to turn but given that doing that would potentially have taken the cyclist off his line where was he going to go except under the van's wheels?

Van was impatient to pass the cyclist.

I hope the cyclist was unhurt. In a collision between cyclist & van it is always the squidgy organic object which will come off worse.

Op. If you are not in Northern Ireland please ignore but I read this and though it was very similar to your story.
Police looking for witnesses to accident involving 12 year old boy cyclist and a van. Boy broke his toe....the article is classifing it as a hit and run so maybe it’s not the same incident or it’s the media trying to make the piece more shocking.

www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/psni-appeal-after-boy-12-19654340?fbclid=IwAR2EXTSTAA77yeBps8ANeiODqie_izDTPzQmsF5kD47C1mDmdLaQhXCEH3k

The van came from behind. It is clearly at fault. It is their responsibility to maintain a safe distance and overtake safely.

"The cyclist, no matter what their age, is the most vulnerable one. They should have taken every precaution. "
And its this thinking that has change the law and highway code to force responsibility onto car drivers.

Bikes are vulnerable you aren't you're going 4o have mkre responsibility

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-8918295/New-Highway-Code-rules-increase-conflict-road-users.html

Cyclist have priority now

Cyclist should have looked qnd given a direction. If he is incapable of doing so then should not be going to school on his bike. The driver should have been going slower and passed more widely and was probably ranting because he or she was in shock and worried that they could have killed someone. No winner in this scenario hopefully they all will have learnt a lesson.

Sinful you read that as though I was blaming the cyclist. It doesn't matter how much priority a cyclist gets, or how much blame a car driver gets. The cyclist is the most vulnerable in all situations. So all cyclists need to be hyper vigilant.

Both at fault. Cyclist should have checked before turning right and the van should have had more care when overtaking.

I think legally if you are travelling behind and you have an accident it's your fault, not taking notice /anticipating the actions of others. ie not rear ending someone, swerving if a parked car door suddenly opens etc. Afriend turning right across traffic hit an oncoming car. It was her 'fault' regardless that the other car was speeding!

100% cyclist fault. Probably scared teh hell out of the driver so won't blame him for yelling once he knew the kid was ok.

@lampygirl

You wouldn’t overtake another car at a junction, if you have any sense you’d anticipate there is a chance the car in front might still turn/slow down and so you shouldn’t overtake a bike or a horse or anything else while passing a junction either. Just wait til the junction has been cleared. It’s 100% the van drivers responsibility, as the cyclist is entitled to use the entire lane.

Agreed. I don't know why every one seems to think that cyclists must stay in the side lane.

People still blaming the cyclist?

Highway code 167
DO NOT overtake where you might come into conflict with other road users. For example

approaching or at a road junction on either side of the road

On the basis of that diagram I would say cyclist is at fault.

@NewPapaGuinea

People still blaming the cyclist?

Highway code 167
DO NOT overtake where you might come into conflict with other road users. For example

approaching or at a road junction on either side of the road

From the description, the van overtakes the cyclist AFTER the cyclist shot out from the side road.