Should I Contact Car Insurance If I Knocked a Cyclist Off a Cycle

chrisb1357

Insurance Informed

Tilt

You should pass the cyclist's details on to them as well in case you car was damaged.

P.S. Why are you 'thanking' some of the posts so far? Some of them are making statements as if they witnessed the accident when obviously they didn't!

chrisb1357

Well the police was at the scene in minutes so they took all the details of my wife, the cyclist and the other driver who witness. My wife was to shook up and forgot to take details as she is a newish driver.

Another dept of the insurance company is calling me in the morning and I will also take pictures of the car as it was to dark to take any photos tonight.

I have noted all the times etc and drawn a diagram of the scene with her just incase we need it

Tilt wrote: »

You should pass the cyclist's details on to them as well in case you car was damaged.

P.S. Why are you 'thanking' some of the posts so far? Some of them are making statements as if they witnessed the accident when obviously they didn't!

Aretnap

Portly_Pig wrote: »

Which was about 8-15 tonight.

Depends where you are in the country, but more like 7:50 in the South East. Since 1989 you have at least position lights from sunset, rather than 30 minutes after sunset (linky). Not that that would automatically absolve the driver of all blame - if you can't see a cyclist in moderate twilight, for instance, you probably should go to Specsavers, even if he doesn't have lights.

Richard53

chrisb1357 wrote: »

I will also take pictures of the car as it was to dark to take any photos tonight.

I have noted all the times etc and drawn a diagram of the scene with her just incase we need it

All good things to do.

Tilt

chrisb1357 wrote: »

Well the police was at the scene in minutes so they took all the details of my wife, the cyclist and the other driver who witness. My wife was to shook up and forgot to take details as she is a newish driver.

Another dept of the insurance company is calling me in the morning and I will also take pictures of the car as it was to dark to take any photos tonight.

I have noted all the times etc and drawn a diagram of the scene with her just incase we need it

The police should be able to furnish her with those details. If the police thought for one minute your wife was at fault, they would of arrested her on suspicion of a careless driving related matter.

I know of at least one recent case where a cyclist with no lights was 'killed' in a rear end collision at night where the car driver was declared to be blameless. Obviously it depends on the circumstances of which no one here knows 100%.

Tilt

Aretnap wrote: »

Depends where you are in the country, but more like 7:50 in the South East. Since 1989 you have at least position lights from sunset, rather than 30 minutes after sunset (linky). Not that that would automatically absolve the driver of all blame - if you can't see a cyclist in moderate twilight, for instance, you probably should go to Specsavers, even if he doesn't have lights.

On a round-a-bout, where the cyclist may be approaching on a curve? Think about it before commenting!

redux

Richard53 wrote: »

I read the post as - driver is on the roundabout, and hits cyclist when "pulling off the roundabout". We need to know where the cyclist was and what he was trying to do. No point in speculating without the facts.

No, we don't. There's no need for hypothesising or pontificating here by people who have read the description to greater or lesser extents.

That's up to the OP's insurers to sort out, if the other party makes a claim.

The original question was about contacting the insurer, and this has since been done.

Portly_Pig

Tilt wrote: »

The police should be able to furnish her with those details. If the police thought for one minute your wife was at fault, they would of arrested her on suspicion of a careless driving related matter.

I know of at least one recent case where a cyclist with no lights was 'killed' in a rear end collision at night where the car driver was declared to be blameless. Obviously it depends on the circumstances of which no one here knows 100%.

No they wouldn't.

Every heard of the necessity test?

marlot

Tilt wrote: »

If it was dark and the cyclist had no lights on, it's not the car drivers fault.

It might not be 100% the car driver's fault, but only a court will be able to say whether the car driver is 0% to blame.