Motorcycle accident claim

magpiecottage

Retrogamer wrote: »

If i was riding my motorcycle and was trying to be cautious, i'd be going a lot slower than 30mph.

Me too

UncleBucket54 wrote: »

What bike do you ride?

Bit long in the tooth now but I used to have a Guzzi V50

lisyloo wrote: »

If you can accept you may ave made a mistake then I would suggest advance training. It might cost around £200 but would likely avoid this sort of accident.

Agreed. I spent £10 on training by Sussex Police once.

Many years later I came to a junction with a green light in my favour but the training came into play and I stopped at the stop line - and watched a juggernaut sail through a red light and over the ground I should then have been on.

If I have not stopped the Highway Code would not have saved me.

silverwhistle

I don't ride a motorbike any more but in the situation you describe I'd have been asking "What's going on here, something is not right". I'd ask the same question in a car too, even if I felt more vulnerable on a mb. (I still would on my non-motorised two wheels..).

I'm not sure why you need to know what bike people have. I had an MZ TS250, and even with the fairing it was bl**dy freezing on my regular 70 mile winter trips!

We have sympathy, and it looks like the lorry drive made a mistake, but as an issue to pursue you appear to be on unfirm ground.

UncleBucket54

Two big differences are that the lorry driver didn't emerge from a line of traffic and you were overtaking at a junction.

No I wasn't. It was a farm entrance. And the lorry driver clearly DID NOT check behind when preparing to move away from the kerb. Besides which, the lorry was STATIONARY as I prepared to pass it.

lisyloo

Besides which, the lorry was STATIONARY as I prepared to pass it.

But opposite an entrance, so it was a completely foreseeable event.

It's clearly up to you whether you want to accept any responsibility, but many of us would not have passed where it was completely foreseeable that the vehicle might turn without seeing you.
I don't care if he's careless, got a blind spot in his cab or perhaps can't turn his neck as far as other people - I don't care - I don't want to get hit.

UncleBucket54

Sorry for the late reply. I'm away on a trip.

I had already had advanced training - the Police Bike Safe Course. I got grade B in most areas (this was 6 years ago) but my assessment officer gave me an A for attitude.

I don't buy what some are suggesting - that a driveway or farm track counts as a "road junction". If that were true, then driving along a residential street would involve driving past dozens of junctions - the driveways to each of the houses. In this situation, is anybody seriously going to stop behind a car that might be parked at the side of the road and wait for the driver to return, because to do otherwise would be tantamount to "overtaking at a junction"? Come on, get real, guys.

UncleBucket54

But opposite an entrance, so it was a completely foreseeable event.

It's clearly up to you whether you want to accept any responsibility, but many of us would not have passed where it was completely foreseeable that the vehicle might turn without seeing you.
I don't care if he's careless, got a blind spot in his cab or perhaps can't turn his neck as far as other people - I don't care - I don't want to get hit.

I was not in the lorry driver's blind spot at any time. I could see his offside mirror, and therefore there's no reason for him not to have seen me except, of course, because he didn't bother to check. In other words, he did not perform the checks as described in Rule 159 of the Highway Code.

swingaloo

If the driver was Bulgarian was in in a left hand drive vehicle because that would make you invisible if you were close up alongside him.

rs65

UncleBucket54 wrote: »

I don't buy what some are suggesting - that a driveway or farm track counts as a "road junction". If that were true, then driving along a residential street would involve driving past dozens of junctions - the driveways to each of the houses. In this situation, is anybody seriously going to stop behind a car that might be parked at the side of the road and wait for the driver to return, because to do otherwise would be tantamount to "overtaking at a junction"? Come on, get real, guys.

Comparing driveways in a residential road is unrealistic. Get real.

I would regard farm roads as junctions. Around here we have milk lorries twice a day every day, combines and hay balers at this time of year, plenty of tractors and quads every day, horseboxes. Plenty of reasons to exercise caution.

UncleBucket54

If the driver was Bulgarian was in in a left hand drive vehicle because that would make you invisible if you were close up alongside him.

The driver was Bulgarian, but the vehicle was a right hand drive UK registered lorry. Try again.

I

would regard farm roads as junctions. Around here we have milk lorries twice a day every day, combines and hay balers at this time of year, plenty of tractors and quads every day, horseboxes. Plenty of reasons to exercise caution.

Still does not relieve a driver from his duty of care of checking his mirrors before pulling away from the kerb, especially if making a hard right turn. You're trying to defend the indefensible. Why, I do not know. The lorry driver is the one to have exercised more caution. Doing what he did on a 60mph road is inexcusable. The A4 through Berkshire is not a quiet lane.

OnanTheBarbarian

I am a RTA lawyer and a biker

You were travelling too fast when you could not be certain of the possible movements of either the HGV or the vehicles which had come to a stop behind it.

Filtering is perfectly fine, but you increase the risk to yourself and other road users when doing so and therefore to mitigate any liability, you need to frankly be doing it at a walking pace in case a movement like this happens. There has been a breach of duty of care by the HGV diver make no mistake, but you are always going to cop for a degree of contributory negligence when filtering at this speed.