Best way to identify a cyclist

rollingmoon

Veteransaver said:

I'm surprised he has agreed to pay up at all.

Why's that then, given that he's entirely to blame? I'll take a wild guess and say he probably doesn't want a court judgement against him, ruined credit history etc... he may even have come to the realisation that he's doing the right thing, a concept that appears entirely alien to you.

sheramber

ThorOdinson said:

What a bizarre post. Why should I claim on my insurance, get an "at fault" claim on my file, and pay higher premiums, because this Muppet can't ride his bike safely?

He clearly does need insurance because he goes around causing damage to other people's property through his own negligence, and then struggles to pay to put it right.

You have , of course, checked your insurance policy to clarify if it states you must notify them of any accident, whether you are claiming from them or not. 

saajan_12

Veteransaver said:

ThorOdinson said:

martindow said:

ThorOdinson said:

I don't know if the police have contacted him. They have the video of him legging it.

The cost is because the bumper needs replacing. It might be cheaper to bodge it or use pattern parts, but I should be put back in the position I was before with a proper, high quality repair. I need a rental car too, public transport isn't an option for getting to work unless I spend hours a day on it.

He seems to have accepted that he has to pay it, and made what he promised was the first payment. He can't get out of it, I'd just go to Small Claims Court if he didn't pay the rest.

Small Claims won't necessarily magically produce the money.  The court could well be open to payments being made in installments and your cyclist may also query the size of the claim.  If he is paying bit by bit and accepting the total you have presented you may be better off leaving it as it is.

As long as he keeps paying I obviously won't bother with court.

It's his fault for not having insurance. He's just lucky I can afford to get it fixed before he pays the full amount.

He's going to end up out of pocket and with a criminal record if the police do their bit. If I didn't find him on Facebook he would have gotten away with it too. Adult cyclists really need to wear some form of ID on the roads.

I actually got another one on dashcam using his phone, but couldn't identify him.

He doesn't need to have insurance.
Should pedestrians have insurance too, they use the roads? Maybe you are the sort of person who would go after a pedestrian for damages if you ran them over.

But you do have insurance, and you could always claim on your insurance, but you don't seem to want to do that?
You could just as easily have been hit by an uninsured driver, and the damage would have been significantly more and you would have had no option but to claim on your insurance. You would have had just as hard a job getting an uninsured driver to cough up even your excess. I'm surprised he has agreed to pay up at all. Have you not mentioned the possibility of him using his home insurance cover?
He lives in a home, maybe with parents and they would very likely have home insurance.

And you seem to be living in a parallel universe if you think at any point in this the cyclist would ever end up with a criminal record! Failure to stop very rarely results in any sort of of criminal conviction unless there is significant injury. And even then there would likely be an alternative more significant charge eg dangerous driving, dui anyway.

Wow, victim blaming much? 

This is nothing like a car running over a pedestrian, which would usually be the car driver's fault. A bike colliding with a stationary object is the bike rider's fault, and they should cover the damage. Maybe you are the sort of person who would expect an older person's shopping cart to be insured in case a vehicle collides with it? 

The difference with an uninsured driver is they'd at least have a licence plate, with the ability to track down who it was (if you manage to catch and note it down). However regardless, that doesn't stop the actual rider from being at fault and hence liable, its up to him to figure out if he has any insurance to mitigate his costs. 

ThorOdinson

He's paid up now and I'm getting my car back next week. He claims he sold his bike to cover it, so maybe a good outcome for everyone. One fewer dangerous cyclist on the roads.

It's just lucky he hit a car and not a pedestrian. I've written to my MP to ask for better ways to ID cyclists involved in accidents. No idea what, if anything, the police are doing.

Nasqueron

ThorOdinson said:

He's paid up now and I'm getting my car back next week. He claims he sold his bike to cover it, so maybe a good outcome for everyone. One fewer dangerous cyclist on the roads.

It's just lucky he hit a car and not a pedestrian. I've written to my MP to ask for better ways to ID cyclists involved in accidents. No idea what, if anything, the police are doing.

Given that cars cause the vast majority of injuries, deaths and damage, and the police don't have the resources to stop and deal with all the people who remove their plates or illegally adjust them, let alone the roadmen on their illegal scrambler bikes or motorcyclists with pop-up plates etc I wouldn't hold your breath.

Any sort of bike ID would either be too small to read (like on the scooter hires) or so big that it is a danger to the rider and will be removed by the sort of rider who you were hit by to prevent ID

ThorOdinson

Motorcycles manage somehow.

Nasqueron

ThorOdinson said:

Motorcycles manage somehow.

Motorbikes are a lot bigger than bicycles and have a mounting point + have an engine to overcome drag

Look at an average road bike and tell me where you believe you can safely mount a large motorbike style licence plate that doesn't cause drag and endanger the rider

As I already mentioned in the comment, some use illegal flip up plates held with magnets for when they don't want to be identified or just remove them like the roadmen

bouicca21

The idea of licensing bikes gets tossed around from time to time and always ends up with the conclusion that it’s expensive and impractical. The authorities can’t even get car drivers to take out insurance - it’s estimated that there are some 300,000 uninsured drivers on the road every day.  Over the last two years I’ve reported three drivers to the police for dangerous/careless driving.  Two of them were untraceable because they were uninsured, had no MoT, and/or the plates were cloned. 

And FWIW I do have public liability insurance through membership of a cycling organisation (and my car is insured too).

ThorOdinson

A better solution might be to licence the rider. Riders in sports already wear identification.

Yorkie1

Voyager2002 said:

Failing to stop after an accident is a criminal offence, so I would seek help from the police.

Glad to see that the OP's situation is resolved, but just on this point - the fail to stop offence in s.170 Road Traffic Act 1988 applies to drivers of mechanically propelled vehicles. A pedal cycle isn't one of these, so no legal obligation on the rider under this section to stop and report.