Took my bike out for a ride on Friday evening afterwork. I was at a set of traffic lights behind a transit van. Next thing without any warning, the van reverses, straight into the front of me :s.....wedging my bike to the rear of the van and knocking me over with the bike onto one side.
The driver then had to cheek to get out of the van, and accuse me of driving into the rear of him......at which point I was ready to give him a serious beat-down.
His passenger soon made him see sense, that it was in fact his fault. Neither of them spoke very good english - Romanian Dudes, who were aparently delivery drivers for amazon - so they phoned their Boss, who got on the phone to me and I explained what happened.
I took shed loads of pics of the scene and both the van and my bike....the van had seen better days....obviously been in a smash a few times before, and the reverse lights werent working either.
Luckilly my front fender took all of the impact somehow - good ole trusty italian plastics lol...and my front forks are scraped.
I was lucky to just walk away with a sprained wrist. I can help but think that if I was any closer to the rear, I would have any worse injuries of, may even worse dead.
When I asked the guy why he randomly reversed, he said he realised that he needed to go to the cash point......
I know what you mean....If I was on a supersports it would have been game over.
Yeah I was wondering how it would work with the in insurance now? Someone suggested to just report the accident to the insurance but not to claim and get the bike repaired myself. I can't help but think that the driver was here illegally though and may say I drove into him....something just didnt sit right. His Boss kept saying that we need to do this properly with our insurance or the driver will lose his job because he is Romanian.....plus the driver looked like his whole world had come to an end once I took pics of his license, the scene of the accident and everything. Maybe looking too much into it, but something just didnt sit right.
They need to pay the price. Fact of life is that if you claim, your insurance will go up. If you get back to him and tell it's £500 worth of damage, then it's more than likely they will give you cash. A new fender is £20. A few levers are about that as well. As for the forks. Well it will be new set which are ££££ but some wet and dry will do you anyway. It'll affect the resale value but if you get £500 then that would make up for the loss.
I would have been happy to do something like that. But I've got a feeling their Boss would have already contacted his insurance company...unless I contact them and deal with it that way.
Well I would want a fair bit from the insurer mate. £700 W/E to cover the repairs and to cover the increase in insurance. But that's probably not going to happen.
See your point mate. Spoke to them this morning, and I said I would get an estimate for repairs and send it to them opposed to them coming out to have a look.
The test centre I passed my cbt at used to be an aprilia dealer, and still repairs bikes now, so will try and get one off them.
The insurance agreed with my suspisions that the driver will probably say that I was the one that crashed into him too ffs.
happend to a mate of mine car reversed ontop of him writing his bike off and breaking his wrist, it went to court and my mate was found at fault because the driver said he went into the back of him
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i blew my dt up ... but i fixed it.... Then i crashed it.... but i didnt fix it right and 2 scouser's come in the middle of the night and left me with a working bike
Can't an excessive quote for the repair tell the driver if he is willing to cover the costs you won't go through the insurance
Then by the parts of the net cheap an fit them yourself an make a few quid
Danny, did your mate have any witnesses at the scene or anything? I've just sent off a data protection form to my local council to see if I can get footage from a nearby camera.
Dan28....It looks like the driver has done a runner and headed back to Romania....luckilly the van was insured, just gotta wait and see what my solicitor does for me from here.
Surely that's a none fault claim that wont affect your insurance at all and you should be claiming off the vans insurance not yours. You should have phoned the police on the spot and got the van insurance details there and then.
My insurance have been a total waste of space from the get go. Luckily, the manager of my test centre got me in touch with a solicitor who he knows personally, and his firm have been great with dealing with it.
My brother took me to the police station after it happened...which is about 5mins down the road, but they basically said, unless I was seriously injured at the scene, or there was a fatality there was nothing they could do, and I should take it up with my insurance company.
Luckily the driver has resurfaced after 4 weeks, and admitted full liability now :)
