The Day When That Round Car Hit Me Citroen C3

I've no problem joining a representative organisation (and will probably join the CTC or LCC in the next couple of weeks), but the insurance thing does bother me. Liability/3rd Party Cover is no problem, and I welcome the opportunity to chuck that back at a few motorists, but if I wanted to insure all 3 of my bikes, I'd be paying nearly £1,000.

I just can't afford that - problem is that each time I've been hit the driver never stuck around to give their details, so am over a barrel. Either pay a shitload for bike cover or end up shelling out for a new bike every time some gutless bastard doesn't have the courage to face up to the consequences of their actions.

If you can't afford the insurance you can't afford the bikes - Road Wars face.

Same as when you drive a car without insurance and crash into someone and can't afford to pay.

Not quite. The Motor Insurance Bureau will pay compensation to victims of uninsured drivers. The MIB is funded by a levy on motor insurance premiums. Motorists who pay for insurance thererfore also pay for those who do not.

Cyclists with no cover and no assets will be made bankrupt - if anyone can be bothered. If you have assets, these will be taken before you are made bankrupt.

I've no problem joining a representative organisation (and will probably join the CTC or LCC in the next couple of weeks), but the insurance thing does bother me. Liability/3rd Party Cover is no problem, and I welcome the opportunity to chuck that back at a few motorists, but if I wanted to insure all 3 of my bikes, I'd be paying nearly £1,000.

I just can't afford that - problem is that each time I've been hit the driver never stuck around to give their details, so am over a barrel. Either pay a shitload for bike cover or end up shelling out for a new bike every time some gutless bastard doesn't have the courage to face up to the consequences of their actions.

You are correct. Liability insurance is cheap. First party insurance, hwoever, is vastly expensive. The best solution, if you can take a risk, is to self-insure.

If premiums would cost you £1,000 a year, simply place £1,000 each year, at £20 a week or equivalent a month, in a designated interest bearing account until that account has sufficient funds to cover the replacement cost of your bikes. Then, take money out to pay for emergency repairs etc but refund the account as necessary. At the end of the day, if you are careful with your bikes and lock them securely etc, you will have an emergency fund and no more premiums.

You are correct. Liability insurance is cheap. First party insurance, hwoever, is vastly expensive. The best solution, if you can take a risk, is to self-insure.

If premiums would cost you £1,000 a year, simply place £1,000 each year, at £20 a week or equivalent a month, in a designated interest bearing account until that account has sufficient funds to cover the replacement cost of your bikes. Then, take money out to pay for emergency repairs etc but refund the account as necessary. At the end of the day, if you are careful with your bikes and lock them securely etc, you will have an emergency fund and no more premiums.

Very good advice. You can also join the LCC and help with our campaigning to reduce bike theft to make insurance premiums go down. ;)

One to take on the chin i guess. You were unlucky, and did the right thing. Hope the guy learned something about driving while drunk.

:)

Ok so your saying a kid falling off his bike at the lights into someone... uninsured... is equally as irresponsible as a grown man getting pissed and crashing his car into someone... uninsured.

?

I've no problem joining a representative organisation (and will probably join the CTC or LCC in the next couple of weeks), but the insurance thing does bother me. Liability/3rd Party Cover is no problem, and I welcome the opportunity to chuck that back at a few motorists, but if I wanted to insure all 3 of my bikes, I'd be paying nearly £1,000.

M&S Contents insurance, single item value to £4k, yearly cost £300-400.

I CHALLENGE any of you to cause £10 Million in damages. Whilst I know anyone probably could in terms of legal fees and blame culture, I have this perfect image of someone hitting a car into a buses path which then tumbles and flattens a grenade factory or something. Tiny bike causing catastrophic damage. Haha.

Imagine knocking down a person, maybe a high-earner and paralysing them.
They can no longer work or support themselves.. ever.
Lost earnings, refitting their house for wheelchair access, full time carer, medical bills, etc. £10million will easily disappear over the rest of their life.

+1 defo

I just spilled cider on my laptop an almost got there!

Motorcycle tutor taught me that a single death on a motorway causes around many millions in damages.

They run an excercise on courses for drunk drivers, where they get teams of the students to try calculate costs of various incidents. The death on the motorway one is the one thats supposed to shock everybody, they come up with figures like £100k when its more like £10million.

Motorcycle tutor taught me that a single death on a motorway causes around many millions in damages.

They run an excercise on courses for drunk drivers, where they get teams of the students to try calculate costs of various incidents. The death on the motorway one is the one thats supposed to shock everybody, they come up with figures like £100k when its more like £10million.

The average cost of a fatal traffic incident is usually estimated at between GBP750k and GBP1.25m. I don't know why the cost of a motorway fatality would be so much higher, but perhaps they put a cost to the amount of time 'lost' by people held up by a crash? I would personally only consider the cost to the victim's friends and family, the cost of the emergency services and court proceedings, as well as the loss of their economic activity, to be strictly relevant.

Truth is though, the cost involved is (partly) going to the people who are involved's pockets. It's not money lost, it's more money in the system.

Here's a true story that happened to me that seems to cover many of the points raised.
I was riding through london on my brakeless fixed wheel and feeling good so I decided to jump the next red light. It was sunny, visibility was good, roads were dry.
Unfortunately what I hadn't noticed was a man on a horse. I skidded to try and stop, even grazed the rim, but to no avail. I hit the horse, at speed, from behind and ended up with my head inside the horse's rectum.
Maybe a helmet would have prevented this, we will never know.
Obviously my first thought was "Thank God I'm still alive". My second thought was "I am suffocating and am going to die with my head up a horse's backside". People were not going to say "Well, it's how he would have wanted to go. At least he died doing something he loved".
Then I felt tugging on my feet. I later learned that a crowd had gathered and by chance the famous wrestler Kendo Nagasaki was amongst them and thanks to his enormous strength he was able to pull me from the horse's innards.
I've never been so glad to breathe the clean clean air of London. And when a nearby window cleaner threw his bucket of water over me to wash off some of the horse-bottom debris it was even better.
Anway, to cut a long story longer, the case turned in to a legal minefield. The horse's owner wanted to claim for damages to his nag's behind (getting ahead of myself here but, although my head is only normal size, I caused quite an amount of irreversible stretching and the horse will have to wear an equine nappy for the rest of it's life) but it turned out that, although I had jumped a red light on a brakeless death machine, not only was the horse rider drunk and using an I-pod but the horse was high on reefer and had only just been released from HMP Black Beauty having done a 12 stretch for dealing. So questions of liability became complicated.
I am sad to say that the LCC were of no use whatsoever. Three times I phoned them and told the whole story and each time the person on the other end of the line just started giggling and, on one occasion, Iam sure he put me on speakerphone and I heard other so called cycling-advocates laughing in the background.
As of now the case is still unsettled and I have to endure being called a variety of hurtful nicknames by my colleagues.
Anway thanks for listening and I hope you have all learned a valuable lesson from my experience.

Will.

Wonderful.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vI2VGkWxlOc

bastard horses, not even wearing a helmet, will they never learn…

I don't believe it, I know that backside; that's the horse! I'd better get on the phone to my solicitor.

I am sad to say that the LCC were of no use whatsoever. Three times I phoned them and told the whole story and each time the person on the other end of the line just started giggling and, on one occasion, Iam sure he put me on speakerphone and I heard other so called cycling-advocates laughing in the background.

Oops, sorry, Will, actually, all I could think of when I took the call was which newspaper to sell the story to. Regrettably, after an initial flurry of excitement, I got much the same reaction as you. Despite what you might think from reading the red tops, they don't just print any old horseshit. Actually, it was because there were no pictures. They would have been dead keen on it had there been pictures. The Sun even briefly considered putting one on Page Three if it was titillating enough, but it was not to be. Keep riding your bike and take special care at the pegasus crossing at Hyde Park Corner!

bastard horses, not even wearing a helmet, will they never learn…

I bet the fucker was brakeless as well

fucking hell man! I know it's retarded to jump lights, a lot of us do it and I guess we fucking shouldn't, but the geezer could have fucking died man!! No need to be such fucking cunts, really fucking pisses me off. Lizard.