2009-01-27 - Rider Down, High Street Kensington

Me

Hight St Ken.

Am ok, just a reminder to not use cycle lanes.

The traffic on my right was static, so a van waived a car through, without thinking that I had no idea or warning that suddenly a car was going to be crossing my path.

Cue very quick stop followed by Starsky and Hutch bonnet roll. V sore, bruised and strained down one side, my lights smashed and a few scratches.

I generally don’t use cycle lanes for exactly this reason, people just cut across them and cannot see what is coming along.

The driver was really apologetic and v helpful. We called the police etc to report the accident, and they said to use a self reporting form either at a police station or online.

10 minutes later I got a call from the police and was told off for wasting their time as I was not making any accusations against the driver. (Though clearly he was in the wrong turning across me etc etc.)

The driver and I were amazed at the police response to the incident. If I were to be knocked off my bike again I could not think of a more pleasant or helpful driver to be involved. Would still report the incident.

glad you are ok.

Ouch. High St Ken is always mental.

Call them up again and say that you do want to make accusations... to both the one who hit you and the person who waved them through. When will drivers learn that the highway code states not to direct traffic.

glad to hear your safe and well james, despite the bruising,
bike okay?

shit dude, guess that police response is due to trying to hit targets; if not as many people call then there is less crime and they solve a higher percentage of it! f-ing stupid!

hope you're ok, and the bike too!

heal up soon and hope it all gets sorted satisfactorily!

lights were smashed, scratches to handle bars/brake levers

wheel may need re truing

glad i was not on the new (to me) Seven Axiom

Glad your not to hurt. Get better soon.

Heal up mate, not a good week for it, I was also in a cycle lane and some clever cnut on a scooter decided to squeeze between me and a taxi, clipped my front wheel which bounced wobbled into a pothole (which I was avoiding) flew over the bars landed straight on me knees. Prick on scooter drove off and I narrowly avoided getting my arm squished by the taxi behind. Got to true the wheel now.

Skin and bones will heal up, hows the Serota?

glad you're ok man.

great to hear that you are fine james

Glad you are okay James.

Shit dude...
Lucky you've had all that stuntman training.
heal uP fasT!

WAC! Good to hear it's not too serious. You gonna claim damages?

As for the pigs and their toss about reporting - what about this 'need to adding accidents to the statistics' thing I keep hearing about from LCC and co. Oliver - what's the deal?
I was under the impression you should still report - I mean what happens if when you get home tonight you're still a bit sore, go for an xray and your wrist is broken or something?

Tell them you want this shit reported anyway as it was a fucking collision. Fucking doughnut eaters.

Oh, so did you buy the Axiom after all ? :)

Bad luck, James. Glad to hear that you/your bike injuries are minimal.

Thanks to everyone, its moments like this and the Tweed ride that I really appreciate and love the forum and the people who make it up.

June last year I knew three people on this forum (from previous non cycling activities). I now have this wonderful (sometimes dysfunctional) family of people, who offer support and advice so generously.

Hippy - I could not resist the Axiom, utter titanium filth, will take it off to cyclefit to get it dialled in this week (if i can make an appointment).

Bad luck man - glad that you're OK. HSK is not fun - especially in the cycle lane areas.

Seriously though - WTF is it with the police reaction? Fill in a form online? Stop wasting their time?

Ask for a refund on your council tax.

Axiom - wicked. Crash - meh, it happens. Pigs - fuckers, hassle 'em just for being dicks.

Glad you're ok and that the driver made it a less stressful experience.

The officers should NOT have phoned you to tell you off. IF there are no injuries and noone was at fault then the preferred option is through insurance companies or even civil proceedings. But seeing as there was clearly someone at fault, you could have been seriously injured AND there was damage to your bike (which no doubt costs more than a lot of cars on the road). A collision report book should have been completed.
If you feel strongly about it, by all means go into the nearest nick and complain with names and shoulder numbers of officers if you have them. It's exactly these kind of actions that give the Met a bad name.

Oh, and blaming it on statistics and targets is bull$hit. I hear this thrown about too easily, I've never heard of it. It was just someone not seeing an incident from someone else's perspective, something that they are required to do by the nature of their job.

so Julian sold it to you in the end.
a little bit of me has just died :-( when he said he was thinking of hanging on to it i told him to sell it to me later in the year when i had the spare cash and he could borrow it whenever he liked.

that's a large latte you owe me for putting the deal together :-)

it's a lovely bike.

heal quick.

Thanks to everyone, its moments like this and the Tweed ride that I really appreciate and love the forum and the people who make it up.

June last year I knew three people on this forum (from previous non cycling activities). I now have this wonderful (sometimes dysfunctional) family of people, who offer support and advice so generously.

Hippy - I could not resist the Axiom, utter titanium filth, will take it off to cyclefit to get it dialled in this week (if i can make an appointment).

Glad you're well and still pulling off the Dempsey and Maketrouble rolls across bonnets!

Have you got a SEVEN and a Serotta now??? The Ti empire rolls on...

'If I were to be knocked off my bike again I could not think of a more pleasant or helpful driver to be involved'

Only you could say that! :)

I, sadly, would have felt like doing the same to the car as was done to my bike.

Glad you and the bike didn't get damaged too much.

Sorry to hear that James, glad you are ok.
Same to El Squire.

mate, glad you're ok, HSK is always a scary bastard

its never nice to hear about tumbles. i hope you're back cycling with confidence soon.