Got doored in covent garden after the restraps/boikzmoind event on Friday night. Was cycling at a reasonable speed, parked cars to the left of me and slow moving traffic on the right (i was on the left hand side of the lane, not the primary position). Door opened suddenly from one of the cars in the line of traffic that had slowed to a halt, no more than a foot in front of me, it may have even opened into me as I passed it, I certainly didn't have any time to stop or try and evade it. Ended up with bruised head, minor cuts to my ear, grazed knee (ripping jeans in the process) and pretty bad bruising to my thighs. My phone was in my pocket and that got slammed against something, bent the casing, cracked the glass in the camera and damaged the screen slightly. Also managed to get a pretty bad dent in the top tube, ripped my bar grips and potentially done something to the forks. Was pretty shaken up, after speaking to the guy who opened the door it turned out that he wasn't driving, he was a passenger. He also turned out to be the son of a well known club owner (i'm avoiding names at this point), so I got his business card. Gave him a ring this evening and he's only willing to pay for anything on the bike, saying it's not his responsibility where I put my phone. Tried to scare me saying that I wasn't paying attention and that he would get in touch with the council to get the cctv tapes.
Don't really know what to do cos I'm only a student and cant really see me taking him to court. Thinking about calling his bluff and contacting the council about the cctv. Any advice? I'm not sure what the deal is with him not being the driver etc not really looking for a injury compensation, just to cover my bike, jeans, phone.
Got doored in covent garden after the restraps/boikzmoind event on Friday night. Was cycling at a reasonable speed, parked cars to the left of me and slow moving traffic on the right (i was on the left hand side of the lane, not the primary position). Door opened suddenly from one of the cars in the line of traffic that had slowed to a halt, no more than a foot in front of me, it may have even opened into me as I passed it, I certainly didn't have any time to stop or try and evade it. Ended up with bruised head, minor cuts to my ear, grazed knee (ripping jeans in the process) and pretty bad bruising to my thighs. My phone was in my pocket and that got slammed against something, bent the casing, cracked the glass in the camera and damaged the screen slightly. Also managed to get a pretty bad dent in the top tube, ripped my bar grips and potentially done something to the forks. Was pretty shaken up, after speaking to the guy who opened the door it turned out that he wasn't driving, he was a passenger. He also turned out to be the son of a well known club owner (i'm avoiding names at this point), so I got his business card. Gave him a ring this evening and he's only willing to pay for anything on the bike, saying it's not his responsibility where I put my phone. Tried to scare me saying that I wasn't paying attention and that he would get in touch with the council to get the cctv tapes.
Don't really know what to do cos I'm only a student and cant really see me taking him to court. Thinking about calling his bluff and contacting the council about the cctv. Any advice? I'm not sure what the deal is with him not being the driver etc not really looking for a injury compensation, just to cover my bike, jeans, phone.