My Joust with the Blue Badge of Death

Riding west down Peckham road yesterday morning in the rain, proceeded through a green light onto the hatched junction with Wilson road (by St Giles Church). Once I was well into the box a private hire cab (Blue TFL Badge) pulled straight across my path from the oncoming carriageway with no warning whatsoever. I was moving fairly quick (as you do on a green) and he left me maybe 8 feet to stop on wet road. Needless to say I couldn't stop, so tried to swerve against his side to miss his tail, but there just wasn't time. I managed to headbutt the edge of his roof above the passenger windows hard enough to dent it and give me about 25 stitches in my face....

Luckily the guy did stop as did a cyclist behind me who saw it all. I asked the driver to call 999 for me but apparently his phone 'didn't work', so I called them myself. At that moment a police car came by and I waved them down. They stopped and were really helpful, getting my bike out of the road and taking statements off everyone. The ambulance took me to King's A&E (thankfully just round the corner) where they did all the stitching etc. and let me out a few hours later. The police came and visited me in the hospital, and gave me all the driver's info including home address and his insurance details, as well as officer's details and number. They took my bike to the station and even offered to drop it back to me (though I picked it up myself today anyway).

So I know lots of people have bad experiences with the OB, but in this case I thought they did a grand job. They reckon they might be able to prosecute the driver on dangerous driving, esp as he has priors. Ambulance and hospital staff were all also brilliant.

In the meantime, if you see a silver Toyota with a dent above the nearside passenger windows, avoid at all costs!

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holy crap! glad you're ok and that the story appears to have a happy(ish) ending.

heal up soon.

Ouch, I hope you heal up quickly. Sounds like you will get the the best possible outcome from an awful situation though.

Jeez, heal up. Back luck, dude!

Not saying anything, just out of interest -- did you have a front light on? At the moment I am using lights almost all the time, I'm just shit scared of getting floored.

OUCH and FAntastic all at the same time. V lucky man, you have to hate those blue TFL badged cunts. they have no road sense

i am glad the you are ok apart from the stitching, could have been much worse
heal up soon :)
tika

Oh man! Those stitches look wicked! Glad you are ok mate (relatively). How's the bike? Can you claim for large sums of money?

Jeez, heal up. Back luck, dude!

Not saying anything, just out of interest -- did you have a front light on? At the moment I am using lights almost all the time, I'm just shit scared of getting floored.

Good point Skulls - I didn't have the light on as I thought it was light enough (it was about 8.15 am) but I had considered it, and in hindsight I should have done. Even so, I had a bright red jacket on and I don't think I was invisible. TBH I think he just didn't look or assumed I was moving slower than I was...He claimed he thought we were on a red light (luckily the witnesses confirmed we were NOT)

this white and blue badges never look

fuck, thats terrible tom, hope you're ok.

Oh man! Those stitches look wicked! Glad you are ok mate (relatively). How's the bike? Can you claim for large sums of money?

Yeah good stitchin eh? The bike seems not too bad - a few scrapes and the front wheel needs truing but frame seems ok. I'm not sure what I can claim for yet - called his insurers today and they seemed to think his policy expired the day before! I'm waiting to hear back from them. If he was uninsured it's gonna get more tricky...

do the police know he's uninsured? he will lose his licence (hopefully)

Shit Tom, thats some epic train tracks you got there!
Glad you're ok, hope they take the fucker to the cleaners!

Tynan where are the IABD stickers!?

Glad you're relatively OK, that you have witnesses and that the police are all over this. That makes you most fortuanate - good luck with the rest.

remember fella chicks dig scars, now you can go all harrison ford and shit...

glad to hear you came out relatively unscathed, and details are in hand to make drivers life a misery, and gain you some recompense.

I'm hoping you make it out to souths next week and you can tell me in vivid and horrific detail all that transpired...

Be well

Fucking hell, Tom!?! Nasty, nasty, nasty! On the upside, chicks will dig that scar...
Sounds like driver's gonna go down if he's driving around like a lunatic AND uninsured...
Heal up fast, dude...

do the police know he's uninsured? he will lose his licence (hopefully)

I'm waiting for the insurers to ring me back and confirm whether or not his insurance was renewed, or if it was a system error or something. If he was uninsured, I will be letting the police know promptly!

Looks nasty, heal up.
Id imagine the teeth are a little worse for wear?

Hope you doing alright, heal up fast.

Frankensteins chin.

Looks nasty, heal up.
Id imagine the teeth are a little worse for wear?

Amazingly teeth seem ok, though I'm waiting on a dentist appointment to confirm this. Still having to eat most things through straws :-(

ouch!! tom, that looks nasty. heal well.

1. Glad you're not hurt worse.
   
2. Hope you have a speedy recovery.
   
3. I'm pleased that a bit of faith in the police has been restored (otherwise all we have is D-lock justice, which will just result in more hit-and-runs).
   
4. Get him for all the comp you can.
   
5. Silver Toyota..? People carrier? Driven by a 40-something indian-looking guy? (RACIST!!)
   
   

I might have had a run-in with him 2 days ago on OKR at New Cross heading for Deptford. We were in a line of traffic moving steadily, bus in front stops, I move out to go round it, as I am coming out, I hear an engine rev hard behind me, split-second decision says it's too late to stop without anchoring up right in his path, so I put my foot down hard up the side of the bus because there was only a third of a car-width between the bus and the white line, so I'm probably safest there and I hear a beep from a horn behind (so at least he's seen me). I get alongside the bus a moment later, look behind and he's decided to gun it up past the bus anyway, leaving me (in his view) having cutting in front of him, but in my view, he forgot I was the vehicle ahead of him in the traffic queue, decided to drive down a space that wasn't wide enough for him, has forced the oncoming cars (there were lots of them) to move across towards their kerb so he can fit through and then he had the front to glare at me out of the passenger window. Glare... At me! These days I am a reformed character though - I only glared back. And then I spotted The Blue Badge of Death, so gave up any thoughts of having a debate about where and how he should be driving. After all, what is the point in trying to point out his mistakes, when you know these people can't drive properly anyway, what's the point.

A minor brush, nobody hurt, not even a close shave really. But as it was only a half a mile or so from Peckham there, I wondered if it might be the same idiot. Or is the silver Toyota the car of choice for the Blue Death? I've never looked closely - I see the badge, I stay well away...

Sounds like driver's gonna go down if he's driving around like a lunatic AND uninsured...
Heal up fast, dude...

No. Nothing will happen to him. He will get a caution and that will be it. Sad but true.

Gnarly scar!
As mentioned, girls apparently like scars (not on themselves) so be pepared for copious amounts of foo-foo.

Glad you're alright and good to hear that the police did thier job. Heal up soon.

Sorry to hear Tom. Hope everything turns up ok and that you heal fast. The stitches are amazing!