2016-12-08 - Rider Down, Stamford Street SE1 9NH 20:14, Velocio

Glad you're healing velocio, such a shitty thing to happen. Look after your head as well as your body.

If I'd been in your shoes and not even able to claim compensation from the insurer for bike/lost wages etc I would have been fucking livid.

There's a point in life when I realise I feel fairly defeated. Not having the privilege of a decent home, the violence and abuse of my youth, spending time on the streets, shoplifting to survive and have it impact all future travel (even today), living in a council estate that's constantly full of drama, just life stuff... but always having expectations lowered, a sense of worthlessness pervade.

I basically feel defeated when I come up against bureaucracy. I don't know the game, I fail at it. I hate it, it depresses me.

If I can, I disengage. I work out how to survive, for my own sanity, even if I face huge losses in the process.

This feeling is back again.

I'll go through the motions, but my heart isn't in it. There's anger, but there's also depression... and guess which one hits when I approach the police station, look online to see what the MIB claims process is.

I just want to heal, be happy. It would be nice to be able to believe that the Serotta is fine, it's rideable. It would be nice to think it could be replaced if not. But I'm not feeling hopeful, and I just want to heal, be happy.

There are professionals who you can speak to about such things. But for all you feel like you fail at stuff, there are few thousand on here who are very grateful for your successes.

I've had far more privilege's then you, and still feel the same, which is to say that it's not abnormal to feel like that. Even if you feel like you lack the energy to pursue this issue more, more generally it is really good to try and get help.

And as backstop says, there are plenty of people on here who think you're not a failure, enough to invest money in you if that matters, and more generally for enabling the community to exist. We've only spoken a few times IRL, but I'm hugely grateful for this community existing and you make that happen

I echo the other comments. I know you know how much people value this community the you created. I could only really dream of doing something as amazing as creating and nurturing this place. Remember that when you feel defeated.

Also, where the routes to conventional justice are blocked, you need look no further for advice on your own vigilante justice than the hallowed pages of this forum. You know where the car is just go shit on it's bonnet.

You know where the car is just go shit on it's bonnet

Forum ride

In.

Yes. Leave the car a battered husk.

But then the fucker gets to claim insurance for criminal damage.

That's what's perverse about this whole arrangement.

I think your feelings are entirely understandable.
I'm really pleased to read you are healing fast.
Material possessions ARE less important than physical and emotional health and it's good to see you're putting these first, as you should.
I felt a right bitch posting reply #43 upthread and I'm REALLY sorry it seems to have been justified.
But I still feel you have a right to justice and that the odds are stacked against you getting any.
This makes me sad and angry.
Keep on healing well!

VB I totally get what you're saying about bureaucracy.

The fact the roz didn't bother to turn up is enough, all by itself, to make some noise about it.

If you're not feeling very much like doing that, strikes me we should all be. Not to 'get justice' for you, as we can't influence due process, but we could be making a really big stink about our friend being H&R and due process not even starting. I'm really angry, for every cyclist, that they didn't follow it up properly on the day.

only just seen this boss man.

mainly i am just happy to hear the physical healing is rapid. and i hope, full.

the rest. all a bit shitty.

get back on the bike as soon as you can though.

Bit late here. But maybe this is something to add to the "What to do in case of an accident" thread? => ask for police first when calling 999?

Thoughts with you @Velocio

It is in there already.

But when you've been hit... checking that thread isn't something that crossed my mind.

My first reaction was... get back on the bike and ride home.

My second reaction was... why are these people running over and trying to calm me down and stopping me from trying to get on the bike?

That's when I looked at myself, saw all of the blood, the ever-swelling calf muscle that was huge and dark purple in moments.

An ambulance was the only thing on my mind. I made the call myself, but was feeling faint and sick by the end of the call.

My opinion: the 999 operator heard the circumstances, and should've called the police too because I was clearly in no fit state.

That's what's so unfair about situations like these-there's an emotional toll that far exceeds any physical damage and that's not unique to challenging life situations etc. although it can certainly amplify them x times over even if it's far removed from the event in question.

I understand how these things can play in the mind and what your saying about just wanting to be happy, disengaging as a coping/survival mechanism but I think not doing something to protect your own interests in not getting randomly victimised would also be destructive in terms of not asserting that self-worth legally, non?

I can see how your personal history regarding institutions failing you would make you feel defeated, family is the first institution we are exposed to after all so if they let you down then there's little faith in any others that come after. My family/personal history is undoubtedly very different to yours but still quite high up on the disfunctional scale, with the end result making me feel a strangely euphoric rage both in relation to people and institutions, informing my go-to anger/violence response but it's also exhausting and damaging so I also sympathise share your views up to a point. My father such as the biological status warrants the title-is a bonafide psychopath however so I suppose there's a nice genetic present for me in there, and as much as I've also gone Mad Max in my time but I suppose with experience of how fruitless/destructive this is I'm more coming around to your view point with age as mostly it's fucking pointless unless you're the Malcolm X in a million...

However, none of this prevents you having a miraculous recollection of a number plate and giving the police a door to knock on that might make them more attentive to the situation-it won't demand much time or energy and it'll be in their court to deal with afterwards.

If I really felt that hitting me was deliberate I would feel a moral responsibility that far outweighs any personal reluctance I might have or lack of faith in the Po-at least if you try you won't feel any guilt should this selfish cunt go on to seriously injure or kill some other poor two wheeled bumper fodder. Stick on James Brown and mull it over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IST6qRfVqwY

Ah, apologies. Not a criticism at all. I hope it did come across as such.

Like you, I assumed the operator would be obliged to call the police too (stealth edit - oops).

It didn't :)

I was negligent in not following that guide, and the police were negligent in not turning up, and the 999 operator was negligent in not contacting the police (the ambulance crew later did, but the police never showed up to A&E).

When I got car doored I called 999 and asked for the Police. It was the operator who suggested she despatch an ambulance too. Which was good of her, as I needed one.

Just thinking about your bike.

That Serotta's a fucking beautiful thing. You worked hard for it, and obviously enjoyed having it. It's now potentially damaged.

My CF frame was written off without even x-raying it as the cost outweighed the probability that there was hidden damage and my helmet/injuries were enough to prove to the guy doing it that it had been a significant collision).

Sounds like you're healing well and that's great, but you don't know if in a few weeks something serious will crop up-that's why most insurance claims take at least a year and several expert medical opinions to settle.

Even before getting to the abstract issue of 'justice' and with the caveats of sometimes life's too short etc, given half a chance to ensure just the material side of your losses are protected I'd be hanging on to that possibility like a rabid dog till that avenue's full exhausted man.

And if you had to insure your life to the total value it represents to the forum and its users your premium would cost more than Peter Sagan's, so think about that too!

On the flip side to all of this... Hiscox Insurance, with whom I have my contents insurance, covers the bike.

They are fantastic.

One phone call, and they have recorded all details, will call again tomorrow with a follow-up, and basically think that were I to make a claim that this would be no problem at all.

My only hesitance: I aim to buy a home within the next 12-24 months and dread answering yes to a "Have you made a claim on your insurance in the last 5 years".

Now if only Cycle Fit will answer their phone.

If it's under 10000 I don't think insurers give a shit.

"Have you made a claim on your insurance in the last 5 years".

I don't recall that ever being asked for the mortgage application - Other than when insuring said house.

Insurance claims are separate from your credit record - I've certainly never seen references on my credit record, and I've never given my bank permission to see my insurance record.

Hope this all gets sorted as much as can be and glad you're as good as can be. I'll gladly take a day off and travel down for a bonnet shitting forum ride.

Same as @TW, I was never asked about any insurance by lenders or my advisor. The mortgage provider was only insistant that I got suitable building insurance on the property,nothing at all about contents insurance or any previous claims.

Indeed the insurance requirement is purely buildings based, they don't care whether you insure the contents as the loan is secured on the building not the items in it. Buildings and contents can be purchased separately and through different insurers.