Bloomin Uninsured Pedestrians

Why don't all pedestrians have compulsory 3rd party insurance???

On Friday I set off from the 3rd lane at some traffic lights AFTER they were completely green.....2 numpty pedestrians decided to sprint across all 3 lanes from my left straight into my path and then stayed there as I braked and hit one of them. He jumped up and hit the cowling, head butted the top of my helmet and rolled over the right side of me and into my arm.

The important (to me) good news: the uninsured foreign student has no significant injuries and was discharged from hospital with pain relief tablets......but after I persuaded him and his friend they couldn't just walk away from the accident scene and had to wait for ambulance and police he did get put onto a board from a standing position and ferried to hospital....which looked uncomfortable and embarrassing

I stupidly refused the ambulance trip and rode home with a twisted, dropped cowl, no offside mirror. I attended a walk in centre as I was in a fair bit of pain...and ended up on a board and checked out for spinal injuries, before being released with pain relief only (2nd bit of important good news).

The bad news: the impact broke a rear molar and that's not covered on my insurance, nor is my £200 excess...and I will lose 2 years ncb..so another £100 over the next few years as it's unlikely the pedestrian will have the means to pay for my losses....plus the damage to the bike and my loss of transport to work..

I checked the bike yesterday...wing mirror snapped, lugs that hold the headlight array are snapped, the plastic housing on the headlights is all split, the metal tube from the headstock holding it all is twisted slightly down and to the right, The left frame spar has a vertical groove where the plastics dug into it, and the right side has a scratch from the same. Oh, there's also a scuff mark and rubber on my pillion grabrail that looks like his shoe (which came off) kicked against that. Hopes that I might repair it back to original condition for under £200 and avoid the claim are gone.

So why is it that pedestrians and cyclists can be on the roads causing carnage and not have to be insured??? Maybe pedestrians should have to take a 'crossing the road' test.

Sorry for the rant....but I'm just a might peed off now the physical pain is easing and I'm looking to sort out all the crap from someone elses mistake.

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by bluninja

Sorry for the rant....but I'm just a might peed off now the physical pain is easing and I'm looking to sort out all the crap from someone elses mistake.

surely the amount of damage isn't beyond a civil claim for compensation? just because he's not got retard insurance doesn't mean he couldn't cause an accident...

Got his details? Start a small claims case. However being foreign there's a chance he may ignore it/p*ss off back home. All too easy to do when you know it won't affect you.

One hope is that he's paying a lot to be at a good UK uni (often are - foreign students pay through the nose) and would rather be able to complete his course, so he may entertain the idea of paying your due compensation...

I should be speaking to solicitors on Monday (legal cover on insurance) and we'll see what they say.....but I'm happy to be a pee'd off pessimist in this as there's then only an upside.

i agree you should be able to sue people who cause accidents like this.

[SoulKiss]

You can - as said its the small claims court route.

Unfortunatly there is no "Walking Without Due Care and Attention".

Am surprised the fact that the Peds had right-of-way (and they do) that the policeman didnt point out that you have a duty of care to all pedestrians and by not seeing them you obviously were not paying attention.

At least thats pretty much what I got hassled with after a cop pulled me over for sounding my horn as some idiot that did exactly the same to me as the idiot did to you - except I didnt hit them - they sprinted across the road on the far sid of the crossing.

The cop even had the gall to ask me if I had run the red light (he had been standing on a traffic island separating the lanes beyond the junction and hadn't seen events). Idiot even ran a PNC check on me.

pedestrian's have right of way ****ty but that's the way it goes like soulkiss say's however with that fact in mind i'd think carefully about taking it further as it might backfire.

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

Am surprised the fact that the Peds had right-of-way (and they do) that the policeman didnt point out that you have a duty of care to all pedestrians and by not seeing them you obviously were not paying attention.

At least thats pretty much what I got hassled with after a cop pulled me over for sounding my horn as some idiot that did exactly the same to me as the idiot did to you - except I didnt hit them - they sprinted across the road on the far sid of the crossing.

I guess I was lucky that I had an independant witness (ex police) that saw the incident.

As for paying attention....well if I hadn't damage and injuries would have been far worse. ...the peds were not at the side of the road as I approached the lights on red...I can only guess that they were walking along and then decided to make a mad dash which put them in front of my bike inside my minimum braking distance.

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by zsv650

pedestrian's have right of way ****ty but that's the way it goes like soulkiss say's however with that fact in mind i'd think carefully about taking it further as it might backfire.

I think the Police would have said something about it at the time, also with the fact that the small claims court is a civil rather than criminal thing it should'nt backfire.

I was just making a point that as a pedestrian you can do the most stupid things and legally not be at fault.

i wasnt saying don't bud just i would get some real good legal advice to make sure they couldnt counter sue or some **** like that.