Who's fault was this?

[DarrenSV650S]

The biker should have seen the gap in traffic

What part of the car was hit by the bike?

Apart from not ever bothering to move I can't see what the driver could do. The OP indicates she pulled out slowly, by the time she could see past the van the front of the car would have been in the path of the bike. If she managed to get past the van further than where she could have seen the motorcycle then she bears some if not all responsibility It's been a while since I had to read the highway code but I'm sure it says something about not overtaking when passing junctions so our friendly biker is not 100% blame free.
From a common sense (rather than legal) point of view the motorcyclist should have been taking more care as he is usually going to come of worst and having someone to blame is small consolation.

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by DarrenSV650S

The biker should have seen the gap in traffic

There's constantly gaps in traffic if car drivers are driving properly then they shouldn't be bumper to bumper with the car in front. It's kind of a reasonable point but if a biker stopped at every gap in traffic they may aswell walk, if a car driver exercised caution every time they emerged from a side road providing bikers are paying attention then there wouldn't be accidents.

[DarrenSV650S]

Originally Posted by Dave20046

There's constantly gaps in traffic if car drivers are driving properly then they shouldn't be bumper to bumper with the car in front. It's kind of a reasonable point but if a biker stopped at every gap in traffic they may aswell walk, if a car driver exercised caution every time they emerged from a side road providing bikers are paying attention then there wouldn't be accidents.

Sounds like you've got your "bikes are god, cars are the devil" head on

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by DarrenSV650S

Sounds like you've got your "bikes are god, cars are the devil" head on

I drive daily, I don't sit in traffic bumper to bumper I like to be able to have somewhere to go if the car infront brakes down/driver chokes on his sandwich etc. . I could be wrong about the bonnet emmerging thing though but I'm sure if a bonnet started to emmerge from between traffic at a reasonable pace a biker paying attention would be able to stop safely or take avoiding action.

[Biker Biggles]

This does depend on the exact circumstances.How quick did the car emerge?How close to the side of the van was the bike and how fast was it going?I followed a Police bike through central London as he filtered past traffic and he rode pretty slowly and kept well out to the right to maintain full vision.This case would go 100% in favour of the bike if the car drove into the side of the bike as it passed,but if the bike rode into the osf wing of the car it may start to get into % blame each way.

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by Biker Biggles

This does depend on the exact circumstances.How quick did the car emerge?How close to the side of the van was the bike and how fast was it going?I followed a Police bike through central London as he filtered past traffic and he rode pretty slowly and kept well out to the right to maintain full vision.This case would go 100% in favour of the bike if the car drove into the side of the bike as it passed,but if the bike rode into the osf wing of the car it may start to get into % blame each way.

See, we need witness statements!

[Balky001]

Originally Posted by DarrenSV650S

The biker should have seen the gap in traffic

Agree with that, especially if there's a juntion there (there should always be a gap at a junction at least on the entrance side of the side road as per highway code but most too dozy to remember that). Technically the car may have been at fault unless bike was travelling too fast for conditions but from a preservation of life view the biker has to weigh up the possibility of a car pulling out in these circumstances. Maybe I'm just getting old and cautious (the 2 go well together)

In my opinion, based on the diagram and what the OP said happened, I would find the person turning out of the juntion at fault.

She should have ensured that she could stop in the distance she could see to be clear, clearly, it wasn't clear or she would have seen the bike. never leave a junction just because someone flashes at you.

God's?