Flat tire... then bike falls off recovery truck!

Bugger. That severely sucks mate.

Now my insurance company says as it may have been blown off of the truck by turbulence from a passing lorry there is nothing that they can do. So it's snotty letter time, which Jax has written up for me, can anyone suggest if there's anything else we can add that would go in our favour?

To whom it may concern,

Unfortunately my motorcycle suffered a puncture whilst I was travelling to work on it this morning. I telephoned my insurance and recovery specialist who arranged for a truck to come and recover myself and the motorcycle home.

The recovery truck (registration number R*** ***) sent from *********** Motor Company was a car transporter not equipped with any hydraulic ramp or lifting equipment to manoeuvre my motorcycle safely onto the flatbed. Subsequently, the man from the company, who I think was named Mark, asked me to assist him with getting the motorcycle up onto the truck. Mark said that he did not want to use the 2 ramps on board, as he had previously dropped a Harley Davidson motorcycle when using this method. Mark proceeded to fit just one ramp to the truck, and instructed me to sit on my motorcycle and ‘walk’ it up the ramp whilst he pushed it from behind. At no point was my motorcycle strapped, or secured by winch to the truck. The rear tyre of my motorcycle was flat, being the cause of the callout, which made the motorcycle unwieldy. The ramp was steep, my motorcycle was unsecured and I had no previous knowledge of how to manoeuvre a motorcycle onto a truck. I was reluctant to assist but as Mark was alone and there was no other way of moving the motorcycle from the hard shoulder to the truck I had no other option.

The truck was parked on the right hand side of the hard shoulder, near to the lane of traffic. I sat on my motorcycle and started to help guide it up the ramp and Mark manually pushed the bike from behind it. As we were pushing, the motorcycle fell from the ramp. I fell off of the vehicle and into the ditch. It happened so fast I am unsure as to what caused the accident, but Mark said he believed it was the strong air turbulence caused by a near-passing lorry which caused him to lose balance. I only have his word of this. I myself do not recall a lorry passing at that moment, I was just aware of heavy traffic.

My motorcycle fell heavily onto the left side. Mark asked if I was ok, and though I was quite shocked and distraught, I replied that I felt uninjured. (I landed awkwardly and twisted my right knee but as I was wearing protective clothing it appears it is just sprained). Mark then asked me to help him pick up my motorcycle. Mark then decided he would fit the second ramp to the truck so I could then walk alongside the bike on the ramp whilst he pushed. This afforded much more stability and in my opinion the two ramps should have been used initially. Mark also said that he had been instructed by his company to use just one ramp. We eventually got my motorcycle onto the truck, and it was recovered to my home address. When we arrived to my home and my motorcycle was on my driveway, Mark took out his mobile phone and took pictures of the damage with the integral camera.

I have also inspected the motorcycle and have taken digital photographs of the damage which I will now list.

Front Left-side Fairing badly scratched.
Front Mudguard badly scratched.
Front Left-side indicator destroyed.
Front Left-side Fork Leg heavily scratched.
Rear Left-side Seat Panel scratched and snapped.
Undertray snapped.
Rear Left-side Crash Protector heavily scuffed.
Chain linkages scraped.
Swinging-arm bolt scraped, and Swinging-arm scratched.
My protective motorcycle trousers were also damaged, scuffing them and ripping a popper from the pocket as I fell.

This is an accurate and detailed account of the events occurring at the time of the damage to my motorcycle. The motorcycle is now totally unroadworthy. I have no other form of transport to allow me to travel to my employment. I work near Heathrow and travel 65 miles to work each day. I understand that an assessor will visit in a few days to inspect my motorcycle.

If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me at your convenience.


Yours faithfully,





Mr. Daniel Martin.

How about contacting White Dalton the specialist bike solicitors and seeing what they say?

http://www.whitedalton.co.uk


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might think about that see if this shifts the insurance companies **** a bit, then give them a call.

it is the recovery companies issue to sort out. they did not supply correct equipment to enable the removal of your bike, wind blast or not, the bike should have been secured and you should not be anywhere near it.

Sorry to hear about your bike, hope it all gets sorted out o.k.

[fizzwheel]

That sucks, big style. Cant really offer much advice.

Just hope that you get it all sorted out OK

Good luck

Very sorry to hear of the accident. Most bizarre. One would expect
the recovery company to accept responsibility. Hope you get things
sorted quickly.

Doh... good luck sorting

Thanks.. I'm just glad I didn't fall the other way.. in to the M3 traffic.