CRASH=no insurance compensation?

Actually this will be an easy win for a good solicitor;

Consider the process, you write a statement outlining "the facts". your statement can only say what you know, you were travcelling one way, she wass coming the other, she turned across your path and in taking avoiding action you had to lay the bike down to avoid almost certain serious injury. Please note that laying the bike down was a positive nd necessary act, you did not "lose control"

Now consider her statement; she will have to corroborate the directions you were travelling and will likely corroborate that she turned in front of you. her defence will be that you were travelling too fast and as a result you lost control of the vehicle. Most likely she will make this statement on the insurance accident report form without initial legal advise.

Now finally consider the skilled questioning of your solicitor in court;

Brief : So Mrs X you state that my client was travelling too fast, how fast would you have judged him to have been travelling?

Mrs X: Well i am really not sure but very fast


Brief: So you did see him before you turned then

Option one

Mrs X: Yes

Well if you saw the bike and formed the opinion that it was going too fast to stop why did you turn across him anyway? I'd suggest that is a very dangerous thing to do

Option two

Mrs X: No

Brief: Well I struggle to understand how you can suggest that the motorcycle was travelling too fast if you did not see it, in fact I would suggest that since the motorcycle was clearly there if you did not see it you rally can't have looked very well and my client surely can not be held responsible for your lack of care.

Alright I am no litigator but you really need to engage your legal protection and don't be fobbed off by the legal firm, remember they work for you, not your insurance firm and they have to work to your brief

ahhh bad luck mate we all do it

She said exactly that i must have been speeding becouse when she checked there was nobody there.Visibility was appr.130yards and I would have to cover that distance in a blink of an eye-that's the only explanation apart from not looking at all.You do the math.
The scarry part is that I realy believe her - she did not see me at all!
Unfortunately I don't remember whether I wrote that I lost control on the bike or not(after 'being forced to brake fiercely' of course) but at the end of the day when you come of the bike you can't control it any more, can you...

That really sucks - so long as you have all her contact details - as so many people dont even get that as the driver p*sses off. If she has any moral standards she will own up to pulling out and causing the accident - if she doesnt i hope the guilt makes her life sh*t.

It seems that the only way to make claims like this black and white is to phsyically hit their vehicle when they pull out and cause some damage!!

Originally Posted by silent

i know its not a normal reaction but if your going to bin it hit the car it proves fault that way.

Originally Posted by Gmonsta

It seems that the only way to make claims like this black and white is to phsyically hit their vehicle when they pull out and cause some damage!!

The thing is, who is going to be thinking about that sort of thing in that situation?

The instinct, at least for me, when a car pulls out in front of me, is "avoid falling off or crashing" - not "ooh, I'd better hit the car in case I skid and fall off and don't hit it; what an insurance nightmare that would be!" ..

Seems to be cutting off your nose to spite your face - risking a possibly much more serious accident, just to prove it's not your fault...!

Originally Posted by rock

The thing is, who is going to be thinking about that sort of thing in that situation?

The instinct, at least for me, when a car pulls out in front of me, is "avoid falling off or crashing" - not "ooh, I'd better hit the car in case I skid and fall off and don't hit it; what an insurance nightmare that would be!" ..

Seems to be cutting off your nose to spite your face - risking a possibly much more serious accident, just to prove it's not your fault...!

Exactly. I really cant believe several people on here would vindicate this to ease the insurance situation. Most serious injuries occur from impacting something with your momentum, not from falling off and sliding.

Im presuming they really havent thought it though properly. Because it wont exactly ease your situation if the impact causes such serious injuries it results in your death.

Sabestian, dont be surprised she didnt see you. Either she didnt look properly or if she did, theres the possibility that motion camoflauge was at work and with a small profile a bike is easily missed. I know some people on here wont have that but theres numerous studies which proves it does happen. Frankly, everyone should be riding like youre invisible anyway and seeing anyone ready to turn being prepared for them to do so without having seen you.

PS. You can use the motion camoflauge reason with your solicitor who can quote all kinds of official research to show that its quite possible she didnt see you rather than support her reason of she looked and you were going so fast she didnt see you then you appeared while she was making the manouver.

But you need to have reported it all to your insurers asap. And if you have legal cover, get a solicitor appointed if not, that should be the first thing you do monday morning.

Originally Posted by lynw

Sabestian, dont be surprised she didnt see you. Either she didnt look properly or if she did, theres the possibility that motion camoflauge was at work and with a small profile a bike is easily missed. I know some people on here wont have that but theres numerous studies which proves it does happen. Frankly, everyone should be riding like youre invisible anyway and seeing anyone ready to turn being prepared for them to do so without having seen you.

But you need to have reported it all to your insurers asap. And if you have legal cover, get a solicitor appointed if not, that should be the first thing you do monday morning.

Absolutely right - Falc is with motorcycle direct and only has TPF&T but has legal cover i phoned them after the accident and they sent him the forms off straight away even tho all the witness/contact details he has is the policemans name and number and station they are sending someone out to assess the bike tomorrow nothing is cut and dried.

Lynw your right - the possibility that she didn't see him is very real as Wayne will tell you himself Sabestian i'm sorry you got knocked off but glad you weren't more seriously injured

Take care

First- thank you all for sympathising.
In my case they did not send any policeman to see the site,but I took pictures and filmed the site,me and a bike,so I hope it is enough.
BTW she had a small baby on board-that could have been her motion camouflage..

Originally Posted by sabestian

BTW she had a small baby on board-that could have been her motion camouflage..

No, motion camoflauge is what its called when people look but can not spot a bike or see it and misjudge its speed. Theres a huge difference between simply not looking or being distracted and looking but not seeing/judging speed correctly.

http://www.dcs.qmul.ac.uk/~aja/motion_cam.html is a good starter.

Its thought because of the small profile of a bike, it has this effect ie people either miss the bike completely or if they see it fundamentally misjudge its speed.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3870
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/~dadrl/d...ersbikedrl.pdf

is a bit more "light" reading on the subject.

But kids in the car is one reason Ive agreed with blokes about women drivers :P - they really are terrible at concentrating on their driving while pandering to their kids.

[Biker Biggles]

And here was me thinking women's great advantage was their ability to "multi task"

I think you have a good case here BTW.While it's all fresh in your mind write down everything you can remember,including exactly what the other driver said.It will almost certainly be contradictary like Patch said,which is why your insurance company will advise you to say nothing beyond your legal obligations.Your pics will be useful to your lawyer,who may commision an accident investigator to help your case.