Filtering accident

[Gnasher]

After 18 years of trouble free riding my luck run out in July. I on my Africa Twin was filtering past stationary traffic on the approach to a red light. I was going down through the gears and keeping a watchfull eye on the traffic to my left. Without warning a Mini turned right into my path either attempting a U turn or to turn into the junction on the right. The result a bang his car slammed into my bash plate trapping my ankle breaking it before I took the inevitable tumble onto the hard stuff. He didn't indicate and had he done so I would have been able to take action. He had plenty of time to make the manouver as there was no oncoming traffic and he was stationary for a good 5 seconds before I came up alongside him. It was obviously spur of the moment decision on his part to avoid waiting in a traffic jam and he carried the manouver out in haste without using his mirrors or indicators. I have taken on Andrew Campbell on as my solicitor from the company Bikelawyer.co.uk I found him on the MCN forum and comes with a good background of motorcycle accidents. He has stated the Davies-Schrogin case which was a landmark case for filtering accidents where the judge awarded 80% blame against the driver as opposed to previous cases where the biker had automatically taken 60-100% blame simply for being a biker. Andrew is confident that I have a good case against my driver and hopefully I can get compensated for being unable to work without any income for ove 4 months and loosing several contracts costing me 10's of £1000's. If any one else has any filtering horror stories I'd be interested to hear them. In the meantime I will keep the forum updated with the progress of my case.

[pale rider]

Hi gnasher sorry to hear about your accident hope you didn't cop any lasting damage...I for one would be very interested to hear how your case pans out.. while not technically illegal,filtering is a very grey area in the eyes of the law as you are placing yourself in motorists blind spots and consequently to a large extent at their mercy.. however filtering is one of the great joys of biking as we all know, and the couriers would seriously lose their edge if it weren't possible to carve your way through the gridlock of city traffic... i suspect the strength of your case may depend on the number of witnesses to the event..someone once told me that the average frequency for a london courier to be involved in an incident like yours is every 9 months so there must be a wealth of case precedents. hope you get a satisfactory result and the careless mini driver is brought to book....

[DaveS]

Sorry to hear this mate..... but at least you're alive to tell the tale!
The broken bones will mend and hopefully you'll get the right result with some compensation.

[Chad]

i share your pain mate about 17yrs ago the same thing happened to me coming through traffic when a pick up swung out i left a smudge from the rear to front up the side of his truck then pinged across the front of the oncoming traffic and ended up wedged under a parked car the other side of the road .... all i can remember thinking is ..how the **** did i end up here

i was very lucky that day i only ended up with some cuts and bruises but it could have been much worse but i didnt get bugger all in the way of compensation because we were still public enemy NO1 even then


i hope you get the result mate as is your right

[russh]

Sorry to hear about your off. This is one of my biggest worries as I spend a good half of my journey filtering. It seems no matter how observant and cautious you are sometimes only telepathy would be of any use, good luck in the case.

[Lord Vader]

i share your pain mate about 17yrs ago the same thing happened to me coming through traffic when a pick up swung out i left a smudge from the rear to front up the side of his truck then pinged across the front of the oncoming traffic and ended up wedged under a parked car the other side of the road .... all i can remember thinking is ..how the **** did i end up here

i was very lucky that day i only ended up with some cuts and bruises but it could have been much worse but i didnt get bugger all in the way of compensation because we were still public enemy NO1 even then


i hope you get the result mate as is your right

You forgot to mention the Head injury you obviously sustained

[Chad]

You forgot to mention the Head injury you obviously sustained

pot calling kettle

[Sharribee]

That is a wake up call for all of us who reguarly filter, although I hope I am observant and a good rider you just can't anticipate stupidity and undue care from some drivers.

Hope you are on the mend

[chronyx]

You forgot to mention the Head injury you obviously sustained

pot calling kettle

Banter

[Austin]

must have been a day for it today, I came within about 3 feet of exactly the same thing this morning, and it was a mini as well. No warning, no indication, no look in the mirrors, just a yank on the steering wheel and straight into my path. Luckily I was doing about 10mph and could stop. The dozy prat just carried on and did the u-turn and I don't think she even realized how close she had been to having me off.

Anyway commiserations, get well soon, and start planning what to spend the compo on - its no compensation really, but it does help.