Rush-hour cycling turns dangerous.
Simon was cycling home from work in Edinburgh on a clear and dry September evening. It was rush-hour and, as a seasoned cyclist, he was wearing a helmet cam, just in case. Cycling in the designated cycle lane which was protected from vehicular traffic by Orca markers and raised poles, he came to a marked bus-stop. The cycle lane ended at this point and as there were no buses ahead, Simon continued his journey through the bus stop to pick up the cycle lane on the other side.
Just as he was about to enter the cycle lane again beyond the bus stop, he was overtaken by a car whose driver then turned immediately left into a junction. Simon had to take evasive action, causing him to swerve to the right where he collided with an orca. He flew over his handlebars before landing heavily on the carriageway, sustaining injuries. Meantime, oblivious to what had just happened, the car driver completed his turn into the junction.
Helmet cam evidence proves the facts.
The whole incident was captured on Simon’s helmet cam and provided to the Police. Initially, the Police were going to charge the car driver with a contravention of Section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, which is careless driving. However, that was cancelled on the instruction of a senior Police officer, who held the opinion that because the cycle lane stopped for the bus stop marking, then the car driver had done nothing wrong.
We intimated a civil claim for compensation to the car driver’s insurance company. We supplied a copy of the helmet cam footage to make things easy. To our surprise, the Insurer denied liability, saying, amongst other things, that our client had been travelling at 20-25 mph, had been looking out for potholes and had not seen the car turning in time. They claimed that he had the accident because he took action to avoid hitting the car and struck the bollard instead.
Our response to that was simple:
“You are missing the fundamental point: your insured failed to give way and drove into the path of our client. Your insured’s actions are in contravention of the Highway Code.”
Police decision challenged.
We also highlighted that, in our opinion, the Police decision was wrong too.
We visited the accident locus with Simon and Ewen, our Head of Legal Support who is a former police officer. We then prepared the case for Court, re-attending the locus to take more video footage so that we could explain clearly to a Judge the actions of the driver which forced the reaction from our cyclist.
Successful settlement before trial.
This case was due to proceed to a final Court hearing in April of this year. Liability remained disputed in full. The first offer was only made 6 days prior to that hearing date. Negotiations continued with settlement being reached two days later. Eventually, the driver admitted to not having seen the cyclist at all prior to making the left turn.
As cyclists, we know how to safely negotiate the many obstacles put in our way. However, in this case, the obstacle was a car, whose driver seemed oblivious to Simon’s presence, driving negligently and turning across the path of a vulnerable road user.
We never give up and always meticulously prepare our cases so that we secure the right result.
Our Award Winning Team
Brenda Mitchell
Senior Partner
Brenda has been a Personal Injury Lawyer for over 38 years and for the last 20 years has specialised representing injured motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians.
Jodi Gordon
Partner
Jodi is a Partner at RTA Law LLP with 14+ years’ experience in catastrophic injury claims for vulnerable road users including cyclists and motorcyclists.
Thomas Mitchell
Partner
Thomas represents clients who have been involved in road traffic incidents and he specialises in representing vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
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