My cycling accident proves my point that road users rely on their ears. We need to be noisier
Well, it finally happened. After 25 years of cycling in London, I had an accident.
Bizarrely, it occurred right outside Action Bikes, the shop in Shepherd’s Bush where I bought my bicycle. There is a cycle lane running past the shop, but I wasn’t using it at the time because there was a Mercedes parked in it. The driver opened his door just as I was drawing level and sent me hurtling into space. Luckily, I landed on my left knee rather than my head so I was able to turn round and start hurling abuse. It was only when I realised that the driver was a large black man that I cut my tirade short.
He turned out to be incredibly charming. After helping me to my feet, he explained that he, too, was a cyclist and in the normal course of events would have checked his wing mirror. It was only because he was in such a hurry to get to the bicycle shop that he hadn’t remembered. ‘Sue me if you like,’ he said, examining my blood-covered knee. ‘I’ve got insurance.’ Perhaps I should have done. As a rule, the more cyclists that sue careless drivers the better, since the risk of losing their no-claims bonus is bound to make drivers more cautious. But old-fashioned British fortitude kicked in. ‘It’s just a scratch,’ I said, picking a couple of stones out of the wound. ‘Don’t worry about it.’
In one sense, I was lucky. Had he opened his door a split second earlier I might have swerved into the path of another vehicle. A friend of mine was summoned to appear as a witness in a court case a couple of years ago because he was in the back of a cab when a cyclist steered into his path. The cause, as in my case, was a driver who opened his door without looking. There was no time for the cab driver to react and the cyclist was hit and killed.
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