Driving home tonight through the city (London), stopped at a set of lights and.........bang !!! cyclist crashes straight into the back of me

After I calm down and he asks me to stop swearing at him, he gives me his name and number. Obviously he's not covered on insurance (which considering the amount of cyclist about now, I think they should).

I am now the proud owner of a dent on the rear quarter (just above the rear light)

Does any body know of a good, small dent repairer ? are dentmaster any good ? I want to try and get away with not having to respray the whole rear quarter of the car if I can

 

Speak to Andrew Barker at Cheam Motors on
020-8394-2262 (london south). They have an excellent bodyshop and associations with good dent repairers.

Tell em where you saw the number!

Sunil

 

Thanks Sunil, I'll give them a call and see what they say..

I just did a search and found that Dentmaster were pretty popular, but appears to depend on the actual operator/franchise.

Any recommended in the London/Essex area ??

 

Sunil,

Forgot to say.....

Was the quick response due to guilt !!!

 

I am surprise you didnt hit him.Even if it is only a small dent they will probably have to spray the whole panel.I was very sad to hear about your misfortune.Cyclist should not be allowed on the road full stop along with horses,caravans,old people etc.

 

Prescot eh ?? (to**er)

 

Speaking as the husband of a PI solicitor (so therefore check thoroughly everything I might say/imply etc)...

It is possible to claim off the cyclist.

If he/she is reasonably affluent(by that I mean in employment), then sue 'em with a reasonable prospect of sucess. You can obtain (should they fail to pay you) a court order/attachment to earnings etc. If they are a homeowner, you can claim against their house insurance (or possibly against other insurance policies held if not homeowner).

You will have to consider the cost to you (in addition to the dent) & the aggravation possible in persuing the claim. You may possibly have legal expense insurance on your insurance policy & they can do it for you. If nothing else, a few letters accross their doorstep may produce results.

If it was a cycle courier, then probably forget it (we don't pay 'em enough to afford to buy houses (& don't stick us as a co-respondant as they are self-employed).

Best of luck.

PS The Dentmaster type people I used for PTMW! were great - you couldn't tell...

 

......I was just about to say exactly what PTMW has just said *sigh*...
As he so rightly said you might well have legal cover as an extension/or included in your motor policy...if so speak to them in an attempt to pursue the claim.

If not, and if you have your own household policy, check to see if you have a legal expenses extension on that - or whether you have bought this extra cover - most brokers will now include this (or rather try and sell this to you!! ).

Failing that then a friendly solicitors letter to the guilty party, suggesting he/she pass the letter to their household insurer should resolve the problem.

Any probs/queries - give me a shout/mail.

All the best

Rum (Tom)

 

PTMW,RUM !!

As usual on this BBS, the exact kind of info I want

Cheers

DAZ 4

p.s Jason2,4's,66sk's need not respond

[This message has been edited by DAZ 4 (edited 04 October 2000).]

 

...and why exactly,Kevin, should cyclists not be allowed on the road, please discuss.

Warren
Scooby driving cyclist.

 

I agree, insurance of some kind should be complusory for cyclists.

Lets face it, a cyclist has more than once forced me to swerve. Their favourite seems to be not stopping at the end of a T junction, and assuming as they are turning left, that you will have predicted this, and left them enough room to swerve out into your path. Ooooo, and dont start me on the ones who load 200000 bags of shopping on the handlebars, and then wonder why they cant ride in straight lines

yep, insurance should be compulsory, I agree, lets lobby parliament!

robski

 

Yes Kevin why? You also forgot to mention ignorant TW@T's like you!!

Phill
Scooby owning cyclist.

 

Kevin
Ban Horses?? surely you wouldn`t want that.

Moz( Bareback rider)

 

Similar situation, but with a kid involved. My friend was stationary when there was a terrific bang from the passenger door. A kid on a bike had been riding down a steep hill but couldnt stop on the brakes so carried on in to the middle of the road and slammed in to the side of his car. He shattered his jaw, broke his nose and lost half his teeth, but the bike was fine. The door was concave and the top of the door had teeth marks where he had smashed his face...
My mate didn't know what to do but put him in his car and drove him to the nearest hospital with blood all over the place. He waited for the mother to turn up and explained what had happened. He got their details and went home. He was advised not to claim by the police but to put it down to bad luck as claims against cyclists are notoriously unsuccesfull when it comes to vehicles involved...
He didn't really feel right asking for compensation as the kid was injured so badly.
He coughed up for the repair job - don't know how much it was but I can't believe it was cheap.
He never heard from the kid again or their family, not even a thank you??

So, good luck and hope it doesn't turn out the same way.

Q

 

If you're in North London/Herts, then I'd give the bodyshop Lavender Hill use a try - sorry, don't know the name but I'm sure they'd tell you.

Also, I cycle to work. I've never caused anything (and let's face it, who the hell would - lycra isn't exactly a roll cage, is it?), but I've had quite a few w4nkers come very close to wiping me out - the usual Lahndaner manoeuvre-signal-mirror thing. And, as usual, try and blame you because their fragile egos can't say "Sorry - my mistake".

Too many people seem to operate on a "Traffic = car" principle - try thinking froma 12 stone and 20mph perspective, instead of a 1 tonne and 35mph one. Another problem, I think, is that people remember wobbling along on their Raleigh Chopper at 8mph and don't realise that a fit adult on a bike IS doing 20+ - so no, you CAN'T just turn left/pull in and stop 10 feet in front of us.

This cyclist did stop and give his details -which makes him considerably more considerate and honest than (at best) a sizeable minority of (car driving) road users. So I fail to see why this is a reason to start a ranting session.

And let's have none of this "don't pay road taxes" etc. cr4p 1) We don't wear out roads, taek up road space, or cause congestion, and 2) I do pay road tax - Scoob & FireStorm, Council Tax, plus more income tax than I like to think. And the same would be true for most other urban cyclists. Plenty of people I know cycle to work - all of them considerably more educated/well-off than average. We just ride to keep fit/avoid queues/avoid the Northern line.

What is it about Brits that tries to divide every situation into "Us" and "Them", closely followed by "Them must be inferior and wrong in all circumstances"?

Oops -just realised that might read I was accusing Daz of ranting - I wasn't - more a case of relying to other comments

[This message has been edited by Airmiles (edited 05 October 2000).]

 

Called the guy this morning and it was the right number (I was expecting the worse).

Told him I was going to get a quote, but am hoping not to have to get the whole panel sprayed and would prefer to use someone like Dentmaster.

I've calmed down now !!!

 

Same kind of thing happened to me last October, I was in Edinburgh (at the traffic lights in front of the Saint James centre- next to the bridge)I was about to go along princess street to do some shopping. The lights turned green, so i go and get half way through the crossing when... Next thing- bang, a Jap student on his racer went straight through the red lights at some hell of a speed , and went into my rear left door. The kid went flying over the back window to the other side of the road. He got up, got his bike -which was in some state- and tried to make a run for it). I parked into the left , got out with a mate, and went and got him then called the police. My door has one massive dent in it, and the police basically took his details (i wanted them incase i had to claim on my insurance) but they basically told me they couldn't do anything at all and said if he couldn't pay - i couldn't make him. Ended up paying for it myself (can't risk no claims bonus) and he got off Scot free.

[This message has been edited by Hos (edited 05 October 2000).]

 

Daz 4, your link refers to a boost gauge thread which i havent even posted on so i am not sure what the heck u are on about?

I only posted to try and help you. As i said in my original post, Cheam are associated with very respectable dent repairers too - so they are your one stop shop.

Sunil

 

Hos,

Sorry to hear about that, I only hope that doesn't happen when I give the guy the bill !!

Sunil, My mistake the link should have been

 

Daz 4, i admit no guilt, i was right then and i am right now.

 

No e-mailed appology then ??