Whose fault is it? Cyclist’s ‘hit and run’ video causes heated debates

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hit and run

A British cyclist has turned to social media to track down the driver of a car he claims drove off after a nasty collision, which left him sprawled on a London road.

The cyclist, whose Twitter name is BrokenLegs, posted shocking GoPro footage of his collision. It shows him cycling at speed in a London bike lane when a Volkswagen Polo slowly turns into his path at a T-junction. The cyclist smashes into the side of the car and is hurled into the road.

According to the cyclist, the driver failed to stop and make sure he was okay before driving on. It is the latest in an ever-increasing number of revealing head or dash cam videos being posted on social media.

19 COMMENTS

  1. Cyclist HAS to take at least SOME responsibility.
    With obvious traffic congestion at the intersection, both driver and cyclist should anticipate and prepare for the visibility problems and accident potentials.
    It’s not ALL on the car driver by any stretch of imagination.

  2. Driver is 100% wrong. A cyclist page should not even be asking the question as its just an invitation for idiots to stsrt victim blaming

  3. We do not have such great laws for cyclists here in New Zealand, as they do in Holland, but wether or not the cyclist was in the wrong or the right, attentive or inattentive, is not the issue here. Common decency and most traffic laws should prevail in that regardless of who is at fault, when your vehicle is involved in an accident, one should always stop, perhaps park in a safe place, and then make sure the other party is alright, call emergency services if needs be, swap contact details for insurance perposes, etc and then follow up in the next few days with support/details needed to ensure future safe and orderly transport both for yourself and the other party. It is not legal to leave the scene of an accident that you were involved in, or ignore a potentially injured person (wether they be guilty of not) lying in the road in front of traffic. The owner of this vehicle who left the scene of this accident needs to be found and prosecuted.

  4. This cyclist was not paying attention at all. Not even so much as a peep. You can even see he is still pedaling even when the car is in front of him and stopped. There was just no reaction at all. Nothing. This is a moron on a bicycle.

    • Rubbish. You can see the bike slowing a bit before impact but I suspect it was skidding on the wet road. You can also see the bike moving to the right of the lane but the car was moving too slow for him to avoid it

  5. In Holland, any accident involving a motor and cyclist, the motor driver is always to blane regardless. Cyclists have right if way at all times. Should be the same here as there should also be proper cycle paths on every road as it is in most European and Nordic countries. Good idea to always have cameras too for proof in cases where it ends in courts etc.

    • I’m not sure who is legally at fault. I have to assume that the car driver knew they were crossing a bike (/bus) lane. If you cannot see that the way is clear you should assume that it is not clear. What worries my most about this is that the bus in the background stays solidly in frame, suggesting that the cyclist made no attempt to avoid hitting the car. This leads me think that the cyclist was not paying attention. I cannot know what I would have done, but I suspect I could have veered right and passed behind the car.
      In the state of Virginia in the U.S., one must prove 100% negligence on the part of the defendant, and 0% negligence on the part of the plaintiff to collect damages. The cyclist would lose if I were on the jury. However, the car driver would also lose if suing for damages.

  6. They are both at fault, as a life long cyclist i would approached that situation with much caution as I do here in Chicago. I try never to assume a driver is going to see me. I try to educate cyclist on urban riding and that caution is the better part of valor.

  7. Cyclists point of view – car was in the wrong for turning but there where cars stopped to let the driver make the manoeuvre – common courtesy at a congested intersection. This then leaves the cycle at at fault for moving faster (by fucking miles) than any other vehicle moving in the same direction.

    The cyclist is on a road! And there for should follow the same road code as cars! Undertaking is illegal!

    When a vehicle of any sort comes up the inside of stopped vehicles then the driver turning can not see them!

    Plain and simple!

    Also if you lack the skills to manoeuvre a bike around that car with that much notice at that speed you are clearly a fucking rookie.

    Lastly – He had no intentions of being cautious of that intersection regardless of the car turning or not.

    As for not stopping…. hmm Not cool but tbh the cyclist must have allready taken a few knocks to the head anyways.. stupid idiot.

    • not sure about the undertaking ..cyclist appears to be in a bus/taxi type lane ..clearly driver at fault for not stopping, & would suggest a sense of guilt maybe ..40 yrs an experienced roadie, & see a lot of rookies with their helmet cams charging thru traffic, as though any motorist “faults” captured on cam, will mend broken bones ( #brokenlegs .. lmao ) ..personaly never wear a helmet when training, & TBH I think a cause of a lot of charging/racing on roads these days ..I only ever wore a helmet when racing .. training on roads I’m not taking any risks, & motorists definitely give me more room …helmets give false sense of security & cams a misplaced sense of entitlement ..saw a guy on FB “gesturing” to van driver & accused driver of road rage & endangering his life, when he stopped up the road for a chat ..seriously ..would the cyclist go into a pub & start “gesturing” @ white van drivers ..cause not, so why do it when on ur bike .. hope guy was o.k & lesson learned ..always slow down @ junctions especially when cars in lane have brake lights showing, suggesting gap in traffic might appear & car turning …

      • It might be common courtesy to leave a gap for cars to turn but road rules state you must give way to other vehicles when turning. Cyclists riding in that space are not illegally undertaking. Amazing how the loudest and most opinionated are also the ones who have no clue about basic road rules

    • Undertaking doesnt account when your in a seperate lane ie bus / cycle lane . The diver turned into oncoming traffic so therefore is in the wrong

  8. Gap-running. Always a risk with clear bus-bike lanes.

    1. Speed – looks like a GoPro or similar. Wide angle lens distorts speed, makes it look faster than really was. I’ll wager he was doing not much more than 25-30kmh, NOT speeding.

    2. Giving way – driver was in a ‘you-go, no-you-go’ to & fro with the driver waiting to exit. Did not EVEN look for approaching riders. I

    have had this exact same scenario happen to me (at nearly 50kmh on a descent). The driver’s responses and reaction, especially when her baby was in the child-carrier on the rear passenger side, and she realised I could have been driving a truck, gave it all away.

  9. Technically, the driver is absolutely 100% completely at fault: The driver entered a congested intersection (illegal), the driver left the scene of an accident (illegal). Having said that, as a lifelong urban commuter cyclist myself, I’m pretty sure I would have been a bit more cautious approaching an intersection like that. Unfortunately this underscores a fundamental problem with bike lanes themselves: they tend to increase the complexity of traffic patterns at intersections, increasing the likelihood of “didn’t see them” type of accidents.

    • you are 100% right. Don’t forget it’s always easy to analyse afterwards. But yes in traffic riding defensively is a must! Cyclists always loose.

    • “The driver entered a congested intersection (illegal)”. Is this a British thing? No where that I know of prevents cars from entering an intersection. I would go further and say that the CYCLIST is 100% “at fault” for not being in control of the forward progress at the time of the accident and for traveling at a speed greater that “reasonable and prudent”. If he were not “speeding” he would have been able to stop on time and from the video, it looks like he made no effort to slow down at all. Of course you are totally correct about leaving the scene of an accident. She should absalutly have stopped. Sadly though, after watching the video multiple times I am left questioning the cyclists behaviors and even motivations more than any thing else.

  10. if he was a experienced cyclist he would have been aware of approaching a junction and the likelyhood of been carved up at the junction and rode accordingly.

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