accident help

Someone pulled out in front of me and I went over the handle bars when
braking and didnt hit the car - probably one of hundreds in London
yesterday. Two things I wanted to know are would it have been better
if I had actually hit the car - for me I mean - and do I sue for
personal injury? happily no broken bones but several loose teeth that
may require a lot of work.

thanks,Shumit

On 13 June, 14:11, Shumit wrote:
Someone pulled out in front of me and I went over the handle bars when
braking and didnt hit the car - probably one of hundreds in London
yesterday. Two things I wanted to know are would it have been better
if I had actually hit the car - for me I mean - and do I sue for
personal injury? happily no broken bones but several loose teeth that
may require a lot of work.

thanks,Shumit

I broke a rib last year this way. A ped crossed the road against a red
man holding a mobile against her ear- on my side. She didn't respond
to my bell and carried on so I jammed on the brakes and the bars
twisted.

She walked off, two chaps helped my up and collected the bust front
light.

I would report your accident, I didn't report mine although I pondered
the likelihood of my injuries being less had I collided with her...

On 13 June, 14:11, Shumit wrote:
Someone pulled out in front of me and I went over the handle bars when
braking and didnt hit the car - probably one of hundreds in London
yesterday. Two things I wanted to know are would it have been better
if I had actually hit the car - for me I mean - and do I sue for
personal injury? happily no broken bones but several loose teeth that
may require a lot of work.

thanks,Shumit

It was better not to hit the car, but better still if you had not gone
over the bars. Hitting moving cars can lead to all sorts of injury,
especially if part of you ends up going under the wheels; also there's
a heck of a lot more legal hassle if you had actually hit.

Seriously, you need to learn braking technique. When a rider brakes
sharply they tend to be thrown forward on the bike, and this greatly
increases the likelihood of going over the bars. To avoid this, when
you brake you should at least brace your arms to avoid being thrown
forward. You can increase the effect by getting out of the saddle and
pushing your backside out over the back wheel; this moves the centre
of gravity of the bike backwards and will enable you to use much more
braking force without being thrown over the bars.

Practice braking increasingly hard in a quiet place away from traffic.
Remember, if you lock your wheels, you are not braking effectively.
Learn by practice just how much braking force you can effectively use.
Experiment with shifting your weight backwards, and learn how much
benefit this offers.

On Sat, 13 Jun 2009 06:11:06 -0700 (PDT), Shumit
wrote:

Someone pulled out in front of me and I went over the handle bars when
braking and didnt hit the car - probably one of hundreds in London
yesterday. Two things I wanted to know are would it have been better
if I had actually hit the car - for me I mean - and do I sue for
personal injury? happily no broken bones but several loose teeth that
may require a lot of work.

thanks,Shumit

Sounds like you were travelling too fast to stop in the distance that
you knew to be clear, something that the residents of this newsgroup
find to be totally abhorrent. You should be ashamed of yourself and
count yourself incredibly lucky that you were not charged with an
offence.

Oh, hang on, you were riding a bike, weren't you? Sorry, wipe that
then, none of it applies...

On Jun 13, 2:23*pm, spindrift wrote:
On 13 June, 14:11, Shumit wrote:

Someone pulled out in front of me and I went over the handle bars when
braking and didnt hit the car - probably one of hundreds in London
yesterday. Two things I wanted to know are would it have been better
if I had actually hit the car - for me I mean - and do I sue for
personal injury? happily no broken bones but several loose teeth that
may require a lot of work.

thanks,Shumit

I broke a rib last year this way. A ped crossed the road against a red
man holding a mobile against her ear- on my side. She didn't respond
to my bell and carried on so I jammed on the brakes and the bars
twisted.

She walked off, two chaps helped my up and collected the bust front
light.

I would report your accident, I didn't report mine although I pondered
the likelihood of my injuries being less had I collided with her...


You should have been prepared to stop in a controlled manner, you know
you must be able to stop if a pedestrian steps out without looking.
You therefore must be to blame.

Francis

On Jun 13, 3:03*pm, Simon Brooke wrote:
On 13 June, 14:11, Shumit wrote:

Someone pulled out in front of me and I went over the handle bars when
braking and didnt hit the car - probably one of hundreds in London
yesterday. Two things I wanted to know are would it have been better
if I had actually hit the car - for me I mean - and do I sue for
personal injury? happily no broken bones but several loose teeth that
may require a lot of work.

thanks,Shumit

It was better not to hit the car, but better still if you had not gone
over the bars. Hitting moving cars can lead to all sorts of injury,
especially if part of you ends up going under the wheels; also there's
a heck of a lot more legal hassle if you had actually hit.

Seriously, you need to learn braking technique. When a rider brakes
sharply they tend to be thrown forward on the bike, and this greatly
increases the likelihood of going over the bars. To avoid this, when
you brake you should at least brace your arms to avoid being thrown
forward. You can increase the effect by getting out of the saddle and
pushing your backside out over the back wheel; this moves the centre
of gravity of the bike backwards and will enable you to use much more
braking force without being thrown over the bars.

Practice braking increasingly hard in a quiet place away from traffic.
Remember, if you lock your wheels, you are not braking effectively.
Learn by practice just how much braking force you can effectively use.
Experiment with shifting your weight backwards, and learn how much
benefit this offers.


There you go, victim blaming.

Francis

On Jun 13, 10:55*am, francis wrote:
On Jun 13, 2:23*pm, spindrift wrote:





On 13 June, 14:11, Shumit wrote:

Someone pulled out in front of me and I went over the handle bars when
braking and didnt hit the car - probably one of hundreds in London
yesterday. Two things I wanted to know are would it have been better
if I had actually hit the car - for me I mean - and do I sue for
personal injury? happily no broken bones but several loose teeth that
may require a lot of work.

thanks,Shumit

I broke a rib last year this way. A ped crossed the road against a red
man holding a mobile against her ear- on my side. She didn't respond
to my bell and carried on so I jammed on the brakes and the bars
twisted.

She walked off, two chaps helped my up and collected the bust front
light.

I would report your accident, I didn't report mine although I pondered
the likelihood of my injuries being less had I collided with her...

You should have been prepared to stop in a controlled manner, you know
you must be able to stop if a pedestrian steps out without looking.
You therefore must be to blame.

Francis

Hi Judith

There you go, victim blaming.
Rubbish. It is called learning from experience.

It is better to help yourself than rely on others.

It is better to be prepared than caught unawares.

It is better to practice avoidance than medicine.

Thanks for the reminder Simon. When I'm out this evening
I'll spend a couple of minutes doing emergency stops

--
Peter 'Prof' Fox
Multitude of things for beer, cycling, Morris and curiosities at
http://vulpeculox.net

Peter Fox wrote:
There you go, victim blaming.
Rubbish. It is called learning from experience.

It is better to help yourself than rely on others.

It is better to be prepared than caught unawares.

It is better to practice avoidance than medicine.

Thanks for the reminder Simon. When I'm out this evening
I'll spend a couple of minutes doing emergency stops


I think you may find that Francis was just reminding people about what
was said in a recent thread.

--

Tony Dragon

Simon Brooke wrote:

Seriously, you need to learn braking technique. When a rider brakes
sharply they tend to be thrown forward on the bike, and this greatly
increases the likelihood of going over the bars. To avoid this, when
you brake you should at least brace your arms to avoid being thrown
forward. You can increase the effect by getting out of the saddle and
pushing your backside out over the back wheel; this moves the centre
of gravity of the bike backwards and will enable you to use much more
braking force without being thrown over the bars.


Can't see this myself. Once your arse is off the saddle the centre of
gravity moves forwards and the bike is far likelier to rotate. In fact I
would have thought getting out of the saddle was the major reason for an
arse over tit experience.