Close call

Derpenstein

Ok, so today while driving my work car, I pulled out of a drive way, and a cyclist had to break hard to avoid hitting me. There was no crash or collision. He did not fall over or anything like that. He just breaked hard, and stabilize his deceleration with his feet i think. There was lights directly ahead, so he roared his head off and was pretty mad. I know it was my fault, but I did not realize he was bombing it on the bike. I thought I had plenty of time to pull out and I was already pulling out when he came into vision, but he must have been doing some speed on his bicycle. Thankfully, there was no accident, but I guess getting a scare can be only be a good thing for future driving

Supergurrier

Fella in tight pants gets mad

Mightn't be so mad if he saved up for a car.

MarkAnthony

Best thing to do (and I say this having just forked out €900 for a temper tantrum on my bike) is to say, sorry - my fault didn't see you, thank God I didn't hit you. As there has been no damage you're welcome to take my plate number but apart from that you have my apology and that's it. Being calm normally defuses the situation and the cyclist will normally clam down. I always try and liken the situation to how would you feel if you got almost mullered by a HGV.

I take it you weren't illegally backing out and were just being a bit incompetent driving straight out? As a driver and a cyclist happens to us all.

slimjimmc

Not much he can do. Even if he reported the registration number to the Gardaí they should contact your employer directly and not reveal any details to him. It's not illegal to reverse from a driveway if you can do so safely (which is evidently not the case in this instance) Art 12.3 SI 182/1997

Reversing
12. (1) Before reversing, a driver shall ensure that to so reverse would not endanger other traffic or pedestrians.
(2) A driver shall not reverse onto a major road from another road.
(3) A driver shall not reverse from a place adjacent to a public road onto a public road save where it is clear to the driver that to so reverse would not endanger other traffic or pedestrians.

Derpenstein

Nah, not backing out. It was just a dumb misjudgment of his speed on my part. My brain must have just put him into the same category as pedestrian and figured he was going slow. Thankfully, it is imprinted in my brain now that cyclists can potentially go very fast.

MarkAnthony

slimjimmc wrote: »

Not much he can do. Even if he reported the registration number to the Gardaí they should contact your employer directly and not reveal any details to him. It's not illegal to reverse from a driveway if you can do so safely (which is evidently not the case in this instance) Art 12.3 SI 182/1997

Nigh on impossible to satisfy condition 3, but point taken.

Derpenstein wrote: »

Nah, not backing out. It was just a dumb misjudgment of his speed on my part. My brain must have just put him into the same category as pedestrian and figured he was going slow. Thankfully, it is imprinted in my brain now that cyclists can potentially go very fast.

They need to be aware of hazards but I've been frequently told that drivers shouldn't have to anticipate people coming out of drives, so what's good for the goose I guess. I have to admit loosing it a lot easier when cycling. For every genuine mistake there's five w**kers. If someone does say Sorry I normally calm down in a snap and apologise for being a dick myself.

jimmycrackcorm

From the cyclists perspective it must have appeared obvious that you saw him but just continued out. Hence the tantrum as he would be only too aware that you considered that you weren't in any danger.

Put it this way, had he been a juggernaut coming instead of a bicycle, you likely wouldn't have misjudged the situation.

Derpenstein

MarkAnthony wrote: »

They need to be aware of hazards but I've been frequently told that drivers shouldn't have to anticipate people coming out of drives, so what's good for the goose I guess. I have to admit loosing it a lot easier when cycling. For every genuine mistake there's five w**kers. If someone does say Sorry I normally calm down in a snap and apologise for being a dick myself.

Ye that is true, but now that I think about it, he really shouldn't have freaked out as bad. Like, he did have enough time to come to a complete stop. How many times do drivers have to slam the brakes? Not often, but it's not uncommon either. Could you imagine screaming the head every time you go hard on the brakes while driving. Live and learn, I guess.

Seth Brundle

Derpenstein wrote: »

Ye that is true, but now that I think about it, he really shouldn't have freaked out as bad. Like, he did have enough time to come to a complete stop. How many times do drivers have to slam the brakes? Not often, but it's not uncommon either. Could you imagine screaming the head every time you go hard on the brakes while driving. Live and learn, I guess.

You keep appearing to blame the cyclist.
You are fully to blame (and I say this as both a cyclist and a petrolhead). There is nobody else at fault. You drove out and made a mistake. Mistakes made by drivers involving cyclists tend to have a bigger impact on the cyclist. He was possibly in the wrong to lose the head but not having seen the incident I can't tell how big a shock he got so I'm not defending this.

MarkAnthony

Derpenstein wrote: »

Ye that is true, but now that I think about it, he really shouldn't have freaked out as bad. Like, he did have enough time to come to a complete stop. How many times do drivers have to slam the brakes? Not often, but it's not uncommon either. Could you imagine screaming the head every time you go hard on the brakes while driving. Live and learn, I guess.

That's a fair assessment but just add in the HGV as I said before. I dunno about you but I do lose the plot when a HGV comes close to taking me out in the car. Bear in mind car on car it's some twisted metal more often than not. Bike v Car or Car v HGV someone's going to hospital.

markpb

Derpenstein wrote: »

Ye that is true, but now that I think about it, he really shouldn't have freaked out as bad. Like, he did have enough time to come to a complete stop. How many times do drivers have to slam the brakes? Not often, but it's not uncommon either. Could you imagine screaming the head every time you go hard on the brakes while driving. Live and learn, I guess.

The difference is that when you hit the brakes in a car, you're surrounded by lots of metal designed to protect you. You also have airbags to absorb the impact even more.

If you're knocked off a bike, you have almost nothing to protect you.

Given that, can you see why cyclists might take it a little more personally?

coolbeans

Supergurrier wrote: »

Fella in tight pants gets mad

Mightn't be so mad if he saved up for a car.

Stupid comment.

Derpenstein

MarkAnthony wrote: »

Nigh on impossible to satisfy condition 3, but point taken.



They need to be aware of hazards but I've been frequently told that drivers shouldn't have to anticipate people coming out of drives, so what's good for the goose I guess. I have to admit loosing it a lot easier when cycling. For every genuine mistake there's five w**kers. If someone does say Sorry I normally calm down in a snap and apologise for being a dick myself.

markpb wrote: »

The difference is that when you hit the brakes in a car, you're surrounded by lots of metal designed to protect you. You also have airbags to absorb the impact even more.

If you're knocked off a bike, you have almost nothing to protect you.

Given that, can you see why cyclists might take it a little more personally?

Ye, you are right.

It was my first close call with a bicycle, ironically after listening to the whole bikes vs cars thing on the radio for the last couple of weeks. Thankfully, there was no accident, but now I can definitely understand why they are always on about it on the radio. It must be a nightmare in Dub.

eeeee

Derpenstein wrote: »

Ye that is true, but now that I think about it, he really shouldn't have freaked out as bad. Like, he did have enough time to come to a complete stop. How many times do drivers have to slam the brakes? Not often, but it's not uncommon either. Could you imagine screaming the head every time you go hard on the brakes while driving. Live and learn, I guess.

The consequences when you have to stop suddenly in a car at a car backing out directly into you and bike are very different. At worst a near miss sudden stop in the car bumps you against your seat belt in a car, on a bike you can be over the bars and potentially heading for potentially serious injury. The cyclist is perfectly entitles to be going at speed, you can't just back out into them and get annoyed they show their displeasure at almost being creamed! You're not going to wave on and say thanks to someone who's almost hit you for no reason in fairness!

CiniO

Derpenstein wrote: »

Ok, so today while driving my work car, I pulled out of a drive way, and a cyclist had to break hard to avoid hitting me. There was no crash or collision. He did not fall over or anything like that. He just breaked hard, and stabilize his deceleration with his feet i think. There was lights directly ahead, so he roared his head off and was pretty mad. I know it was technically my fault, but I did not realize he was bombing it on the bike. I thought I had plenty of time to pull out and I was already pulling out when he came into vision, but he must have been doing some speed on his bicycle. Heaven forbid he might anticipate something and actually slow his speed as we were on the outskirts of a village. Nope, he just just bombed through the road without anticipating anything. I know that doesn't make it his fault, but as drivers, you all know to anticipate **** in front of you, and adjust your speed accordingly. Anyways, he tried getting the name of my employer, but luckily it wasn't on the car, so I just said nothing happened, so I didn't give any details. My question is... Is there anything he can do to **** my **** up? I'd say he forgot about it after he calmed down, but hypothetically, is there any way he could get my employer's from my license plate?

If he got your number plate he can report you to the gards for dangerous driving. If he is persistant with it, and is willing to go to court, case might end up in court, same as any other case of dangerous driving reported by anyone.
Thing is that if he doesn't have any other witnesses, it's only his word against yours, so probably he's not going to go far with that.
However if it was me (the cyclist) I would probably try to report you anyway and see how far I could go on with that.

moc moc a moc

Derpenstein wrote: »

Could you imagine screaming the head every time you go hard on the brakes while driving.

A driver isn't as likely to go head first over their steering wheel if they have to slam on the brakes. Nor is there much risk of them losing their balance in the process of an emergency stop and scraping all the skin off their legs as they slide along the tarmac.

MarkAnthony

Derpenstein wrote: »

Ye, you are right.

It was my first close call with a bicycle, ironically after listening to the whole bikes vs cars thing on the radio for the last couple of weeks. Thankfully, there was no accident, but now I can definitely understand why they are always on about it on the radio. It must be a nightmare in Dub.

Cyclists aren't without their fair share of w**kers. To be fair to you I think you might have learned something from it, thats about all any reasonable person can ask in the situation.

To answer your question, I can't see anyone causing an issue for you. As you said the guy probably forgot about it once he calmed down.

Fair play to you for discussing it and keeping an open mind.

visual

Should have called the garda you don't have to tolerate abuse even if your in the wrong.

Too many cyclist believe they can extract revenge and use intimation to make their point.

CiniO

visual wrote: »

Should have called the garda you don't have to tolerate abuse even if your in the wrong.

Too many cyclist believe they can extract revenge and use intimation to make their point.

Is verbal abuse a legal offence in Ireland?
Say if I'm cycling and some car driver nearly kills me, so if I tell him: "You nearly f.....n killed my you stupid wa...r", am I committing an offence?
Really?

eeeee

visual wrote: »

Should have called the garda you don't have to tolerate abuse even if your in the wrong.

Too many cyclist believe they can extract revenge and use intimation to make their point.

Ok so if you almost kill/injure someone they're not allowed to remonstrate? Ah here!

Derpenstein

gadetra wrote: »

Ok so if you almost kill/injure someone they're not allowed to remonstrate? Ah here!

Ye, reading it back, I sound stupid. No excuse really other than that initial feeling of wanting to rationalize it and make myself feel better I'm just glad that I learned the lesson the easy way.

Seth Brundle

visual wrote: »

Should have called the garda you don't have to tolerate abuse even if your in the wrong.

Too many cyclist believe they can extract revenge and use intimation to make their point.

Having seen (& been in) close calls by drivers who shouldn't be on the road, it's perfectly natural to be shocked. Any agressive outburt would be a natural reaction.

Cabaal

visual wrote: »

Should have called the garda you don't have to tolerate abuse even if your in the wrong.

Too many cyclist believe they can extract revenge and use intimation to make their point.

Call the gardai?
Yeah, I'm sure they'll make it their top priority right after they deal with actual crimes and issues.

challengemaster

Cabaal wrote: »

Yeah, I'm sure they'll make it their top priority right after they deal with actual crimes and issues.

And judging by how high on their priority list that is, you might be waiting a while

Jawgap

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

From the cyclists perspective it must have appeared obvious that you saw him but just continued out. Hence the tantrum as he would be only too aware that you considered that you weren't in any danger.

Put it this way, had he been a juggernaut coming instead of a bicycle, you likely wouldn't have misjudged the situation.

It was an incident that could've happened to anyone and thankfully no one was injured.

Some cyclists can be nippy enough on their bikes, but my golden rule is that if I haven't directly eye-balled a driver pulling out (whether reversing or not) I assume they haven't seen me and at least cover the brakes and prepare to slow down and swerve, if necessary. Sounds like the cyclist could have done with following the same concept. His reaction was probably driven by shock and andrenalin suggesting he wasn't prepared for something unexpected.

Most of the time if something like this happens, an apology goes a long way - most cyclists are drivers too (some have even bought their own cars ) and recognise stuff like this happens to the best of drivers.

Guards wouldn't be interested in dealing with any report submitted in respect of this, even on their quietest day.

ted1

Supergurrier wrote: »

Fella in tight pants gets mad

Mightn't be so mad if he saved up for a car.

His bike may be worth more than the car and he could have a car at home on the drive