Near Misses Volume 2 (So close you can feel it)

Whatever is damaged from accident get it replaced.

I'd include bike in that to. If you were to honestly sell your bike the day before accident and the day after there would be a significant difference in value; the doubt over the structural integrity of frameset will significantly effect value.

Why should you suffer that loss?

If the insurance company stall tell them you'll keep old bike once they provide the non destructive testing that validates and certifies the integrity of frameset. The person smart enough to do the testing will be smart enough not to certify it.

Thanks all for comments, a lot sorer today, leg and arm a bit strained too. Vhi clinic had a good look at the back and it seems just badly sprained. Had to get a tetanus for the road rash. I'm OK tho, really just feel like I've been rugby tackled, by a car. Gardai took a full statement from me and progressing it onwards with driver and the witness. I'll wash the bike soon enough and look at it, it was a wet dirty day and its covered in road muck. Guess I'll just wait for investigation to be done and proceed then with the garda reports.

Re the accident itself, I have no idea how he could have missed me, his passenger saw me, who drives onto a large roundabout like that and doesn't look. He was day dreaming. He was more shocked than I was, he made no excuses.

Yea will see how it goes, I'm just incredibly grateful for no broken bones or head injury. I don't doubt the sincerity in the mans apology but it astonishes me that it even happened. Its a car he's driving, not a shopping trolley, he has to be looking at the road.

If it's carbon get the bike replaced, you'll never be happy cycling downhill at 50 / 60kmh on the frame. Friend and myself got sideswipped on the N2 about 2 years ago, driver ran the stop sign, didnt see us. Felt I was OK, and he paid for the bike replacement within a week so we didnt follow up. Not sure that was the right thing to do, shoulder still gives me a bit of bother when swimming

Victim blaming has nothing to do with fault. The opposite in fact - it's where fault is implied even though none exists. Even going beyond that, fault and causation are two completely different concepts.

The fault here is with the dangerous road user - that's not the cyclist, it's the motorist who decided to overtake with a close pass into a junction. Mention of no helmet, no hi viz, no lights, no bell, no reflectors etc. etc. etc. is irrelevant to the actual incident. It's like saying you should have signalled 10 metres earlier. No, 15 metres earlier. No, 25 metres earlier. No, you should have kept your arm out indicating as soon as you approached the junction, the entire time you were waiting at the junction and until you had completed the turn. And you should have been constantly looking around. And ringing your bell.

In other words, what he could have done is purely subjective and referring to it, where he actually did nothing wrong, is the perfect example of victim blaming.

He was the front-most road user at the junction. All traffic behind him should have waited until it was safe to pass him. The onus is on them - as it would have been if he was a car or motorbike - to judge the situation in front of them and act accordingly... not chance their arm and plough past through a small gap.

As for the cat point... that's just nanny state mentality - something bad could happen therefore it should be banned. In this case, the cat demonstrated more self control and discipline than the motorist. If we demanded that road users actually take more personal responsibility for their behaviour instead of relying on the lack of enforcement and the constant need to try and shift blame, the roads would be a much safer place. I know I'd prefer to share it with people like that cyclist, who has the ability to train an animal to behave that well in traffic, rather than people like that motorist who clearly have so little regard for anyone else's safety because they're in such a rush.

I had some amount of close passes this evening I think they were punishment passes as I was well out due to leaves and crap on the road, most were on unlit roads so the camera doesn't show them well. I'd the usual crap moving right at this junction it doesn't matter how long I hold my arm out traffic just pushes past here in an attempt to beat the lights and as can be seen in the video it's often pointless!

It's worth marking such occasions by stopping in front of them and giving them a slow handclap.

Wow. That is shocking.

Shout out to the wa****r in the white van who decided to cut the corner at a rural junction this morning at 6:35am and nearly wipe me out of it.

It was going to be head on, I swerved, I took the wing mirror in the forearm managed to stay on the bike. Cnut didn't even stop.

Same. Almost every driver has had one of those incidents, it just seems that a hell of a lot of drivers don't take any message/ lesson away from the experience, certainly judging by the reactions when they're pulled up on it. Like Cram, if someone seems genuinely remorseful/ apologetic I'm happy to let things pass without lecturing/ confrontation etc as we've all been there. But so many people just act as though it's ultimately your fault for existing in their space.

I agree - right or wrong, he was insane to put himself in that position.

There is something to be said about the truck driver too. He should have just left the space for the cyclist to cut back in. Even if you disagree with the actions of a cyclist, the driver shouldn't put his vehicle in a position that makes a bad situation worse. Any deviation or wobble, and the cyclist could be under the truck's wheels.

Poor cycling and poor driving, imo.