Anyone remember a while back I hit a pedestrian?
Well I did.
Well she's claiming against me with the following description of events:
"walking across main road, all vehicles stationary, client has not used the crossing and walked behind the stationary vehicles, as client was crossing the road a motorbike travelling in the cycle lane from the client's left has knocked the client off her feet, she has fallen a few feet away from the accident location. Third party admitted he shouldn't have been in the cycle lane. Police took statements at scene".
I have the following issues here:
All vehicles stationary - no (proof of poor observation). The lead vehicles were moving away as the lights had changed to green. I was planning to merge with moving traffic after brief filter. There was also a moving motorcycle (me) in first gear making a noise and cyclists around.
Crossed behind vehicles - no. There was a very long queue of traffic which she crossed through. She said someone had waved her across and she mentioned how the driver must have felt guilty.
Missed out that she had admitted she shouldn't have been there, hence my response.
She entered an active cycle lane without adequate observation - if she'd looked, she'd have stopped. Why didn't I see her? She was only about the same height as the cars and I couldn't see her coming.
Issues with "knocked off feet" - I saw her stumble as I swerved as much as was possible and I hit her left leg which is consistent with the injury. That shouldn't have knocked her off her feet and if I had, the bike wouldn't have carried on straight - it'd have been a mess. It was undamaged.
Road conditions - she has put "damp - unsure". It was dry with a couple of spits of rain. Effectively dry surface.
She crossed at an inappropriate place - 3 lanes to cross. Didn't employ adequate observation and didn't use crossing of which two were within a reasonable distance - in both directions so one should have been in the correct direction. She missed out that she was distracted as she was only concerned with handing her essay in on time.
Anyone have any opinion on this as to whether I'm looking at a fault accident which is going to screw my insurance? The copper seemed to think it was her fault for crossing there and not looking but left it to the insurance companies. He was not concerned about me being in the cycle lane and as he put it, I was "making progress".
EDITED for clarity.
