Apologies for this post, but right now I am so angry with the world. I had a collision with a car on my bike and my head took the impact, breaking the drivers side window. I won't get into all the details because I will literally not stop about it, but the point is, because I have no memory of the collision and the driver does, I have been utterly discriminated against by the police. I have even provided them with GPS data from my iPhone that recorded my bike ride, which totally tied in with what I would have been saying that I would have expected me to have been doing at that particular point (like slowing down and going slowly).
Still, the drivers recall of the account is king and no matter how much actual evidence I provide (like photos of injuries that say I was crushed against my bike and not thrown over the handle bars like the driver said, and there is absolutely no damage to my bike), all the police keep saying is 'well you weren't wearing a helmet and you can't remember any thing' and the drivers story makes sense. The only thing they do seem to agree on is that it was odd that the driver moved me somewhere else to meet the ambulance (so I was therefore not on the scene of the collision when the police / ambulance arrived).
It's driving me mad and forcing me to analyse, analyse, analyse which apparently is a bad thing for people with TBI. Why won't they listen ? Why won't they look at the scene from cyclists point of view and run through a whole bunch of possibilities to work out what happened ? Anyone can make up a story and then if they conflict, evidence has to be used. It appears that in the case of not being able to remember, you are automatically at fault. This is sickening.
I would really appreciate any advice from people on this and also whether this has happened to anyone else. As much as I really can't see how I was at fault (because I have analysed so many different scenarios) I am still open to what happened as my primary goal to is understand PROPERLY, what happened. If the police fail me, what options are there ?
I know this is probably more of a legal type post, BUT, the other point is that these attitudes are not helping people with TBI and the rage I have had is way above my 'normal' limit. Yet again I have lost most of the day panicking and focussing on the actual event rather than getting on with my life.
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Are you a member of the British Cycling? Their legal team seem quite good.
realistically if its your word against the driver, The police or rather the CPS will need really very good evidence, to counter the drivers claims, or any case will not be worth taking to court, with such a low chance of success.
If some one else either comes forward or say the doctors will on Oath rule out the drivers sugestion and back yours.
What sort of injurious did you get? and how is the recovery going?
I'm not a member of British cycling, but will bear that in mind. I have GPS data which was tracking my ride which shows location, speed, and times. The data shows exactly what I said to the police I would expect and shows me slowing down 4 seconds before the crash, with impact at 2.8mph (in terms of my speed), 1 second before this it was 5.9mph. I have also taken photos of the road and gone through possible scenarios (always worse case on my part) and it is inconceivable that the driver didn't see me or couldn't take evasive action if needed to. He was approaching a 90 degree bend on a country road in his sports car, I was coming round the other way. It was 06:05 in the morning, very quite rural location, so cyclists can hear traffic miles off etc etc. I have since tried stopping my bike at various speeds and at 10mph and can stop the bike in about 1 meter.
My injuries were that my head hit and smashed the drivers side window and cut above the eye, my right side of ribs hit the wing mirror and various parts of my body were cut and bruised as I was squashed against my bike and gears. My bike suffered no damage, probably because my body was protecting it.
So far my brain injury means my memory of the last 7 weeks is extremely week, I feel like I'm in a dream and my mood swings are very distressing. I'm getting there slowly, but anything that makes me emotional simple takes over and upsets everything, putting me back. I can't understand why in a society that says 'innocent until proven guilty', the cyclist with no memory recall of the event is automatically 'guilty' and the driver, who could be telling the truth or could be lying', is automatically assumed by the police to be telling the truth.
I really sense your frustration and can't think of anything particularly helpful...Since they are just about everywhere but the remotest hedgerow these days (local authority street cams, traffic control cams, bus cams, store or bank cams etc) I am assuming that the possibility of this being caught on CCTV has been eliminated?
Sadly it was rural. A road I know very well (as both cyclist and driver) and that the driver knows very well. It would appear that if you can't recall what happens, the police ignore the other evidence. It's even more frustrating that the police refuse to give me details and say that the file of info belongs to them, so I will probably never know what time the ambulance was called or when they arrived or even exactly where it happened. It makes me wonder what would have happened if things had turned out even worse for me.
Why are you opologising ? There really isn't any need. I had a serious car crash with an ambulance but again because I no memorie left either it was classed as an accident, it took nearly 4 years for my anger being noticed but I do still have anger issues and I don't think they will leave me and I will ever leave me. I guess with you having no memorie they have to take his word. I'm sure the police will know he's telling lies as they see it so often but they are left with no choice but to accept his word, mum drive them mad. Try to remember that, they do care but are left with no choice. My dad and brother are keen cyclist and I dread this happening to them. I have never seen a cyclist cause a crash but am discussed the way they are overtaken like I said the police will know this and this sort of case will anger them. The fact he moved you says it all to me and so will to the cops. He clearly knows nothing as you never ever move them. I wish you luck x
Thankyou, your words are comforting to hear particularly as they echo with other people I have talked to (i.e. him moving me says it all). If this is happening to other cyclists and the police know it, then something should be done. If the police / justice system is there to sort out right from wrong and properly evaluate things, it's seems ridiculous to me that they don't push for a hearing. I don't know who's fault it was, but it certainly seems on balance, not to be mine, but that needs to be properly evaluated. If the police are unable to do anything about these kind of incidents then perhaps the government should remove this kind of accident from the statute books. I'm sure that's stupid, but it's also stupid for them to not press for a proper investigation (in my opinion).
I apologise in advance if I am repeating what others have said but have you consult ed a solicitor for advice most solicitor s will offer a free advice session
I was frustrated with that too, because I coulnot remember the accident I could not argue my case. I know that I don't drive dangerously or speed but due to the fact of having no memory, the council argued the extent as to how much I was a fault. I only had my car wreck to help back my story, luckily the gear sick was jammed into gear due to my stereo being forced out of its housing with centrifugal forces. Not that it made much difference to the outcome.
I too got stuck on the unfairness of this and thought it was a very underhand thing to do. Frustrated at how I thought it was very obvious due to the evidence etc etc.
if you are in a legal case then please write these things down and ask your solicitor to ask pertinent questions. Why did you get moved from scene of accident, I thought it was illegal to leave the scene of an accident if someone was injured, no one should be moved if injured in case injuries are made worse, unless there is a greater danger of second injury, like if the car went up in flames, better to be injured than burned to death.
It took me a long time to get away from being fixated on something, I was fixed on getting driving again after I had gotten past the accident, but I would still go back and revisit it a lot!
I can still be like a dog with a bone still now. I am learning to recognise it a lot easier though letting things go Is still tricky.
Please remember that what we see on tv is not always the way things happen in reality. It takes a long time for things to be resolved, any person is going to argue their position long and loud, even If they may see things very differently.
If it ocured on a 90 degree bend, were you turning left or right? Since you impacted with your right side, I'm guessing that you were turning right and the driver turning left, in which case, unless you took it easy by travelling along the road edge, you'd be leaning into the road. Can you remember your positioning as you took the bend? I can see why the police may, at face value, believe the driver, if you were indeed turning right on a bend.
Interesting. I was actually going left around the bend and the car was going right. I had cleared the actual bend and hit the drivers window on a straight part of the road. The only way I can explain it is if I was so far over to the left (taking evasive action) that my handlebars caught the bush and sent me to the right. This would mean that the driver did nothing to slow down or take evasive action, because I'm guessing, he was not paying attention.
Interestingly I have been back there and taken photos at different points and different road positions (i.e. if i was far left, normal position or far right) and I have taken photos from the car drivers position way back from the bend and near the collision point. In both driver positions, any of the suggested bike positions is visible. To go around a single track two way road with a 90 degree bend coming up would surely make a car driver slow down, and being able to see something coming towards you would make the car driver pull left wouldn't it ? Not so if he wasn't paying attention.
I have looked over this to the nth degree trying to see how I could have been at fault and nothing tallies at all. i.e. I have even looked at this as if I was going around the bend ridiculously fast, but the physics would mean I would have either stopped outright, hit the front of the car etc. All I want is experts to do this and recreate the accident from a number of different possibilities. Every car I have watched go around that same bend pulls over to their nearside and SLOWS down because it is a blind bend.
If two people have opposite memories of what happened then there is a 50% chance one of them is right. If only one memory has been presented, there is a 50% chance it's true or not. So in the first case, they would have to look at other evidence. In the second case they should, but it seems that BI people are simply discriminated against, and the evidence is not considered, or at least, that's how it feels.
Thank you for your post. This is a very difficult situation for you and it sounds very much like you need some good legal advice from someone who understands brain injury and the reason you can't remember what happened.
Headway's solicitors list is made up of firms who have experience of handling brain injury cases, and they all offer a free initial consultation where they can talk this through with you.
You can find a solicitor at headway.org.uk/legal-advice... or contact our helpline on 0808 800 2244 or helpline@headway.org.uk to talk this through in more detail.
If a solicitor takes on your case, you will have to explain this to them, provide all the evidence you have, and they will work on your behalf from that point. The police/Crown Prosecution Service will be trying to ascertain whether to charge the driver for careless/dangerous driving or similar, however there is often a case for compensation against the driver's insurance even if they do not press ahead with this. If you have good legal support you'll have the best chance of a positive outcome on both counts.
I hope this helps and please do get in touch with our helpline as above if you need any further information.
Hi and thank you for your response. I have been to headway, locally, and have found a solicitor who is working on my case. I know it's early days for the 'system' to work, but 7 weeks after the incident I am still struggling to come to terms with the consequences, let alone the cause. I have been advised to be patient (easier said than done at times!!).
I suppose the reason I have posted all this is to highlight the injustice metered out on people who can't remember the event. I always thought that two sides of a story were arbitrated but it seems that unless you remember the event, you have an uphill struggle to make people look at the incident as a whole.
I am even more concerned for people who have even more serious injuries or take a turn for the worst some time post the accident. I was told that the only way that the evidence would have been looked at and evaluated at the scene was if I didn't make it at the scene or it looked like that would happen. The point here is that more education and awareness is desperately needed to make sure that people who have these injuries do get proper and fair treatment taking into account that they may not recall the event.
Headway have been great and very supportive, as has this forum and the people on it.
Just reading other comments and won't waffle, but I think this is totally DIGUSTING for you. The police, I Believe are taking the path of least resistance! I.e. it is easier to blame you and wrap the case up. You say you have a solicitor ? I would advise contacting a specialist solicitor who specialises in personal injury/negligence. The solicitor I know also has close contact with headway. there must be marks on the road to prove where your bike tracks where and the lorry. Was the lorry driver breathilised for alcohol? the driver may have moved you for safety reasons, but it is common sense NOT to move injured people in case their have a spinal injury!!!!
Thankyou, it's great comfort to hear it's not just me who think this is wrong. The solicitor I have instructed is one with close contact with headway and I feel they will do a good job. I'm just surprised that the police seem to take it so lightly. There are no marks on the road. I went there the day after it happened (apparently) and took photographs. Some part of my brain must have been suspicious right form the outset.
The only thing that was broken from my bike was the back light which came off and I found at the side of the road together with a bit of broken red lens. If anything, the light could have been moved forward by subsequent cars driving over it going the same way I was and really hugging the road to my nearside. When I said about driving positions, even taking this into account and going back a few meters or forward a few meters, it still doesn't make sense. It was a car driver and I understand he was breathilised and was clear. I understand what you mean about moving casualties. Apparently this guy 'saved my life' as he was a first aider.
Problem is no life saving procedures were carried out on me, there was no burning vehicle, it was 6.05am on a clear quiet morning in a quiet rural location that doesn't have many vehicles at all. Surely someone with such 'life saving' skills and being a first aider would have known not to move the casualty. All that would have been needed to make the scene safe would have been to have moved the drivers car 8 meters forward so anyone coming from where I came from would see a blockage. Anyone coming from the direction of the driver would have seen it very easily. I am surprised I was needed to be moved over 4 miles away just 7 minutes after the accident, further from the main trunk road where the ambulance would be coming from to a rural beauty spot no where near people (other than perhaps early morning dog walkers).
If there was a valid reason to move me (which I cannot for the life of me think of), then why did the driver not head back where he came from to the village he lives in only 2 miles away where he would have been able to get assistance from other people and it would have been nearer to where the ambulance would have been coming from. These are roads he knows well (apparently).
Interesting that the paramedics saw fit to put a collar and blocks all around my head and neck when they arrived (which is what I would have expected).
I'm sure everyone in my position wants answers to questions and it just seems frustrating that I'm the one who seems to have to look at things and reason them out rather than officials.
Your welcome. I really feel for you. Why move you four miles. this seems stupid and suspicious! It makes NO sense at all. I am pleased you have a good solicitor. if the police will not take this seriously, your solicitor will. the driver will have to state why he felt he had to move you four miles to you solicitor in court. I hope with the support of your solicitor you will feel more supported and listened to, and she/he will fight your battle. One way or another the driver will have to answer for his actions. it is irrelevant if you were wearing a helmet or not, remember this. The fact is the driver knocked you off your bike!
I am sure you will have given your solicitor all the facts, but let them take the pressure off you fighting for justice and let them communicate with the police and courts. all the pressure is not good for people with head injuries. it is a known fact. perhaps the police should be informed of this. try and concentrate on your recovery. it must be very hard. just reading your case makes my blood boil.
I assumed moved as in maybe moved slightly, what possible reason is there to move someone four miles?
That is extrodanry and, the job of a first aider is in many ways not to do anything.
The guy who found me put me into a recovery position, rang 999 and that's it, which is what you should, what he didn't do is bundle me up and take me 4 miles away!
Hi I'm going throught same sort of thing here in France last November, except I was stationarysitting in my car when other car kept coming towards me then hit my car when he only swerved at last minute. He hadn't noticed I was completely stopped and still seatbelted (even if on wrong side of road). I have exactly the same attitude here with Police, other driver and my Insurance Company, I'd had my BI 9 months earlier and had been driving again well and safely for several months.
Once people know after an accident that a brain injury is involved, same thing. I've still not heard from the Police, despite an interview 10 days after with no interpretor present, or AXA Insurers, who I presume, paid out for other driver. Both cars were written off. Attitude was 'elle est anglaise! Sh'es english!
Try your local councillor and/or local mp and Citizens advice bureau or one of the current helpline programs that are on tv a lot, if you want to keep pursuing the matter - not something I cannot do here, but I do empathasise with you - the only thing I do know is that stress is not good for a brain injury - don't find out the hard way as I have!
Exactly the same impact and injury occurred to me. I took the headway and TBIS advice and contacted one of the solicitors on their approved lists. The guy who hit me basically got done for due care, I was lucky as he was an ok guy and just admitted liability when it came to court. This was basically because the arresting officer said to him "look mate at the end of the day it costs you a few points on your licence but to the guy you hit it will make all the difference to a claim" , and it did, it was a lot easier and straight forward. By that I mean it only took i five years of arsing about with bloody consultants and so called experts. It is essential that you get a proper brain injury solicitor.
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Forgot to mention I also have no recollection of the accident and lost a weeks memory from before it, there was at the time no witnesses and It ultimately comes down to his word, which again despite admitting liability is still a fuzzy subject. Insurers will check everything, including the roadworthy ness of the bike and I mean everything. If your bikes brakes are slightly deficient it will go against you, and despite there not being a helmet law it will still knock fifteen to twenty percent off a claim, and despite what you read about all these cases coming up trumps against this, that only happens when they get past the court room doors, most cases don't get that far as after five years you will take the most reasonable claim you can get. They will check your tyres for tread, pressure, sidewalls. They willl check the frames for cracks, oil on the gears, oil on pads, pad wear, your suspension, your clothing, the adequacy of your lights, your mental state at the time, your eyesight at the time, how light it was, the road conditions. If you are lucky it will be more expensive for them to fight than to pay you off. I think the car gets its MOT checked! It's a very long and mostly harrowing experience and the money is never as much as you think it will be. for instance I can never work again, so you would think ok take my final wage and multiply that by my life expectancy as a starter, but it doesn't work that way. Somebody in their wisdoms decided that you cannot make a profit on a claim, so say you had 300k and invested it over twenty years you could maybe double your money.. Nah uh, that would be wrong, instead they create some bizarre factoring system that decreases your claim by enough that if you invest it you will come out in twenty years with exactly the same money as if you had just worked a job, so you think you are going to get 300k and they would give you 200. Which is ok if their predictions for the future of investments is accurate! It also means that they are supposed to change the factors in a recession to account for crap interest rates etc, but inevitably the government are four or five years behind in changing these numbers, which means ultimately that the insurance companies get off light but you sufferer in the long term...aarrgh! And you would not believe what expenses you can't claim for medically..
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